{"id":30949,"date":"2022-03-10T18:34:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T23:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=30949"},"modified":"2022-03-10T18:41:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T23:41:40","slug":"museum-could-be-under-town-square-manager-in-new-governance-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/museum-could-be-under-town-square-manager-in-new-governance-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Museum could be under Town Square manager in new governance model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Museum & Archives, which has been without a curator since the departure of Shawna White last fall, could soon come under the management of the Aurora Town Square project manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is just one change suggested by staff in a new governance model proposed to Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last week\u2019s Committee meeting, staff were asked to sign off on transforming the current contract position of Aurora Town Square\u2019s project manager to a permanent position, along with the conversion of Town Square\u2019s Marketing Creative Specialist to a permanent role as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth positions have been instrumental in supporting the Aurora Town Square project to date and it is expected that they will be needed on a permanent basis once the facility is open,\u201d said Robin McDougall, Aurora\u2019s Director of Community Services, in her report to Council. \u201cThe [Manager\u2019s Role] has been critical in ensuring the facility hits the ground running and is well prepared for success upon opening. This role has been responsible for engaging the community, partners, and artists along with confirming the staffing needs in preparation for opening the facility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe position will transition from project start up to the day-to-day management of Aurora Town Square and will evolve to oversee a Cultural Services Division. To make the best use of the resources and to meet deliverables, we will be restructuring the staffing model for the Aurora Museum & Archives, integrating them into a cultural services division. The division will oversee the management and operation of the Aurora Town Square, Aurora Museum & Archives, and support for Aurora\u2019s cultural community through partnerships, cultural experiences, and the creation of new programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am trying to streamline the number of management roles and subsequently the management duties would be coming to this position,\u201d added Ms. McDougall at the Council table. \u201cThey\u2019re in that site, it makes sense to me to oversee that area of the responsibilities as well as expand as noted not only Town Square as an entity, but the Cultural Services provisions. Subsequently they\u2019re overseeing the cultural partners relationships, the development of our cultural partners in the community and overseeing the implementation of the Cultural Master Plan and the Public Art Master Plan. It is a much broader scope than just that building and putting bums in seats at the Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A permanent marketing role would include overseeing Town Square\u2019s grand opening celebration, continued brand development, maintaining Town Square\u2019s website and social media channels, and create marketing campaigns supporting cultural tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Council approves the change to both of those roles, they would be up for open application rather than simply continue with the individuals currently filling those roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until that time, however, Council questioned whether these conversions were needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that is the correct approach,\u201d said Councillor John Gallo on staff\u2019s decision to make the jobs a competitive process. \u201cAn obvious perspective [is] that when we post these things as a contract position, we may be eliminating a certain bunch of people who might be qualified and are looking for a full-time position. In that case, we did quite well in the contract positions that we have filled, but when we\u2019re transitioning and I am glad to hear it is not a simple transition, not that I have an issue with the individuals, but the process, that there may be many people who now would be interested because it is a full-time position as opposed to the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the marketing position, however, Councillor Gallo questioned why this isn\u2019t a role that couldn\u2019t be fulfilled within the Town\u2019s existing communications department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. McDougall said that through consultations with Carley Smith, the Town\u2019s recently-hired Manager of Corporate Communications, it was determined that the job should be a full-time one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe see this centre continuing to grow,\u201d said Ms. McDougall. \u201cIt is certainly not going to go backwards and less busy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town will have very specific programming that that space, notwithstanding that we have excellent staff already that do community events,\u201d replied Councillor Gallo. \u201cI am going to have to wrap my head around how efficient it is to isolate this space and, at the same time, we have staff that do events across the whole Town.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Councillor Michael Thompson said he was concerned a standalone marketing position might result in communication taking place in silos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I understand the position is really focused on Town Square, I have always been of the belief that communications should house everybody and should be under roof,\u201d he said. \u201cThere should be no silos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Gaertner also questioned the marketing position, stating the Town\u2019s Communications Department was running well. Pressing for a business case, she asked whether there was capacity for the new manager to take on this role \u201cat least initially until we see how much work is required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe should have an idea of what we\u2019re going to bring in before [we decide] what to spend,\u201d she said of revenues. \u201cThe first part of the process has to be done before we open [and then the second] a year or two after opening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a different view was offered by Councillor Rachel Gilliland, who said, \u201cI feel both of these positions are important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going back to market for these positions because the roles and responsibilities are a lot more and the marketing position is crucial at this point, in my opinion,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we are planning on opening sometime soon, we have to have our ducks in a row and our plan in place to have a successful opening and move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Museum & Archives, which has been without a curator since the departure of Shawna White last fall, could soon come under the management of the Aurora Town Square project manager. This is just one change suggested by staff in a new governance model proposed to Council.  At last week\u2019s Committee meeting, staff were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-83b","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 12:52:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}