Message from the CASC President

 

Dear Colleagues:

The 2011 Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC) Annual Conference was a wonderful success! It was excellently hosted by Science North with 127 delegates, a sold out tradeshow, and exceeded sponsorship goals.  

Senior representatives from CASC member institutions met in Sudbury one day before the conference to collaboratively develop the Association’s plan for the next 12 months. At this meeting, the CASC mission to build “ … capacity for its members to inspire a creative and prosperous Canada through science and technology engagement”  was reaffirmed.  In addition, the group identified multi-year strategic priorities, supporting goals, and in-year tactics.  In doing this there was a clear desire to stay focussed and use our limited resources effectively, and to incorporate these with the ongoing activities that the Association performs in support of Canada’s science centres. Thus for 2011-2012 the strategic priorities and associated goals for the CASC are:

Priority:   Enhance the capacity and profile of our members

                Goal:  Secure multi-year federal funding for our members through CASC
                Goal:  Develop strategic communication opportunities

Priority:   Ensure the financial sustainability of the association

                Goal:  Become a delivery organization for internship program(s)
                Goal:  Develop partnership(s) for CASC and our members

We are looking forward to next year when the 2012 Conference will be held in Ottawa, our nation’s capital, hosted by the Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation. This location will offer a significant opportunity to raise the profile of CASC and its members in a very real way and further the advancement of the above priorities.  Strong attendance from all our member and affiliate organizations will help ensure the conference’s success.

In the next few months you will hear updates as the Association proceeds towards the goals, and opportunities to support these efforts.  In the meantime, please mark May 3-5, 2012 in your calendar for next year’s Annual Conference.

Sincerely,

Dov Bercovici

President, CASC