Board of Directors – Committee Updates

At the recent meetings of your Board of Directors, the Board reviewed the various committees:

The Friends of the Museum Committee reported that the Society hired four students during the summer to work on various projects through our Museum partnership, including a very successful Canada Day.

The New Horizons for Seniors grant has seen numerous seniors working with youth to develop partnerships which benefit both segments of our society.

The Archives and Research Committee continues its successful operations at the Scarborough Archives / W.J. Morrish building with ongoing work throughout the summer. The Archivist’s Facebook page, “Scarborough, Looking Back” is being used along with the Society website, to communicate the history of Scarborough to a wider audience… over 8,000 online visitors.

The Communications Committee is currently working on an updated website and looking at more ways to communicate with our members and the general public. Thanks to the efforts of Jan Howe and the Programme Committee, most of our Bendale Library programs for the coming Fall / Winter are finalized.

We look forward to the following programs in early in 2012:

I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land” and “How the Scots Invented Canada” (details in future newsletters)

Heritage Showcase a big success

Once again, we extend our thanks to the Scarborough Town Centre for providing space for our annual Heritage Showcase. This was our 16th year setting up our annual display and the usual, large attendance shows considerable interest in our heritage.

This year, our display was set up at Sears Court and ran for three days. From all accounts, it was extremely successful, generating new Society members, followup visits to the Archives and fundraising initiatives to help support the operation of the Archives facilities.

Thanks are also extended to those who volunteer their time during the three days to host the display, interact with the visitors and generally make the display an active exhibit.

Volunteers assisting the Archivist, Rick Schofield were: Brenda Oke, Meredyth Schofield (Jr. & Sr.), Don Allen, Gary Strutt, Jeremy Hopkin, John Barton, Lynda Wills and Richard K. Spears.

Looking forward to next year’s exhibit: February 24-26, 2012

Visit our new Facebook group site: “Scarborough, Looking Back”

To help keep the public informed about our heritage and in an attempt to open wider discussions, our Facebook group has been up and running for a year now and gathering tremendous interest.

Over 7,000 people have visited our group to look at the hundreds of photos we have uploaded, add their own comments and photos, and participated in our weekly photo quiz.

If you use Facebook, use the “search” area to find our new Facebook group site called: “Scarborough Looking Back

Join the group and then add your own comments, post photos or just read more about your community. Through this new internet outlet there’s a link to the Society’s website and an opportunity for non-members to express their memories and perhaps consider joining the Society as a member.

Facebook is not just for the youth, 56% of our Facebook visitors are over 45 and live as far away as western Canada / USA, England (66 people) and even Australia (16 viewers)

2010 funding from Keg Spirit Foundation

Following up on the success of our partnership project with the Scarborough Museum and the Keg Spirit Foundation in 2008, the Scarborough Historical Society has been awarded funding for 2010 to continue development of our youth engagement projects!

In 2008, the Scarborough Historical Society and the Scarborough Museum partnered with the Keg Spirit Foundation to engage youth in an exciting project creating digital community history. This pilot project resulted in a beautiful and thoughtful youth driven photo book.

We would like to express our thanks to the Keg Spirit Foundation for their support in making Scarborough an even stronger community.