Performing Art Centre announces four new Directors bringing the total to 13 Board members. .

Mike Southon brings Human Resources experience from his work at Ford Motors where he has led labour negotiation teams.

Mike Southon worked for 30 years as a Human Resources executive, including Director of Labour Affairs for Ford Motor Company of Canada, where he led the bargaining committee in a number of labour negotiations.  Not much on the public record for Southon.

works for Loose Change, Barry Simmonds is a working musician who will bring a needed perspective to the Board. When things get tense he can drag out the drums and loosen up the room.

Barry Simmons brings a mix of business experience from the mineral industry and entertainment.  Mr. Simmons operates a recording studio, and is a member of several musical performing groups, including the Symphony on the Bay.

Simmons and his wife Barbara are a part of the Loose Change Quintet that has performed at such well-known events as the Oakville Jazz Festival and Royal Botanical Gardens Jazz and Blues Series. Their repertoire covers a wide range of genres, originals and cover songs, selected from their favourite eras of music.

The band is an eclectic pool of Hamilton/Burlington area musicians whose band members play in and around the fringes of the local area music scene. Barry & Barbara Simmons are a singer/songwriter duo who own a local recording studio, The Jazz Kitchen. Their song Waterfall is on the play list of Smooth Jazz Wave 94.7 and they are in demand as session musicians.

Arthur Salzer brings a no-nonsense approach to the management of personal assets.  Some of that talents will be welcomed at the boardroom table. get

Arthur Salzer, CEO & CIO, Northland Wealth Management, brings his experience in the investment and wealth management industry along with fundraising experience to the Board. 

Rick Burgess, incoming chair of Theatre Board Burlington, now has a full complement to work with as the head into a critical year.

The Board will now focus on the selection of a new Executive Director.  The former Ed advised the Board a number of months ago that she wanted to resign her position.

According to Burgess there were “several candidates interested in joining the Board, all of whom had superior qualifications. We are confident our newly constituted full Board is well positioned to guide the operations of The Burlington Performing Arts Centre for many years”.

Councillor Taylor is still planning to hear what the Performing Arts centre plan to do to improve their finances. He wants real, hard, quantifiable numbers. Expect to see this delegation in the fall. It will not be the typical 10 minute delegation – not at a cost to the city of more than $1 million a year.

The Family Room at the Centre is one of those spaces that just works.  Here the Burlington Teen Tour Band marches into the Room with every instrument blaring away.  The BTTB made the Centre their “home” that day.  The city needs more of this kind of thing.

And guide they will have to do.  The Board is on notice that it must produce a new business plan and defend it before the Budget and Corporate Affairs chair by Councillor John Taylor who was at one point a fan of the Performing Arts Centre.  His ‘ardour’ for the organization lessened when he found the city facing an ask of more than $1 million when the city had planned on having to put in something in the order of $500,000 each year.

The Board of The Burlington Performing Arts Centre provides oversight on the operation of The Centre, providing strategic direction, setting and monitoring financial targets, as well as performance and business planning objectives.

They have a formidable task ahead of them.  They were left with a very strong program for the fall which should give them some room to work out their business plan.

The Boards AGM was not well advertised and media were not alerted to the event so we have no idea what the attendance numbers have been and if PAC management have found a way to overcome the problem they were having with rentals.

The city now has a draft of the Cultural Plan it wants to put in place.  That plan was due to be released in June but has been moved back to September.