IT TAKES A PROVINCE: BUILDING THE BEST POSSIBLE SUPPORT NETWORK FOR THE BC SPORTS HALL OF FAME

 

Message from the Chair

BY TOM MAYENKNECHT

It’s often been said that “it takes a village” to get anything done that’s worth doing. And doing well. In the case of the BC Sports Hall of Fame, “it takes a province”. It really does.

At least it takes a province to build out and strengthen the most inspired, relevant and sustainable BC Sports Hall possible. To make that happen, we’re committed to creating the best possible support network we can, one that spans all four corners of the province; and ultimately one that over time touches each of the eight zones that make up the British Columbia sport system (with thanks to the BC Games Society for its long-standing leadership on this front).

If we play our cards right – and work hard to fulfill the aspirations of our Inspiration 2026 strategic plan — our support network becomes a growth network and serves as the catalyst for the best BC Sports Hall of Fame that we can be.

At the heart of our provincial network – and of the BC Sports Hall of Fame itself — are our Honoured Members themselves. On this note, we are proud of our Hero in You youth and children’s programs and the work of our participating Honoured Members who are such inspired ambassadors of the history of sport in B.C. Building on our Terry Fox learning modules produced in 2019-2021, we are committed to expanding the reach and scope of Hero in You in 2024 and beyond.

Building on our Honoured Members from throughout the province of B.C., our support network includes our Board of Trustees, comprised of sport, community and business leaders who truly believe in the power of sport and, moreover, the tremendous energy generated by the proud sport history, heritage and culture that helps to define British Columbia.

Working together to support, encourage and properly acknowledge our dedicated management team and staff, our Trustees are the primary custodians of BC sport history. As such, we are striving to focus on the best practices of governance, the goalposts of a clear strategic direction and the priority of resource generation, financial strength and organizational capacity. That three-pronged, desired outcome is our own “Podium” when it comes to doing our part to advance an inspired growth strategy.

Yet our management team and Board of Trustees are not operating in silos, nor can we afford to. We will only be successful in growing our own footprint and elevating the promotion of sport history, heritage and culture by cultivating an expanded provincial support network.

To that end, we are joined at the hip with the BC Sports Hall of Fame Foundation in its work to grow the legacy fund that is designed to one day make our Sports Hall fully sustainable for the long term. The Board of Directors of the Foundation – chaired by Olympian and Honoured Member Blair Horn (Class of 1985) — oversees the growth of that legacy fund, which is at $2.8 million and counting (watch for more on that in 2024 as we communicate on our team effort to make planned giving a leading driver of capital and investment in the work of the BC Sports Hall of Fame).

Our support network also features the Council of Chairs, with former Board Chair Dann Konkin taking on the torch passed along by former Board Chair Anna Nyarady. Made up of the former Chairs of the BC Sports Hall of Fame, our Council of Chairs is both an opportunity to pay tribute to the leadership of our former Chairs and, moreover, a chance to tap into their experience, expertise and wise counsel as we work to expand our BC Sports Hall family across the province.

(As a sidebar, our Council of Chairs was indispensable last year in championing the Honoured Members Hosting Program at Induction Week and we thank them for the energy they brought forward on this front and thank them in advance for their support in the year ahead).
As we continue to build our BC Sports Hall of Fame support network beyond our Honoured Members, Board of Trustees, Foundation and Council of Chairs, we are looking at ways in which we can re-engage former Trustees and even former professional staff, some of whom continue to be among the biggest supporters of the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Yet where we really see our growth strategy impacting the province that we serve in 2024 and the years ahead is in connection with the one-two punch of our Annual Summit and the emerging BC Sports Hall Network, the coalition of more than 40 local, regional, and sport-specific halls of fame, galleries, exhibits and displays.

Our Annual Summit is moving around the province on a rotation of host sports halls, one that should see us touch down at least once in each of the eight zones over the next decade. After pilots in New Westminster in 2019 and Surrey in 2021, the Annual Summit has now held full-fledged weekends in Kelowna 2022 (hosted by the Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame) and Greater Victoria 2023 (hosted by the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame). Coming up this year is Kamloops 2024, hosted by the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame, Kamloops Sports Alliance and PacificSport Interior.

The Annual Summit is our way of strengthening existing relationships and creating new ones by partnering with willing hosts – typically local, regional and sport-specific halls — and bringing together sport leaders and advocates of sport history from communities throughout B.C.
It’s also a perfect gathering place for those advocates to share information, map out collaboration and plan for ways to use economies of scale to help strengthen sports halls in all eight zones. This is in our view so essential since these local, regional and sport-specific halls are the very grassroots of sport history, heritage and culture across the province.

Next on the BC Sports Hall Network calendar is a semi-annual meeting by Zoom in early March and then the larger-in-person/hybrid gathering at the Kamloops 2024 Annual Summit September 14-16.

Whether it’s our Honoured Members and the Hero in You program, the Annual Summit, the BC Sports Hall Network or the Board of Trustees, Foundation Board of Directors and the Council of Chairs, we have plenty of work to do on a number of fronts. Yet we’re confident that if we continue to work hard on our community outreach and partnership initiatives in 2024, we’ll continue to not only expand our support network but make it a real growth network.

Here’s to working with you – and a sport community backed by Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture & Sport Lana Popham, the BC Sport Branch, viaSport, Sport BC/KidSport BC/Promotion Plus, building block PSOs and other key multi-sport organizations such the BC Games Society, Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and SportMedBC — to build upon these points of collaboration in the weeks, months and years to come.
Happy, healthy and history-making 2024 to you and yours!

Tom Mayenknecht, Chair
BC Sports Hall of Fame

Tom Mayenknecht is the Chair of the BC Sports Hall of Fame. A principal at Emblematica Brand Builders in Vancouver and a nationally-recognized sport business commentator and founder and host of The Sport Market on Sportsnet 650 and the Sportsnet Radio Network, he is a strong advocate for KidSport, Right To Play and other children’s charities, including the Sports Hall’s own Hero in You programs. He is also a member of the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame as a builder and founding Chair of the Paul Carson Sports Broadcast & Media Awards.