Telling Stories. Building Connections.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
May 1st, 2021
At the root of our role in the B.C. sport system and our place in the community, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame is a story-teller. It’s that simple.
We are story tellers. We are the stories of the athletes, coaches, officials, builders, teams, organizations and media and other stakeholders who have defined our province nationally and on the global stage. We are the custodians of B.C. sports history, heritage and culture.
We do what we do to honour the past and inspire the future…to reflect the pride in our country and our province that we have as Canadians and British Columbians. To build the confidence required to do things better and, when it is appropriate, bigger.
Sometimes, however, it’s just a case of doing things differently. For us, different has meant using our best efforts to make the most of digital, social and virtual media to maintain the all-important engagement that we strive for with our Honoured Members, partners and supporters.
That’s been — if not always by design then by necessity— our driving force during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s what we have needed to do in the face of reduced hours of operation, shutdowns and other limitations. It’s what we’ve been inspired to do to stay strong in the face of this collective adversity that we’ve endured for more than a year now.
It has shaped the way our management team has focused on our day-to-day operations. It has guided the work of our committees and special project teams. And it has affected the very governance of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame by our dedicated Board of Trustees, supported by our Foundation Board of Directors.
We knew early on that we would need to replace our traditional channels — personal meetings, live events, media conferences, induction ceremonies and museum hours — with digital, social and virtual versions of those essential contact points. We pivoted immediately last March and have worked hard to tell our stories — your stories — in a seamless fashion. Not always better than what we’ve done before. Just different.
The good news is that we have generated significant growth in our digital and social audiences by telling stories in different ways. Save for the obvious absence of our flagship induction dinner, it has solidified our presence in the community.
The work by our staff has been inspired. Virtual tours of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. Online events with Honoured Members. Almost daily social media posts, most notably the “On This Day” series that began with the pandemic in March of 2020 and has grown to set new records for social engagement, especially on Twitter.
And today marked the one-year anniversary of This Week in B.C. Sport History presented by our friends at the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame Foundation. It was the 52nd consecutive week that our curator Jason Beck has used radio to animate key milestones in B.C. Sport history.
Our entire staff team has helped to make these digital, social and virtual efforts pay off. And they all deserve credit for rising to the occasion and, under the day-to-day leadership of Chief Executive Nicholas Cartmell, figuring out how to do what we need to do most during a pandemic.
Thanks to our team for their creativity and commitment during this challenging time. And thanks to you for your understanding and ongoing support.
We will continue to tell the stories of B.C. sports history and will take great pride and sense of purpose in doing that as well as we can in this environment. Then, we will celebrate being able to open our doors, meet you again in-person and continue to help the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame be the best Sports Hall that it can be.
We like to think the new and different things we’ve done — online, in social media and on radio — will be part of the way we do business with you and for you long after COVID-19.
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 sport business radio show, he is a strong advocate for KidSport, Right To Play and other children’s charities. He is also a member of the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame as a builder and Chair of the Paul Carson Sports Broadcast & Media Awards.