In January, the Magog Historical Society announced on social media that it was temporarily suspending its activities due to a lack of funding and ongoing negotiations with the City of Magog to receive financial support.<\/p>\n
According to a message on its website, negotiations are still in progress.<\/p>\n
Following the announcement, an article appeared in The Record<\/i> that highlighted the situation at the Magog Historical Society and the concerns it raised for other historical societies and archive centres in the the Eastern Townships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anne-Marie Charuest, archivist for the Brome County Historical Society (BCHS), has a Masters degree in Archives and Science from the Universit\u00e9 de Laval and she has been involved in historical societies since 1993. From 2012 to 2020, Charuest also served on the board of directors for the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Histoire Qu\u00e9bec, a non-profit organization that helps all non-profit organizations that have \"History\" in their mission.<\/p>\n Charuest spoke with CIDI 99.1 FM about the challenges that historical societies and archive centres face when it comes to finding financial support and the importance of preserving history and heritage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe historical societies were created by volunteers and it has since always been working with volunteers. The problem, if we can call it a problem, is that the archivist world and the museum world is more professional now. The museums and archive centres want to have professional employees and they want to have a salary,\u201d explained Charuest. \u201cThe main problem of historical societies is they don\u2019t have the money to pay someone to do the job.\u201d<\/p>\n Charuest continued to explain that the government created a program in the 1980s with the help of Biblioth\u00e8que et Archives nationales du Qu\u00e9bec that allowed historical societies with archives to be accredited and to have recurring funding to pay the salary of an archivist.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a good intention at first, but...there\u2019s a but. When the national archives asked the government \u2018okay, we\u2019re going to give accreditation to historical societies?,\u2019 the government said we don\u2019t have much money to put into that. So, we\u2019re going to create one accredited archive centre per administrative region,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that time, we had 16 regions. (\u2026) It was accepted, but they quickly realized that there was more than one archive centre per region.\u201d<\/p>\n Other historical societies with archives started to be accredited, but the budget did not change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey had to split the budget between all of the historical societies that were accredited or that wanted to to be accredited. Finally, it came to giving accreditation to four, five, or six archive centres for some regions, but each archive centre received around $20,000 a year. It wasn\u2019t enough to pay the salary of a professional archivist,\u201d noted Charuest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, Charuest said that historical societies had to find other sources of income to operate.<\/p>\n \u201cThey asked the municipalities and some accepted and some did not. (\u2026) Historical societies that weren\u2019t accredited, well they didn\u2019t have any money. That\u2019s what created the challenge and it created this situation where there are historical societies that are professional and some that are not professional, but that\u2019s not the reality,\u201d she emphasized. \u201cI worked for seven years as a volunteer archivist. I have my diploma and I worked there for free. (\u2026) Some historical societies decided to put up a little museum that would give them income.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Charuest added that some museums did so well, they decided to split from the historical society to create two separate entities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn order to have grants they needed to be alone and not under the historical society. What happened is that the income that went to the historical society that had a museum, well the money was transferred to the museum and the historical society was left with no budget. I think that\u2019s what happened in Magog,\u201d she expressed to CIDI.<\/p>\n Charuest highlighted the fact that it\u2019s difficult to have a museum if there is no historical society there to preserve historical information.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what create exhibits, publications, all of the information that is in the archives can be used for different projects,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During the 1990s, municipalities were provided with the opportunity to set programs in place to highlight the history of a region, but historical societies were presented with another roadblock.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou had to prove that people would come to look at exhibits or archives, but people have no use of looking at archives. You have to be able to have an exhibit or an activity based on the archives, but people don\u2019t come to look at the old documents,\u201d explained Charuest. \u201cMunicipalities decided to give money for specific projects, they gave grants for exhibits, but the museum is not a part of the historical society anymore. When the historical society asked municipalities, can we have money too? They said no you\u2019re not the museum, we want to give money to the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n Charuest added that it \u201calmost created a battle between museums and historical societies.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a bad situation, but now governments, either municipal, provincial, or federal, are figuring out this situation. That\u2019s why here, at the BCHS, we have two accreditations. We have one for the museum and one for the archives, but we are still two entities under the historical society,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening now is that historical societies have difficulty and don\u2019t have people that want to go work there. Finally, what happens is that they close down. But the documents that were kept by the historical society aren\u2019t put in the trash.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Charuest, every incorporated historical society that decides to shut down its operations is responsible for ensuring that its archives are transferred to another historical society or an accredited archive centre under Quebec law.<\/p>\n \u201cAs historical societies are not under an association, they don\u2019t know how to work on those matters, but the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Histoire Qu\u00e9bec is there to help them. When I was on the board of directors in 2012, it was to have an archivist in order to make things happen in terms of this matter,\u201d Charuest said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Charuest spoke about the importance of preserving the history and heritage of a region and the role in plays in learning from the past.<\/p>\n \u201cWe learn from the people that were here before us and we have to transmit what we have learned during our lifetime. (\u2026) We can look up to the people here before us, look up to what they did, and at that same time we should look up to people that were here that did some bad things and not repeat the same mistakes as the people before,\u201d she said. \u201cHumanity, we think that we are long living people. No, we are just a second on the earth\u2019s lifetime, but we have to understand that we have a responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n For more information on the \u201carchives world\u201d and the BCHS archives listen to the full interview below:<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In January, the Magog Historical Society announced on social media that it was temporarily suspending its activities due to a lack of funding and ongoing negotiations with the City of Magog to receive financial support. According to a message on its website, negotiations are still in progress. 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