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Introduction
In 1966 five poets got together and discussed setting up a national organization for poets in Canada. Once incorporated, the League began its slow growth over the decades up to today. In 2011, there are more than 600 full, associate, student, youth, life and honourary members in the League of Canadian Poets. We now have an annual budget of $415,000 and three staff members.
In 2011 we find ourselves at a crossroads. National Council has begun the visioning process toward taking the League to a new level in providing programs for poetry and poets in this country. That process involves you. The Bylaws and the Canadian Poetry Foundation, a related not-for-profit Society, the Governance Policies and Policy and Procedures manuals are being updated by staff, Council members and past presidents, along with those with special gifts in these areas.
Updating our mission and the documents that govern our growth is coupled with Strategic Planning with our consultant, Jenny Ginder, (?). League members will be involved with this planning of where we want to go in the next five years. Also being developed at this time, a previous president , DC Reid has put together a program of Planned Giving and Bequests for the League.
The senior governments have over the years shifted financial responsibility for arts organizations to Canadians who now see contributing to their special goals as a fundamental part of their lives and their estates. Government is intending for individuals to give, and has over the years introduced preferential tax treatment of money and property given to charitable organizations like the League. You can now give to the League because poetry and poets have a place in your heart and in your ability to give. This is poets helping poets. It is friends of poetry helping poets. It is also business helping poets, as their contribution to the living arts of Canada.
Please take a look through the various programs that we have developed and decide that you wish to give. You will receive a tax receipt for all donations of intangible or tangible goods and cash. Tax and financial planning are part of the process. The League will be building a team of financial, tax and legal advisors to help in this process. Send a note to DC Reid and he will answer the queries you may have: dcreid@islandnet.com.
Our first goal – many more will arise from the Strategic Planning Process – is to develop a PK Page Trust Fund with our bank, Toronto Dominion, in their established Planned Giving Foundation. Our initial buy in amount is $10,000, so that is the initial goal. We will also be getting off the ground some really fun events in the next year that also have good prospects of raising money. The League still has to pay down its accumulated deficit that now sits at $41,000, but this amount is only about half of what it was a few years ago. From financial measures introduced in the past two years, for example, our fee increase of $10, and the efforts of our Executive Director, Joanna Poblocka, we are now more secure financially than in most of the past decade. There is more to do and we are going there. Please help the League grow.
Susan McMaster, President
League of Canadian Poets
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