Annual Report - Out On screen

2009
Annual Report
2009
Annual Report
Vision
We celebrate and advance queer communities through cultural expression.
Contents
Message from the Board
Leadership Report
Queer Film Festival
Out in Schools
Queer History Project
Treasurer’s Report
Financial Statement
Our Supporters
p.3
p.4
p.4
p.4
p.5
p.7
p.8
p.9
2009
Annual Report
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD
The power of community
What a year it has been…. Out On Screen certainly wasn’t the only
arts organization in BC to be hit by waves of financial challenges
in 2009. Due to provincial cutbacks, we lost some long-term
government support this year and were forced to make some tough
decisions in order to protect our valued community programs.
Powerhouse volunteers
We have also benefited from the support of Volunteer Vancouver
to help us tap into the wealth of volunteer skills we are blessed
with. We are pleased to say that we are now drawing on our
fabulous volunteers more effectively and in more key areas.
Most of you felt the bite of a struggling economy too, I’m sure,
but that didn’t stop you from rallying to support Out On Screen.
Thank you for believing in us and for helping to preserve the film
festival, education outreach and Queer History Projects that are so
much a part of our communities. You responded to our call for the
community to invest in our vision of Out On Screen as a more selfsustaining arts organization, and for that we are truly grateful.
Board departures
We gratefully acknowledge the many and varied contributions
of the following outgoing Out On Screen Board Members. Thank
you, Viken, Julie and Heather; you will be missed.
Sustainability
For our part, we were quite active this year working on
organizational sustainability and succession-planning activities.
We want you to know that the board and leadership team are
making sure that Out On Screen stays as strongly community
focused as ever, and that it will be as vibrant and relevant twenty,
thirty, forty years from now.
Staff leadership
Thanks to the support of the Centre for Sustainability, we are
learning how to preserve the vision and energy of our founding
leaders through successive leadership. In particular, we are
focused on the HR capacity of the organization. To that end, we
worked with PeopleLink Consulting, HR specialists, to bolster our
leadership capabilities. This year, we established and empowered
a new Leadership Staff Team to redistribute some of the Executive
Director’s supervisory responsibilities.
Program challenges
Viken Mekhtarian served on the board 2006–2009, fulfilling
the role of Board Liaison since 2007. Viken helped to launch
Out On Screen’s succession planning; reinvigorated our evaluation, peer review and exit procedures; drafted milestone
recognition policy for board, staff and volunteers; and kept
bellies full and happy by catering our AGM and strategic
planning sessions.
Julie Guenkel, CA, joined the board in 2004 and served as Treasurer 2004–2009. Julie reduced our year-end financial review
costs by preparing annual financial packages for appointed
reviewer Roy Marsh and increased our financial transparency
by converting Out On Screen’s statement of operations to a
fund accounting method. She also conducted finance workshops for board members to increase our collective knowledge and depth of understanding of financial matters.
Heather Millar served as Development Liaison since joining
the board in 2008. Heather led staff in reinvigorating stewardship activities for Out On Screen’s wonderful family of donors. She also supported board members to actively engage in
fundraising through strategic “board challenge” activities.
Not all of this year’s news was good; due to the loss of our Direct
Access provincial funding grant, we had to lay off our Director of
Communications and Queer History Project Director. It is always
hard to lose members of your work family, and we were sorry to
see them go. Special thanks go out to the staff members who took
on extra duties to ensure that the important work that needed to
keep getting done; got done.
3
2009
Annual Report
LEADERSHIP REPORT
Board leadership
And, finally, we have been working at the board level to ensure
that we have the skills and expertise to help guide this fantastic
organization, that as a group we reflect more of the communities
we proudly serve. We voted this year to increase the number of
board members from ten to twelve, to address the increased
workload of preserving Out On Screen’s financial health.
In 2009, your board members contributed 611 volunteer hours to
governance, advocacy, policy, finance, fund development, board
development and HR planning activities.
Top L to R: James Ong, Laura Siberry, Mark Gilbert, Dwayne Launt, Penny Blesch
Bottom L to R: Heather Millar, Lori MacIntosh, Julie Guenkel, Viken Mekhtarian
As many already know, what began twenty-one years ago as a
small, grassroots film festival has steadily grown and evolved into
a year-round, multifaceted queer arts organization with three key
program areas: the annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Out in
Schools and the Queer History Project.
On behalf of our fabulously talented team of staff and volunteers,
we present you with the following program highlights from
2009:
Vancouver Queer Film Festival
The Vancouver Queer Film Festival is Vancouver’s second-largest
film festival and the largest queer arts event in Western Canada.
For eleven days every August, we bring the most captivating,
inspirational and provocative queer films to Vancouver
audiences.
Amber Dawn, Director of Programming, assembled a
fantastic line-up of outstanding films. For 2009, we were
able to preserve our festival programming, screening the
same number of films as we did in 2008, despite the belttightening that forced other organizations to pare back their
arts offerings (the number of films shown in 2009 represents
a 20% increase over our 2007 festival).
We were pleased to see 2009 festival attendance held steady
at 12,884—sustained growth of more than 50% over the past
four years.
Steve Mulligan
Yogi Omar
Sean George
This year’s focus on Asian voices featured some of the best
queer and queer-friendly Asian filmmakers and actors in
cinema, including: sci-fi drama, outstanding documentaries
and short films by local filmmakers.
New for 2009: the Best International Film Award. Soundless
Wind Chime by Kit Hung (a China-Switzerland co-production)
and the documentary City of Borders by Yun Suh tied for this
juried prize.
The youth focus at the 2009 festival was our largest yet, with
twenty-two films classified accessible to youth under 18. A
youth-organized festival event, 125 youth attended our first
ever Youth Gala.
4
2009
Annual Report
Beyond the lineup of exciting and provocative films, the
2009 Vancouver Queer Film Festival created a unique
community space by hosting workshops, panel discussions,
interdisciplinary installations and other special events and
activities.
Ross Johnstone, Director of Youth Education, and our team
of facilitators reached more than 4,800 youth with our Out
in Schools presentations during the 2008/09 school year.
We have reached more than 6,000 youth already during the
2009/10 school year!
Nearly 100 festival-goers
participated in the festival’s
Queer Speakers’ Cabaña
with
artist-in-resident
Gwen Haworth (director
of She’s a Boy I Knew). This
Queer History focus of the
festival gave media space
for people to share their
stories of life, love, hope and
change. Check them out on
our Queer History Project
YouTube channel.
We increased our number of rural presentations from four in
2007/08 to eight in 2008/09, bringing our youth-friendly OIS
programming to students in Prince Rupert, 100 Mile House
and Vernon for the first time.
Out in Schools
Our Out in Schools Teachers’ Learning Resource Guide is now
available. We are pleased to note that several school districts
have already begun to purchase copies for use in their
classrooms.
Youth filmmaking: The second annual Anti-Homophobia
Public Service Announcement Competition was a great
success. As well, we hosted our first NO HATE filmmaking
workshops. Eight youth participated and produced two short
films. These shorts have gone on to screen at film festivals
around the world and are also shown as part of our Out in
School presentations.
This innovative education program brings independent queer
film into high schools to initiate discussions with students about
safety, homophobia and bullying. Launched in 2004, Out in
Schools had been garnering critical acclaim across the province
ever since!
Ross Johnstone presenting
5
2009
Annual Report
Queer History Project
Our newest initiative aims to ensure that our communities’ stories
assume their rightful place in Canadian history. To date, this has
been accomplished through the launch of a community-driven
online archive – QueerHistoryProject.com (QHP.com) – and films
commissioned by senior mid-career artists.
2009 Staff Team
We experienced a few transitions in 2009 and were sad to lose a
few of our key staff who have contributed immensely to the organization over the last few years. We bid a fond farewell to the following staff. Thank you for your countless hours of service, your
energy, wackiness and brilliance. We look forward to catching up
with you at festival time!
Will Pratt, former Director of Development, is pursuing a
career in realty.
Amy Nugent, former Special Events Producer, is now Event
Coordinator at WISE Hall.
Vanessa Melle, former Director of Communications, is now
Manager of Social Media at OUTtv.
Chris E Gatchalian, former Queer History Project Director, is
pursuing graduate studies.
The Portside
In 2009, our third commissioned film premiered at the festival:
The Portside by Aerlyn Weissman and Daphne Marlatt. It was
such a hit that we had to schedule a second screening after
the first sold out.
We held a series of community workshops for QHP.com in
the spring of 2009 and followed those with feedback and
planning sessions in the fall to establish a short-term plan for
dealing with the unexpected loss of funding. Thank you to our
community members for sharing your insights and helping
us to preserve the vision for this archive of our stories.
A huge shout out to our entire staff team for bringing their talent,
skills and fabulousness to the work we do. And special welcome
to newcomers who joined our team in March and April 2009
respectively:
Paul Crosby, our intrepid new Director of Development, has
a background in sponsorship and marketing and is an avid
triathlete and marathon runner.
Kat Biondi, our über-organized new Director of Operations,
has a fundraising and events management background and
takes in local theatre events and farmers’ markets.
Top L to R: Nicole Maunsell, Kat Biondi, Vanessa Melle, Will Pratt, Chris Gatchalian,
Drew Dennis
Bottom L to R: Janice Valdez, Bibha Ebert, Amy Nugent, Paul Crosby, Amber Dawn
Our fourth commissioned film is in the works for 2010: Riffs
on the Theme of Activism featuring artists Jamie Griffiths,
Joe Average, Byron Chief Moon, Debora O, David C Jones and
Gwen Haworth.
Ross Johnstone, Ryan Bester
Jessica Somers
6
2009
Annual Report
Treasurer’s Report
Out On Screen benefits from a diverse funding base.
In 2009, 45% of revenue was derived from private-sector
fundraising (including donations, event income and sponsorships),
another 42% was provided by government and the remaining 13%
was earned income (including revenues from ticket sales and
advertising).
Revenue- 2009
Earned Revenue - 13%
Individual donations increased by more than 10% in
2009 (from $89,070 in 2008 to $98,549 in 2009). As well,
contributions to the Legacy Endowment Fund totaled
$49,664 in 2009. Corporate gifts to Out in Schools increased
significantly from $4,220 in 2008 to $21,178 in 2009.
Government funding decreased from $300,953 in 2008 to
$280,086 in 2009, mainly due to the loss of the Direct Access
(Gaming) grant traditionally provided by the BC government.
The largest government funder in 2009 accounted for 10% of
total revenues.
Private Sector - 45%
Public Sector - 42%
We experienced a 7% decrease in earned income from 2008 to
2009, mostly attributable to a drop in advertising revenue.
Such diversity of revenue provides the organization with
the flexibility to respond to changing community needs for
programming and also allows us time to adjust the budget and
seek new funding partners when necessary.
Overall, Out On Screen incurred a net deficit of $14,778 from
operations for the year, mainly due to the unexpected loss of
the Direct Access (Gaming) grant. We moved $5,000 from the
contingency fund to partly offset the deficit, with the goal of
offsetting the remaining deficit from the current year with
budgeted surpluses from 2010 and 2011.
7
2009
Annual Report
Financial Statement
This consolidated Statement of Operations was extracted from
independently reviewed Financial Statements for the year ending
December 31, 2009. This statement includes the results of the
Operating and Restricted Project Funds.
GENERAL
TOTAL
CAPITAL
OPERATING ASSETS
MATT DAVY ENDOWMENT TOTAL
FUND
(RESTRICTED)
2009
59 473
59 473
Box Office
6 457
14 761
Membership
Advertising
Other
YOUTH
QUEER
EDUCATION HISTORY
(RESTRICTED)
EARNED REVENUES
Fees
FESTIVAL
114
114
665
81 356
6 457
14 761
4 200
4 200
779
85 670
4 200
256
TOTAL
2008
59 473
61 596
1 035
85 926
1 666
92 807
70 949
113 170
11 000
6 457
14 761
4 200
6 509
19 151
3 885
PRIVATE SECTOR
Corporate
Donations
Foundations
Event and Lotto
Income
92 556
11 600
1 624
105 780
61 487
30 224
21 178
3 734
7 700
11 720
2 259
8 086
82 665
98 549
19 300
51 654
91 711
44 332
10 345
252 168
79 600
10 000
12 000
101 600
171 451
17 504
107
49 664
82 665
148 320
19 300
107
49 664
301 939
51 654
47 478
242 597
PUBLIC SECTOR GRANTS
Federal
Provincial
Municipal
TOTAL REVENUES
1 627
32 250
33 877
63 101
28 750
5 004
2 500
139 771 344 518 66 036
GENERAL
FESTIVAL
42 754
2 500
101 600
112 486
66 000
112 486
66 000
57 254 280 086
280 086 300 953
67 599 617 924
YOUTH
QUEER
EDUCATION HISTORY
131,540
120 253
49 160
107
TOTAL
CAPITAL
OPERATING ASSETS
49 920 667 951 636 357
MATT DAVY ENDOWMENT TOTAL
FUND
(RESTRICTED)
2009
(RESTRICTED)
EXPENSES
TOTAL
2008
22 198
Production
70 879
10 039
19 500
21 760
112 577
31 799
112 577
31 799
114 921
17 772
Outreach,
Marketing
36 838
2 817
1 291
40 946
40 946
44 014
8 148
204
248 336
3 064
58 720
409
45 898
409
361 102
4 086
361 102
4 086
317 599
4 164
520
2 859
7 804
44 232
1 041
5 898
1 041
5 898
10 406
58 887
10 406
62 688
10 725
65 569
12 899
29 940
421 192
91 083
95 797
632 702
3 801
115 141 (76 674) (25 047) (28 198) (14 778)
(3 801)
107
49 920
31 448
31 703
(3 801)
107
49 920
31 448
31 703
Programming
Salaries &
Contract Wages
Volunteers
Fund
Development
Administration
Capacity
Building Projects
EXCESS IN REVENUES
OVER EXPENSES
INTERFUND TRANSFERS
CHANGES IN NET ASSESTS
DURING THE YEAR
12 899
12 899
24 630
(129 919)
(14 778)
3 801
76 674
25 047
636 503 604 654
28 198
(14 778)
8
2009
Annual Report
Our Supporters
Reel Patrons and Endowment Donors
Festival Supporters
We treasure our Legend, Academy, Mogul, Director, Producer, Star,
Cameo and Ingenue Reel Patrons, as well as our Matt Davy Fund
and Legacy Endowment Fund donors. Collectively, you entrusted
us with $148,320 in 2009 and showed us that you believe in our
community-based programming. Thank you!
The following businesses sponsored at the Gold Reel or above level
for the 2009 Vancouver Queer Film Festival: (All 2009 festival
sponsors were proudly noted in the festival guide.)
(A complete list of individual donors is proudly noted in the 2009
festival guide.)
Premiere Sponsors
Cinemark Theatres
Creative B’stro
Ramada
Vancity
Festival Media Sponsors
The Beat, 94.5 fm
Citytv
Dose.ca
The Tyee
The Westender
Xtra! West
Auction Contributors
Out On Screen is grateful to the more than 240 individuals and
local businesses who supported attended this 2009 fundraiser
in support of all three OOS programs: Out in Schools, the Queer
History Project and the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Out in Schools Supporters
We are proud to acknowledge the following contributors to Out in
Schools during the 2008/09 year:
Principal Partners
Canada Council for the Arts
Coast Capital Savings
TD Canada Trust
Honour Roll
Co-operative Auto Network/The Company Car
Vancouver Foundation
Vancouver School Board
Credit Roll
BC Arts Council
BC Hydro
City of Vancouver
Hamber Foundation
Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
Festival Funders
British Columbia Arts Council
Canada Council for the Arts
Canadian Heritage
Centre for Sustainability
City of Vancouver
FutureWorks
Government of British Columbia
Vancouver Foundation
Platinum Reel Sponsors
Air New Zealand
FCm Travel Solutions
Granville Island
Interactive Male
OUTtv
TD Canada Trust
Gold Reel Sponsors
Co-operative Auto Network/The Company Car
Downtown Vancouver BIA
Empire Theatres
Priape
Steamworks
Thank You!
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this listing.
In the event of any inadvertent oversight, please accept our
apologies and contact us at 604-844-1615 for correction.
9