Yesterday afternoon, CIMA held its 2014 annual general meeting at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern – inviting members, stakeholders, and supporters to celebrate the successes of the past year, while looking ahead at what’s in store for 2014 and beyond!
Our keynote speaker this year was the Honourable Michael Coteau, the Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport (and Pan Am, Parapan Am Games). He spoke glowingly about his own personal love of music, including anecdotes about a beatbox battle, his love of Bob Marley and Public Enemy and he re-iterated his commitment to growing Ontario’s music industry within his mandate as Minister. CIMA is excited to continue working alongside the Minister and his staff, and we presented him with a gift box with an assortment of goodies from our members: CD’s, vinyl, barbeque sauce, t-shirts, books – all showcasing the incredible talent of Ontario artists and Ontario music companies!
Absolutely wonderful speech by the Honourable Michael @coteau, sharing his incredible support of the arts in Ontario! pic.twitter.com/tweOf64QUY
— CIMA (@_CIMAmusic) September 30, 2014
The Minister’s remarks were followed by a captivating performance from Ben Caplan (Coalition Music) who played 3 songs off his upcoming record.
Catching a live performance from @bencaplanmusic w/ @_CIMAmusic @MusicOntario at @thedakotatavern pic.twitter.com/oSlSYnEmtK — Addicted Magazine (@WeRAddicted) September 30, 2014
The ‘business’ portion of the AGM included the election of a new CIMA board for 2014-2015, remarks by CIMA President Stuart Johnston, CIMA Chair Shauna de Cartier and MusicOntario Executive Director Rick Fenton. In his President’s Report, Stuart emphasized how it takes an entire village to deliver on CIMA’s mandate, thanking the Board of Directors, CIMA’s members as well as its staff for their hard work over the last year.
Some of our key achievements in 2013-2014 included:
- Engagement in over 80 meaningful meetings/conversations with key decision-makers in government at all levels of government, including meetings with key Ministers, MPs, MPPs, Party Leaders, Party Critics, political staff and bureaucracy.
- CIMA represented the independent music community on several key policy issues: The Canada Music Fund, the Standing Committee on Heritage’s Study of the Canadian Music Industry, Labour Market Opinion/US border/Visa issues, CRTC Radio Review and Tangible Benefits policy, the Ontario Music Fund, the Ontario Sound Recording Tax Credit.
- We are continuing to work with our partners, international and national, on various issues of great importance to the music industry: Tariff 8/Copyright Board advocacy with 78 other music industry organizations, as well as continued cooperation with the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) on various issues.
- On this front, 2013-2014 saw several tangible results from our policy activities: the Canada Music Fund was made permanent, the federal government made both work permits and LMOs unnecessary for our sector, the Ontario Music Fund was introduced.
- Our membership has increased over 40% over the past 3 years to a record level of 225 members.
- We provided 25 professional development opportunities
- Over the last fiscal year, we organized and executed 17 exporting missions in 10 countries and 18 cities. A total of 195 companies registered for those export missions, and a total of 116 artists/bands were showcased.
- We’ve made several improvements to our organizational and governance structures, including new websites for CIMA and MusicOntario, created the national Music Export Advisory Council.
Moving to what’s ahead for 2014-2015, which will also see CIMA’s 40th anniversary, we’re excited to continue to build on our successes and will have some exciting news to share over the next few months about what’s in store!
The membership also approved 2 changes to CIMA’s bylaws that will allow for a new membership category called ‘artist/entrepreneur’ as well as a motion allowing the Board to appoint a director for a period of time. Both of these changes will allow us to ensure that our organization is dynamic, efficient and flexible!
Last but not least, the Board of Directors for 2014-2015 was elected, with 9 of them serving 2-year terms and 1 of them serving a 1-year term.
Out of a pool of 15 candidates, the following 10 were elected:
- Gord Dimitrieff (Aporia Records)
- Jim West (Justin Time Records)
- Justin West (Secret City Records)
- Lisa Logutenkow (Dine Alone Records)
- Mathieu Drouin (Crystal Math Music Group)
- Matt Smallwood (Last Gang Records)
- Peter Cardinali (Alma Records)
- Tim Des Islets (Bumstead Productions)
- Tim Potocic (Sonic Unyon Records)
- Tony Tarleton (MapleMusic Recordings)
Remaining directors will include:
- Shauna de Cartier (Six Shooter Records)
- Jake Gold (The Management Trust)
- Jeffrey Remedios (Arts & Crafts Productions)
- Ric Arboit (Nettwerk Productions)
- Geoff Kulawick (True North Records)
- Nick Blasko (Amelia Artists)
- Pegi Cecconi (Anthem Entertainment)
- Rob Lanni (Coalition Music).
CIMA would like to extend a warm thank-you to the 2013-14 Board for its hard work and leadership, as well as to congratulate and welcome the 2014-2015 Board. Also, special thanks to Minister Coteau and his staff, Ben Caplan and the Dakota Tavern!
We just uploaded a photo album to our Canadian Blast Facebook page, so check it out here.
