We realized that the outdated policies, the meeting structures based on Robert’s Rules of Order, and other inherited ways of conducting governance were things we could overthrow. We needed only to meet a bare minimum of regulations, and could get rid of the rest. Staff and board members all became members of the collective and began a search for new collective members. We dispensed with the procedural vocabulary and processes of board meetings, and instead built group agreements to foster equitable conditions for all collective members to speak, to listen, to honour their own mental and physical needs, and to understand why they show up. The change was so simple, but it freed us.

In 20/21 AKA received special funding from the Saskatchewan Arts Board to research, consult, and create a new leadership model. AKA’s board is now solely tasked with the financial oversight of the organization and the collective leads AKA. The collective was built through ongoing conversations with community volunteers to find individuals who had the capacity and interest to take on the labour of building this new structure. The collective is made up of board members, community leaders and artists who have relationships with AKA, and staff. They are: Alexa Hainsworth, artist, Aurora Wolfe, artist, Derek Sandbeck, AKA staff, Felicia Gay, curator, Gabby DaSilva, jelly aka respectful child, artist, Kaetan Bonli, artist, Kathleena Chiefcalf, artist/administrator, Lauren Warrington, artist/administrator, and Tarin Dehod, AKA staff (see their faces and read their bios). The collective is majority BIPOC. Each member has an equal say. New members are brought on in mentorship with their nominating collective member-a pillar initiated by former board member Ruth Cuthand. Non-staff collective receive an annual honourarium. 

Together the collective researched and spoke with numerous consultants, and colleagues to find Jordan Baylon, former Calgary Arts community funding officer, now theatre director, and activist working with CommunityWise Resource Centre and their Anti-Racist Organizational Change training. With funding from the SAB we had one-on-one’s with Jordan and a workshop to bring the newly formed collective into the same space and to begin to formulate priorities.

Right now the collective is creating inclusive guidance documents that will be reviewed, adapted, and committed to by those who lead the organization now and in the future. How is this different from just writing new policy that the next AKA leaders inherit? It is not exhaustive, plotting every circumstance therein setting roadblocks to change, the language is not white-centred, and it addresses required policy that lasts (financial, bylaws, labour) while creating more space within what we would label now as programming, outreach, and memberships. AKA has been building towards this work for nearly six years, we are ready to do it now, and we need to do it now. Our highest priority is to develop and maintain sincere relationships with artists and communities, in order to do this AKA’s organizational structure must match our programming. Simply put we need to mean what we say by acting to change the organization. We also need to make these changes to support future leaders and workers at AKA, throughout our history both our staff and our board has been predominantly white. We want to grow AKA into a space that is safe for BIPOC leaders; that their methodologies and ways of seeing, thinking, and working are valued. This can’t be accomplished within the structure of a colonial institution.

Within these new guidance documents we will work to decolonize the administration, language, contracts, staff roles, and form our own version of a strategic plan for 2022-2025. An important note: we say guidance documents instead of policy, because we don’t yet know what these documents will be, but we know that they will not be policy. However they will be inclusive of the subjects that current policies cover, like: artist contracts, staff contracts/roles, communications/marketing language, mandate/vision, roles of the board, commitment of the collective, and programming. We will maintain required ISC and CRA charitable policies but undertake their review, including: by-laws, human resources/safe work space, and financial oversight protocols. The strategic plan is required by our funders, however we will envision a document that both meets requirements and is evocative of our decolonial work and what that means in our relationships with the communities we serve. We will engage community members with related interests or investment within the process.