Coastal Jazz & Blues Society announces four-member transition board
Plans include an external review, new society bylaws and drive for new board members
AFTER A CONTENTIOUS winter, Coastal Jazz & Blues Society has announced a transition plan for its board of directors.
The move comes after the society and “key representatives of the artistic community” came to an agreement. Effective immediately, the board will be composed of two existing directors, Mitchell Edgar and Mike Matich, and two newly appointed elected directors, Vancouver music artists Meredith Bates and Julia Ulehla.
The controversy partly stems back to a heated AGM meeting on November 16 in which the society’s members attempted to vote out the board. A letter, signed by hundreds of musicians and dated February 3, then further called for the current board to step down. “Simply put, we are concerned that the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society is suffering a crisis of governance that threatens its existence,” it said.
The group had called for a Special General Meeting to address the issue. But the society and artists’ representatives have negotiated the compromise so that a Special General Meeting is no longer necessary; that requisition has been formally rescinded.
In a press release today, Coastal Jazz said its organizational priorities for the ensuing months will be to increase the inclusivity of the board, with a commitment to appoint experienced and diverse new members representative of the community within the first 90 days, as well as launch an external review of governance practices and a revision of the society’s bylaws.
In a joint written statement today, newly elected board members Ulehla, a vocalist, scholar, and Dálava member, and Bates, a violinist, said: “As a board, we are committed to providing governance that is inclusive and in dialogue with all of the Society’s constituents. The Coastal Jazz & Blues Society has a long legacy in the city, and is tremendously important to both the local community and the global jazz scene. Many artists and promoters came forward, en masse, to voice their support for the communitarian ethos and artistic integrity of the Society. We want to ensure that we raise the ethical bar of the organization and that Coastal becomes seen, not just as an artistic leader, but a leader in governance, transparency, and accountability to the community.”
Coastal Jazz’s Vancouver International Jazz Festival is scheduled to go ahead live from June 24 to July 3 at locations throughout Vancouver. Founded in 1985, Coastal Jazz is B.C.’s largest not-for-profit music presenter. It was forced to cancel its 2020 jazz fest, but returned in summer 2021 with a hybrid online-live program. The organization recently installed a new executive director, Nina Horvath, and announced Cole Schmidt and Jeremy Page as its interim artistic programming team.
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