Village News

Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) is incorporated in the province of Manitoba and owned by its members. To comply with provincial law and our bylaws, MHV conducts an Annual General Meeting (AGM) every year at this time. This year’s AGM was held on Tuesday, March 28.

MHV members can contribute to our museum in several ways, such as volunteering for tasks that need to be done, donating toward our annual operations and specific projects, encouraging friends to attend museum events and to become museum members, and helping to make decisions about the museum’s future.

Before we ask our members to make decisions at the AGM, we provide relevant background information. The report book which is distributed at the beginning of the meeting contains reports that address MHV activities and highlights of the past year and also begin to cast some light on plans for the coming year. Both written and oral reports are provided, and members are invited to address questions and comments to both. This year members heard oral reports from Willie Peters, President and Board Chair; Barry Dyck, Executive Director; Linda Schroeder, MHV Auxiliary President; Allan Kroeker, Finance and Audit Committee Chair; Victor Bergmann, auditor with Deloitte; and Carol Kroeker, Nominating Committee Chair. The report book contained written reports from each of these areas as well as the various functional departments at MHV.

One of the highlights of the meeting was Victor Bergmann’s report that our museum had no bank debt at the end of 2016. It was very exciting to see that positive number after many years of seeing a negative number there. Our constituency has really stepped up to the plate and made a big difference. We do still have access to our line of credit for those times when operations and project expenses may require temporary cash-flow support.

Lawrence Klippenstein, well-known and respected Mennonite historian, has served our museum as a director on the board for approximately 15 years. At our AGM last week, Lawrence was recognized for his contributions to the work of MHV. He also provided some insights about AGMs in general, about the MHV Board of Directors, and about story telling. History is so much about story telling.

The members attending this meeting made several decisions on behalf of MHV. After reviewing the audited financial statements for 2016, they decided to accept the statements and the auditor’s report. Following that, they decided to accept the 2017 budget presented by Allan Kroeker and to appoint Deloitte as the auditor for the current calendar year. One of the most important decisions the members made was to elect Matt Wieler and Jeremy Peters as new board members – one to fill the vacancy created by Lawrence Klippenstein, and the other to replace Scott Reimer who resigned from the board after the previous AGM. Our board now has a full slate of members, with a healthy range of ages and professions represented.

Membership in MHV is a real and interesting way to serve our community. There is more to be learned about membership by checking our website or by calling 204-326-9661.