Photo by: Janine Geddes

Mandate and Projects

The mandate of the Archives Committee is to collect, organize, describe, preserve, and make available the published and unpublished records of the Lake of Bays Association and the Association’s chief officers. These records include the papers of its presidents and secretaries when these pertain to the association’s work. The Archives Program is limited to collecting material directly relating to the work of the Association and does not include general historical material relating to the Lake of Bays.

Projects

The LOBA archives collection currently consists of early official papers that include the association’s constitutions of 1928, 1938, and 1953, as well as a complete run of the LOBA Yearbook, first published in 1952; the LOBA Minute Books which form a record of the Board of Directors’ meetings and some other committee meetings, dating from 1961 to 2000; and a complete run of the LOBA’s newsletter, Current Connections, which began publishing in 1987.

The papers of past presidents of the association include those of George Daniels (1988-90); Betty Day (1990-1992); Glen Newby (1992-1994); Doug Lawson (1994-96); Connie Briant (1999-2001); Karl Jaffary (2001-2003). In addition, the collection has small files of material from past presidents J.S. Govan (1964-66), John Wachsmuth (1978-80), Robin Cumine (1982-84), Paul Tapley (1986-88), George Daniels (1988-90), Bill Rogers (1996-97), Margaret Casey (1997-99), and Barry Stephens (2003-05). Dates given are dates for their presidency.

The collection also includes materials collected by LOBA members for use in developing planning proposals and for its work protecting the interests of its members with regard to such matters as development, water quality and other environmental concerns, roads, taxes, built heritage, safety, recreation, etc. There are large files dealing with the redevelopment of Bigwin Island, the Echo Valley Development and the Seabreeze Road, as well as other issues dating from the late 1980s to the present.

Projects completed and in progress:

The collection of papers has been organized and boxed in archival document cases. An outline of contents is available and a more detailed finding aid is being prepared. This finding aid should enable anyone consulting the collection to locate relevant material to the box level, and in some cases, to the folder level.

The committee is actively soliciting additional donations of papers from past presidents and association officers. Earlier material relating to the LOBA is of particular importance as the early years of the association are not well documented in the present collection.