The last three years have been the ultimate test for Sue Griffin?s career.
The president of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame and Museumbattled to keep the provincial sports shrine at BC Place Stadium. It was behind security barriers during the 2010 Winter Olympics, and then all 25,000 artifacts had to be moved out while the stadium underwent a $563 million renovation.
?We weren?t part of the Games. There were some real challenges there. We knew we had a tremendous jewel for locals and international visitors,? Griffin told BIV. ?We were not part of the construction schedule.?
Now the finish line is in sight. The hall is hoping to get its occupancy permit December 19, so that it can reopen January 1, 2012, with a brighter, more welcoming entry at Gate A.
Griffin won?t rest until she?s celebrating the second anniversary of the Games during February?s grand reopening festivities.
?The Vancouver 2010 Gallery is nothing short of spectacular,? Griffin said. ?We?ve got the broadest, largest and most spectacular 2010 collection in the world. Bar none.?
The 2,000 artifacts in the collection include Olympic and Paralympic gold, silver and bronze medals, mascots Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, a podium, torches, the late Jack Poole?s Olympic Order, athlete uniforms and equipment and gifts brought by national Olympic committees.
Griffin and her staff moved into temporary offices at BC Pavilion Corp. (PavCo) headquarters at Canada Place in May 2010 but continued fundraising, hosting the annual Banquet of Champions induction ceremony, visiting schools with the Hero In You outreach program and taking selected artifacts on tour throughout the province.
Griffin, who answers to two boards, leads a team that delivered $20,000 more in corporate sponsorship for the banquet, and the balance sheet shows $70,000 more net revenue than projected for the banquet.
Last December a group of stakeholders concluded after a two-day design symposium that a new Hall of Champions was needed and that the 2010 Winter Games must be the big draw. Griffin raised $775,000 for the project. Cannon Design did the preliminary design of the new 6,000 square feet by 3DS and Kei Space Design. Galleries devoted to Terry Fox, Greg Mooreand Rick Hansenwill remain.
?When I first joined I saw it as an opportunity to work with an organization I was aware of,? Griffin said. ?It was probably in a C to a C-minus at that point in time; it was a diamond ready to be shone and brought forth.?
Griffin modestly says the new and improved 15,000-square-foot hall will be a B-plus, but she plans to polish it until it?s worthy of an A grade. Long-range strategic planning begins in spring to add another 5,000 square feet of exhibits.
The goal all along was to remain the ?go-to organization for B.C. sport heritage? while raising the profile within the city. Griffin wants to put it on the podium of downtown tourist draws with the Vancouver Aquarium and Science World.
?She really is the face of the hall of fame,? said former chairman Dann Konkin, president of Ampco Manufacturers. ?She was really a breath of fresh air that came in [2006] and was able to pick up the operations. Sue?s been able to take the BC Sports Hall of Fame and actually make it the BC Sports Hall of Fame.?
Griffin didn?t originally set out to spend her career in stadiums and arenas, but that?s what happened. The 1979 York University honours graduate wanted to use her psychology degree as a springboard into a corporate human resources career. She had a stint with Hunt Personnel/Temporary Yours before coming west in 1983 as BC Place Stadium?s staffing co-ordinator under Bob Hunter, now senior vice-president of venues for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. PavCo CEO Warren Buckley was sales manager at the time, and chairman David Podmore was BC Place Corp.?s planning director.
Griffin was seconded to do the hiring and training for guest services at Expo 86?s BC Pavilion and returned to Toronto as director of event sales and marketing at SkyDome in Toronto in 1989 before opening Griffin Events. The NBA and the World Wrestling Federation were clients.
?That was the time when corporate sponsorship was really at a very neophyte stage in Canada, that was my first exposure,? she said.
Griffin returned to Vancouver and worked for Grouse Mountain and the Province newspaper until joining General Motors Place as its first director of event sales and marketing. She returned to fundraising for a decade, working with the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Telus World of Science, and teaching night school courses at Langara College and the BC Institute of Technology.
Her most valuable advice to students? ?Cultivating and stewarding relationships,? she said. ?We all sit at the same table. We change position and we change ballcaps, but we all sit at the same table. I?m sitting at the same table with people I worked with in 1983.?
Griffin joined the hall in December 2006. She occupies her spare time as an avid squash player at the Jericho Tennis Club and as chairwoman of ProMotion Plus, the society promoting female sport participation.
Griffin said she?s not a traditional fundraiser, but a risk-taker.
?I?m not one to take it safe; that keeps me passionate, motivated and excited,? she said. ?From a staffing standpoint as a leader you need to inspire the team to be with you when you?re taking risks. They have to be measured risks, especially when working in the non-profit sector; you don?t want to compromise any donor dollars.?
Griffin laughs that she has a habit of changing jobs every two years because she?s so project driven. She has found the ideal job she doesn?t want to leave.
?This is the longest job I?ve ever had. I totally believe in who we are and what we?re doing. I?ve got the opportunity and support of the board to explore as may new avenues as we can create. I can?t think of any other organization I?d want to go to that would provide me the creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and ability to create new opportunities and visitor experiences.? ?
