“During the September Seminar in Victoria, the action stopped briefly on two separate occasions…just long enough for a little daydreaming. Looking around, we though back to the smoking commercial which took the inevitable way out after all logic discarded the nonsensical and romantic reasons for smoking…it simply boiled down to a case of, ‘I smoke ’em ’cause I like ’em!’.
In this mood, we thought about the reasons which influenced people to attend any kind of conference and wondered, ‘why are these people at this seminar?’.
Obviously some were there to meet old friends who for one reason or another, usually because of geography and not history, they haven’t seen often enough.
Probably a few were there because they were the fortunate one in their respective communities who were able to find the time to get away from home for a week.
Many had come to nurture a sense of identity through sharing with others some common interests in the specialized fields of museums and historical interpretation.
Undoubtedly most had come to learn. They sought maximum involvement and participation and were genuinely disappointed and frustrated that they somehow couldn’t split themselves in two people so that they could attend more than one workshop at a time.
Well, whatever the reason, we feel that if each and everyone had been asked the specific question ‘why do you go to the annual British Columbia Museums Association’s Training Seminars?’, without any hesitation they would have smiled and replied…’No question about it…I go ’cause I like ’em!’.”
~Bob Broadland, from Museum Roundup Editor’s Viewpoint, “‘Cause I Like ‘Em”, No. 44, 1971