“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened,” could have been the theme for Gail Barrington-Moss' going away party, an event characterized by laughter, tears and delicious cake.
The City of St. Albert's cultural services director has resigned as of Sept. 30 after 16 years of making policy decisions to start her own business. Barrington Consulting Services will specialize in life coaching, mediation and team and group facilitation.
“I want to work for myself. I want to dictate my own schedule. I want to spend time with my grandchildren. I want to get involved in theatre again,” says Barrington-Moss, now a grandmother of two one-year-olds.
In her tenure as both cultural services director and general manager of community and protective services, Barrington-Moss oversaw numerous high-profile projects such as the introduction of the popular International Children's Festival, construction of the controversial Servus Credit Union Place and the 10-year Heritage Sites functional plan.
But rather than consider any single project an achievement, Barrington-Moss regards the intangible skills she brought to the table as her greatest contribution. “I have the ability to pull people together and focus on something. I know how to build a team and coach. I did it as a general manager. I could bring people together, reason away conflict, mentor people and look at the strengths that help them grow.”
Raised in Southport, England, Barrington-Moss trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and later at Miss Fawlkes Business School. “I cursed my father for sending me to business school, but years later it was quite useful.”
As a bright-eyed 19-year-old, she came to Edmonton in 1973 and stayed with friends as a nanny while travelling across western Canada. Upon returning home, she told her parents she wanted to immigrate.
“I loved Edmonton. I loved the Rocky Mountains. I loved the old Citadel in the old Salvation Army Building and Walterdale. It was so totally a different culture than what I'd grown up with. You could go to university. You weren't pigeonholed. I felt a great sense of freedom.
While raising two babies, Barrington-Moss picked up her teaching ticket from the University of Alberta. The day after graduation, Gerry Buccini hired her at W.D. Cuts Junior High where she staged plays with casts of thousands.
By 1982/83, Citadel Theatre's general manager Wayne Fipke decided to launch a children's festival and asked Barrington-Moss to organize it. Her role grew to operating Citadel on Wheels and the Citadel Theatre School.
After six years, she decided to expand her wings and moved to Alberta Culture, organizing tours and workshops and travelling across the country making a strong network of contacts.
But the workload was burning her out and when Paul Moulton, then cultural services director, went to the Regina Centre for the Arts, she applied for the position.
Six weeks into her job, Citadel's artistic director Robin Phillips asked her to take over the children's festival. “I put together a business plan and went to the city manager. I called in contacts, sponsors, Canada Council, the Alberta Heritage Foundation. In January 1995 I pitched the idea to council.”
Under Mayor Anita Ratchinsky, the council agreed to it as long as there was no cost to taxpayers. “We pulled it off with a $189,000 budget and it was very successful with 19,000 kids.”
Although clearly passionate about theatre, Barrington-Moss is also a big booster of stewarding various St. Albert heritage assets. She has worked diligently with AHF Heritage director Anne Ramsden to create the Heritage Sites functional plan.
The first stage has been fixing the rotting grain elevators at a cost of $1.76 million. “They are important to our history. If we don't look after them, they'll be gone. We've got to ensure the assets are looked after and managed.”
She was appointed general manger of community and protective services in 2002 in a role that oversaw culture, recreation, family and support services, RCMP, bylaw, fire, EMS and Servus Place.
“Being general manager, I learned so much. It broadened my perspective. It made me a stronger manager. It opened my eyes to a lot of things. It made me question a lot of things. It made me see how important it was to have a balance when looking at priorities.”
In the interim, Barrington-Moss' husband developed throat cancer, and in 2008 she stepped down from the position and returned to cultural services, a less burdensome position.
City manger Chris Jardine described her best as a people person. “She's easy to talk to. She gets people to work together. She's definitely a builder. She's touched a lot of people and she will be missed.”
