Concern about the preservation of British Columbia history resulted in the formation of the Art Association in 1887. Five years later the mandate of the organization was expanded to include history and literature and the name was changed to the Art, History and Scientific Association. The Association was incorporated in 1901. The Association regarded the preservation of native Indian relics of primary importance. Its collection was housed and displayed in various locations until 1904, when it was moved to the Carnegie Building. The organization eventually became the Vancouver Museum Association.

The Ashcroft Water, Electric and Improvement Company was incorporated in 1899 to supply Ashcroft, B.C. and the surrounding area with power, water and light for domestic, mining and manufacturing purposes. The company was sold to Henry Robert Budd around 1934, and then again in 1953 to the B.C. Electric Railway Company.

The Asia Pacific Business Institute (APBI), formerly the Centre for Asia Pacific Business Studies (CAPBS), was founded in 1985 and administered jointly between UBC, SFU and UVIC with funding from the Federal Government. The organization's purpose was to coordinate, develop, and disseminate information to enable Canadian business people to deal effectively with the Asia-Pacific region's diverse business practices and cultures. In 1986 it was decided to close the CAPBS and reestablish it as a non-profit Society that would administer its finances. Thus, the CAPBS became the Asia Pacific Business Institute with Joe Weiler as its executive director. The APBI dissolved in 1990.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation resulted from a call by Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke in January 1989 for Asian-Pacific economies to consult on how they could effectively cooperate and increase trade and investment flows. Australia's motive was to create an Asia-Pacific economic identity, of which it would be an integral part. Japan endorsed the Australian proposal and became the second driving force in the creation of APEC. The first APEC meeting of trade and foreign ministers took place in Canberra in November 1989 (with twelve attendees: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the U.S.).
A summit or Leaders Meeting has become an annual event since President Clinton invited leaders to Blake Island in 1993. The first APEC Leaders Meeting was held in Seattle in November 1993. This first Leaders Meeting of economies represented half the world's population and 56% of its GNP. A year later, all APEC leaders met at Bogor, Indonesia. At that meeting, the Leaders resolved to move to free trade and investment by 2010 for industrialized member economies and by 2020 for developing member economies. The 1995 meetings were in Osaka, Japan, where the Osaka Action Agenda was agreed to, setting a template for future APEC work towards common goals. The Philippines convened the APEC Leaders Meeting in 1996 at Subic Bay. Finally, the Leaders Meeting was held in Vancouver, Canada, in 1997 at the Museum of Anthropology on the University of British Columbia campus.
The following countries are members of APEC as of 1999: Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.
APEC has two standing committees, ten working groups, and a few other forums that report to the Senior Officials Meeting. The two committees are the Committee for Trade and Investment (CTI) and the Economic Committee (EC). The CTI deals with trade and investment liberalization and business facilitation concerns. The role of the EC continues to evolve. It is primarily responsible for providing the Senior Officials Meeting with information and analysis on broad, cross-cutting issues which are not easily handled by one of the working groups.
The ten working groups are Trade and Investment Data, Trade Promotion, Investment and Industrial Science and Technology, Human Resource Development, Energy, Marine Resource Conservation, Telecommunications, Fisheries, Transportation, and Tourism.

The precursor to the ACWW was founded 1929 in London, England as the International Conference of Rural Women. By 1933 in Stockholm, Sweden the organization had assumed its current name and mission, which is to “represent rural women, facilitate better access to better information resources, funding community development projects and training programmes.” The ACWW remains headquartered in the UK. Its first president was Mrs. Alfred Watt (born Margaret Rose Robertson), who had previously served as a member of Metchosin Women's Institute (South Vancouver Island) and secretary of the Women's Institute Advisory Board for British Columbia. Per the ACWW official website, the organization “holds Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).”

The records in this fonds are related to the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat) and the UN Commission on Human Settlements.

The United Nations Conference on Human Settlements was first held May 31-June 11, 1976 in Vancouver. Known as Habitat (later Habitat I), the conference was created to address human settlements issues including policies and strategies, settlement planning; shelter, infrastructure and social services, land use, public participation, and institutions and management. Habitat I was made up of the official UN conference as well as concurrent unofficial events known as the Habitat Forum. The events included an extensive audio-visual programme, and Vision Habitat was established to administer and maintain the audio-visual materials following the conference.

Now known as the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), it continues the work started in the 1970s, including Habitat II (Istanbul, Turkey in 1996) and Habitat III (Quito, Ecuador in 2016), as well as numerous World Urban Forums—the third Forum bringing Habitat back to Vancouver in 2006.

The Association in Canada Serving Organizations for Human Settlements (ACSOH) was responsible for the unofficial, NGO and community engagement and the Habitat Forum.

The Centre for Human Settlements, part of the School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) at the University of British Columbia, was opened as a result of Habitat, to encourage settlement research and serve as a repository for audio-visual materials of Habitat. Dr. H. Peter Oberlander founded and served as director of both SCARP and the Centre for Human Settlements, and was involved in Habitat I. Oberlander was part of the Canadian delegations to the UN Commission on Human Settlements, he advocated to bring the 2006 World Urban Forum 3 to Vancouver, and he served as special assistant to the Secretary-General for Habitat II.

Members of the Administrative and Professional staff (later renamed Management and Professional staff in 1987) founded the Association of Administrative and Professional Staff (AAPS) in October 1977. At first, AAPS was a voluntary association and had four representatives on the Liaison Committee, which met with senior members of the University to discuss such matters as salaries, benefits and other working conditions until the University cancelled the meetings in 1989. In 1990 an elected committee called the President's Advisory Committee on Management and Professional Staff (PACOMAPS) met to deal with staff issues. AAPS ran a six-member slate that subsequently won the election. Thus, PACOMAPS became an avenue to maintain a dialogue with the University. AAPS conceived the objective of a voluntary agreement to negotiate terms and conditions of employment and pushed this concept at PACOMAPS for over a year. In May/June 1991, staff voted overwhelmingly in favour of a voluntary agreement to govern their terms and conditions of employment. Before negotiations began, AAPS requested a mandate from staff members to represent them; the vote of 1992 was 67.69% in favour. The Framework Agreement defining the relationship between AAPS and the University was finally ratified in May 1995. It is a voluntary agreement under common law that recognizes AAPS as the bargaining agent for all Management and Professional staff of UBC.
At present, the Association's purposes are; "to promote the welfare of the Association's members employed by UBC and the welfare of the University of British of Columbia, to act as the bargaining agent of management and professional staff employed by the University of British Columbia, and to govern relations between the management and professional staff and the University through collective bargaining." The Association has an Executive Board composed of President, First & Second Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer and Members at Large, seven committees including Advocacy, Communications, Development & Education, Finance, Membership, Negotiating, and Recruiting, and representatives on several University committees.

The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia was formed in 1974 under the original name of the British Columbia Publishers Group. In 1978 the present name was adopted. Their membership stood at 45 in 1989. The ABPBC aims to assist and promote book publishing in B.C. through liaison activities with the public, government, and business. It is an affiliate of the Association of Canadian Publishers. The three types of memberships, Active, Associate, and Supporting, are based upon the number of books published.

The Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE) promotes the study of the English language, literature, and other cultural material in a global context in Canadian colleges and universities. It was founded in 1957 and held its first conference in 1958.

The first meeting of the Vancouver Chapter of the Association of Records Managers and Administrators was held in 1970. Since that time, this non-profit, professional organization has undertaken to promote and advance records and information administration and management through study, education and research.

In 1973 library and clerical workers on university and college campuses across British Columbia began organizing as a union in order to represent their collective interests. Workers at University of British Columbia (Local 1), Simon Fraser University (Local 2), Notre Dame University of Nelson (Local 3), Capilano College (Local 4), College of New Caledonia (Local 5), and the Teaching Support Staff at S.F.U. (Local 6) organized over the next two years to collectively form the provincial wide and independent union, the Association of University and College Employees (AUCE).

When the union formed over ninety percent of its members were women and one of their top concerns was equal pay for what was at the time considered “women’s work”. Over the next decade, they fought for wages to match the rising cost of living, transparent job classifications, maternity leave, childcare, and other employee benefits. They also demanded a discrimination free workplace for people of all genders, sexualities, races, and ethnicities.

The AUCE operated as a democratic union with an elected executive, and held yearly conventions to address the needs of its members. Each local chapter worked individually with their university to bargain for collective contracts for their members. The negotiations of changes in collective contracts between the university and the union members sometimes resulted in the workers going on strike until a collective agreement could be reached. In addition to contract negotiations, the AUCE also supported other union, labour, and human rights efforts, especially in response to the changing legislation and budget seen in the British Columbia government from the 1970’s to 1980’s.

For various reasons, including the increased resources and support offered by international and national unions, in 1985 a decision was made by the members to disband the AUCE. For the Local 1 workers on the University of British Columbia campus, this resulted in a two year trial affiliation with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). During this time the union members voted to call themselves the Canadian University Employees (CUE) in order to distinguish themselves from two other local CUPE chapters on campus. In 1987 the members voted to become a chartered local union of the CUPE, CUPE Local 2950. They are an operating local chapter today.

The Association of University and College Employees, Local 1 was established in 1973 to represent library workers and the support staff at the University of British Columbia. The union disbanded in 1985 and its members are now represented by CUPE.

Caroline Astell was educated at the University of British Columbia (BSc 1964, MSc 1966, Ph.D. 1970), returned to teach there, and received tenure in July 1985. The fonds relates to her time as a Ph.D. student in the lab and her work with Nobel prize winner Michael Smith. Astell, a member of many scholarly societies, including the American Society of Microbiology and the American Society for Virology, won the Killam Research Award in 1985. In addition, Astell has served on various organizations on campus, including the Graduate Admissions Committee and the Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship Committee. Astell has studied the replication of parvoviruses since the late 1970s and determined the complete sequence of the first autonomous virus in 1982, later extending the research to include the human B19 parvovirus, a newly recognized pathogen. She has published various works, including a number co-authored with Michael Smith, including Thermal elution of complementary sequences of nucleic acids on cellulose columns with covalently attached oligonucleotides of known length and sequence (1972).

At Home in the Universe: The Life and Times of William Shatner is a documentary created for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s biographical series, Life and Times, which was produced by Harvey McKinnon Productions, with Harvey McKinnon as Executive Producer and Writer, Lynn Booth as Producer and Michael Tobias as Director. First broadcast in November 1999, this short film (44 minutes) is a biographical treatment of actor William Shatner that highlights significant events in his life, focusing on his career and his love for nature and children.
Harvey McKinnon of Harvey McKinnon Productions is an inspirational speaker and trainer and has raised significant funds for various non-profit organizations. He has worked as a radio columnist for CBC Radio and published in numerous Canadian newspapers. McKinnon has produced or written several award-winning documentaries, including Side by Side: Women Against Aids, The Nature of David Suzuki and The Black Sea in Crisis.

This was a literary journal founded by David Campbell and Zsolt Alapi during their student days at McGill University. In Greek mythology, Atropos was one of three Fates, the others being Clotho and Lachesis. The meaning of Atropos is "unalterable" or "inflexible." The publication appeared only four times before ceasing operations in 1981.

The Reverend Betty Atwater (née Carol Betty Osborne) was born in 1915 near Great Falls, Montana, the fifth of seven children. Her father was a travelling Baptist minister. Atwater married Charles Phillips at age 15; by the time she met Lowry in 1939, she was divorced and living in Long Beach with her two young daughters.

Atwater was Malcolm Lowry’s typist during the spring and early summer of 1939 when the author was in Los Angeles. Without steady employment, Atwater did freelance typing work; her brother, Jimmy Osborne, was a friend of Lowry’s and recommended his sister when Lowry mentioned he needed a typist. Atwater assisted Lowry first with The Last Address and then for several weeks with a very early draft (possibly the first) of Under the Volcano. The two never met again after Lowry abruptly left Los Angeles for Vancouver, him having met his future second wife Margerie that July, but they maintained a limited correspondence until September 1939, when Atwater mailed Lowry the draft Volcano manuscript and what work she had managed to complete of it to that point.

After her brief relationship with Lowry (they were lovers, according to Atwater, during work on the Volcano typescript), Atwater became a Baptist minister, piano teacher, and student and teacher of astrology. She also continued to write poetry, plays, and novels. She married Dwight Edward Atwater in 1942.

AU Ming Shu (commonly known as AU Ming Lee) was born in China in 1911. He arrived in Newfoundland in 1938, paying the $300 head tax on Chinese entry.

His father was living and working in Boston, Massachusetts, however, its country's Chinese Exclusion Act prevented Ming Lee from joining him.

Ming Lee settled on Bell Island, a small island located off the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland in Conception Bay. There he owned a convenience store, then later a restaurant.

He had left behind in China a wife and a young daughter named Chew (b. 1937) who was born shortly before he left. It would be almost eight years before he returned to China for a visit and fathered his second child, another girl named Sherry (b. 1949).

The family would not reunite until the mid 1950s, after Newfoundland had joined Canada and the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed. In 1955, Ming Lee’s wife and daughter Sherry arrived in Canada; their eldest daughter Chew stayed in Hong Kong to marry and immigrate to Boston in the early 1960s.

Ming Lee and his wife would have two more children, both born in Newfoundland: Janie (b. 1956) and Gary (b.1957). He would eventually live in the capital of Newfoundland, St. John’s.

His daughter Janie Au fondly recalls her father’s generosity towards children. “A memory I have of my father occurred when I was about ten years old, I used to go to a neighbours to play during the summer. They had a farm and about 12 kids so I liked to go there since was always another kid to play with. One day I saw my father coming up the road towards us and I thought he was coming to bring me home. But no, he had a box of popsicles with him (we used to sell them in our store) and he started to give all the kids popsicles. I found out later that he used to do this often.”

Ming Lee passed away in 1999.