As explained on ICOM-L last year, the ICOM Training Committee (ICTOP) has
carried out a detailed "SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats] Analysis" of members' perceptions of ICOM, present and future.

Amongst other things this revealed serious concerns about the small
amount of information concerning ICOM's central organisation, policies,
activities and administration that nowadays reaches the ordinary member,
linked also to worries about the slow progress in making available such
core information electronically, e.g. on the ICOM web site.

To enable these concerns to be more widely and fully debated, ICTOP has
now asked for the following formal Resolution to be put on the agenda of
the June 2000 meeting of the ICOM Advisory Committee.


Patrick Boylan
Chairperson, ICTOP

========================


ICTOP PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO JUNE 2000  ADVISORY COMMITTEE
AGENDA

NOTING: that there is widespread evidence of a lack of
knowledge and understanding of ICOM's organisation,
policies, activities and administration among the general
membership of ICOM;

NOTING: that many years ago ICOM stopped printing in ICOM
News detailed reports on the work and decisions of ICOM's
policy and administrative bodies, and on ICOM's financial
accounts and budgets;

CONSIDERING: that the alternative means of communication
with the general membership  of ICOM introduced to replace
this, i.e. the diffusion of minutes and reports of the
Executive Council, Advisory Committee, Secretariat, ad hoc
and other central bodies, and financial accounts and
budgets, through the national and international committees
is now impracticable because of the growth in the membership
of ICOM (from less than 800 voting members in 1974 to over
15,000 today) and of the national and international
committees (from constitutional maxima of 15 members per
country and 30 per international committee in 1974 to well
over 1,000 each in some cases today);

NOTING: that many related bodies, such as e.g. The
International Federation of Library Associations and
Authorities (IFLA), or the World Heritage Committee now
make available all non-confidential documentation of this
type to the general  membership and other interested
professionals and organisations very promptly by electronic
means:


THE ICOM ADVISORY COMMITTEE ADVISES the Executive Council
that in order to increase the access of members to
information the following procedures be adopted as soon as
possible:

1.   The Minutes  of all meetings (other than Closed
Sessions) of the Executive Council, Advisory Committee, and
other official or ad hoc committees or working groups of
these, are to be published on the ICOM web site as soon as
these have been provisionally approved, and in no case more
than three months from the date of the meeting;

2.   The triennial, annual, and other periodic, progress
reports of the Secretary-General and ICOM Secretariat to
meetings of the General Assembly, Executive Council or
Advisory Committee are to be published on the ICOM web site
within one month of the date of the meeting;

3.   The annual audited accounts and financial reports, and
the approved annual budgets of ICOM, are to be published on
the ICOM web site within one month of the date of the
Executive Council meeting at which these are first received;

4.  Summary reports of the principal matters considered and
decisions made by  meetings (other than Closed Sessions) of
the Executive Council, Advisory Committee, and other
official or ad hoc committees or working groups of these,
are to be published in ICOM News as soon as practicable
after the meetings concerned.

5. Summaries of the Secretariat periodic reports as under
(2) above and  abbreviated versions of the audited annual
accounts and financial statements as under (3) above are to
be published in ICOM News as soon as practicable after the
meetings to which these are submitted.


----------------------------------

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the
archives at:  http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html