As the debate begins on the work of ICOM's Reform Task
Force, Advisory Committee members have also received
from the Secretary-General notice that nominations for
the elections of Officers and Executive Council for
the period 2001 to 2004 close at the end of next
month.

Under ICOM's very long drawn-out procedures for
constitutional reform it is already far too late to
make any significant changes in the make-up of the
Executive Council or the way it is elected, before
the 2004 General Conference.  Even more alarming for
those who feel that changes should at least be
considered, the June 2000 Advisory Committee is the
last practicable date to put forward agenda items for
the Barcelona Conference in July 2001, which would in
turn come into effect with the elections to be held
during the 2004 General Conference.

If nothing is agreed to go forward to Barcelona from
this year's Advisory Committee in June 2000, no change
will be possible for seven years, i.e. in the
Executive Council elections to be held during the 2007
General Conference!

Perhaps I can start a discussion on this topic?  It
seems to me that there are at least two areas of
serious concern:

(1).   Is the size of the Executive Council right for
today's circumstances?

(2).   Does the present voting system produce a
balanced and equitable result?


(1) SIZE OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

The present Executive Council consists of four
Officers (President, two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer),
and five other elected Executive Council members.  In
addition the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee,
though not elected to the EC as such, is an additional
member with full voting rights.

This ten person membership was adopted almost 30 years
ago, at a time when ICOM had less than 800 Voting
Members - compared with around 15,000 today.  In fact,
this was a big reduction on previous Executive
Councils which had previously had at least 16 members.
(To get down to the present number three ordinary EC
member posts were eliminated together with two (of
four)  Vice-President posts, and the (elected)
Secretary-General post - the salaried Director-General
post being re-titled Secretary-General).

QUESTION:    If ICOM needed an Executive of ten for
800 members, around 50 national committees and less
than 20 international committees when the present
structure was adopted,  isn't a significantly larger
membership now needed to allow better representation
of its current 15,000 members, 109 national committees
and more than 46 international committees, regional
and affiliated organisations?

(2)  VOTING SYSTEM

Currently, the nine elected places on the Executive
Council are voted on in two universal lists: one for
the four officers, and a second for the five
"ordinary" members.  The Chairperson of the Advisory
Committee is elected by the Advisory.  However, for
many years there has been concern in some parts of
ICOM at least that the result can be capricious and
appear unfair, particularly in terms of regional
distribution.  The current 10 members of the Executive
Council are drawn from the following regions:

4  - Western Europe (France (2), Netherlands &
Switzerland)
4  -  Latin America and Caribbean (Argentina,
Barbados, Equador &  Mexico)
1  -  Australasia & Pacific (Australia)
1  -  Sub-Saharan Africa (Congo)

This leaves important areas of the world not
represented:

0  -  Northern, Central, Eastern or Southern Europe
0  -  North America
0  -  Middle East & North Africa
0  -  Rest of Asia

QUESTION:   In contrast with the present ICOM system,
it seems that many major museums associations (e.g.
France, United States, United Kingdom) have balanced
the universally elected "member-at-large" executive
(or equivalent) members with more closely targeted
"representative" members (e.g. specialist or regional
representatives or ballots).  Should ICOM introduce
(from 2004) some form of structured membership or
voting for at least part of the Executive Council
elections?

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

My personal view is that in many ways the first of
these issues, i.e. an enlargement of the total
membership of the ICOM Executive Council, will be
essential before any move towards regional (or other)
representative voting for at least part of the
Executive would be practicable.



Patrick Boylan
Chairperson, ICTOP - Training of Personnel Committee


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