I fear that even if everyone subscribed to everything that most people
feel two things:
1? that debate / discussion in this area is all hijacked but the same
few as at ICOM meetings proper - fluent English ruling out half the
world who even if they have reasonable English will not be up to a
written discussion.   I could wax on reasonably well in Italian but do
not ask me to write anything !

Secondly: very many people are up to their eyeballs in  the day-to-day
minutiae of work and simply have no time to get involved in matters
which all too frequently seem to take little recognition of problems on
the ground.


Hugh Maguire

-----Original Message-----
From: Per Bjørn Rekdal [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 19 December 2003 05:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: SV: WHY DOES THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL CONSIDER THAT A NEW
DEFINITION OF "MUSEUM" NECESSARY?


Dear Patrick, Gary and all others on this list,

Gary's (and many others') concern about the limited number participating
in the discussion and Patricks follow-up questions, raises several
issues
that possibly should be treated separately.

1) The ICOM-L.
Gary writes ".. the limited number of ICOM members having access to
ICOM-L". The main problem is NOT how few members that have ACCESS to
ICOM-L, the main problem is that so few members KNOW OF or HAVE CHOSEN
to
be subscribers to ICOM-L. I would think that at least 10.000 and
probably
more of ICOM's members have access to ICOM-L, but they do not know about
it or they do not want to subscribe. How to make more ICOM members
subscribe to ICOM-L is one challenge we may perhaps discuss next year.
One
obvious thing to do that has not even been tried is simply to advertise
effectively ICOM-L's excistence through ICOM News.

2) How do we ensure that all members of ICOM get an opportunity to
participate in discussions like the one on the definition of "Museum"?

A: It is important that we stress OPPORTUNITY to participate. In reality
there will always be a tiny minority that really participates, but every
member must be ensured the opportunity.

B: I take for granted that all members of the Advisory as well as the
Executive are subscribers to ICOM-L. It was and still is the
responsibility of the members of the Advisory to make known to the
members
current issues and act on behalf of the members at the Advisory
meetings.

C: Electronic discussion lists have changed this situation: Issues  are
brought forth on the ICOM-L and all members of ICOM are invited to have
their say. Very, very good! But it also creates an injustice: Not all
members of ICOM have access to or know about ICOM-L. And the danger is:
Issues are "solved" on the ICOM-L!

D: ICOM and it's organs have to adapt to this new situation.
The only economically viable way to give ALL ICOM members an opportunity
to react to current issues is through ICOM News. ICOM News must set off
space for ICOM actualities (but watch out: we must not turn ICOM News
into
a periodical for the ICOM "insiders", making it uninteresting for the
majority of ICOM members).
Current issues must presented in ICOM news right from the outset and
handled parallelly in different open fora. Otherwise we will be hung up
in
an endless process.
But remember the Advisory! We should still trust the Advisory's ability
to
sum up the discussions before making it's recommendation to the
Executive.
In the heath of ICOM-L discussions, it is easy to forget the role of the
Advisory, isn't it?

3) Do we need a new definition of "museum"? Well, it will not hurt if
the
Executive tell us why they want a new one.

That's it for now. Like Patrick's it is too long (which shows a
limitation
to ICOM-L discussions: long messages are often not responded to!).

Per

Per B. Rekdal
ICME President

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