Dear Per,
I missed Gary's post because I've been simply deleting the mails with
the 'definition' subject line, and had not realised it had moved on.
I think it telling that ICOM-L has so many posts on this one topic, and
so few on any other.
I have interspersed my comments (and deleted passages where I have
nothing to say)
>
>1) The ICOM-L.
I agree: marketing ICOM-L to members is important; it is also an
important benefit of membership, and as such should be marketed to non-
members, too.
>
>
>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).
All members cannot possibly have an opportunity to react through ICOM
news - Imagine how much newsprint would be taken up by the discussions
we have had here on the one topic!
ICOM News is not a discussion forum.
However, ICOM News does need to interact more with ICOM-L: where a topic
of significance (i.e. one that generates a number of varied responses),
it should be reported in the News.
The internet seems to me to offer far more opportunities for all than
print media or meetings.
>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.
What fora are there? Alongside ICOM-L there are the meetings (arguably
open to even fewer), which can be more structured than ICOM-L.
How could ICOM-L be made (upon occasion) less like the coffee break, and
more like the business meeting? Not that I have anything against coffee
breaks - they are great opportunities to discuss what is going on, make
contacts, and so on. But their ability to be more than a prelude to a
transparent, vibrant democratic decision-making process is somewhat
limited.
>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?
It is indeed easy - I'm not sure what it is!
Best wishes,
Pat
--
Pat Reynolds
[log in to unmask]
"It might look a bit messy now,
but just you come back in 500 years time"
(T. Pratchett)
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