Quoting Patrick Boylan:

> Equally, however, if ICOM was to pay for all this centrally
> the cost would be around $100,000 a year - and would require
> a 40 Euro (approx. $7) increase in ICOM's basic membership
> fee.

This conversion rate is way off. I'm not sure how the
individual/organizational membership balance fits into this but
an individual EUR 40 increase would probably drive off a majority
of the current membership. As it is, there are large numbers of
museum professionals who remain outside ICOM because they regard
the current annual fee as too expensive, despite their ability to
afford it. Even a USD 7 hike would likely make matters much
worse. In any case, there are numerous membership benefits that
are being clamored for that cannot be accomodated within the
present financial/organizational framework. I suspect that
subsidizing the activities of the Committee Chairs would not top
every member's list of things worth paying even more for.

> In 1974, however, ICOM was re-structured as a "membership"
> organisation, completely open to any member of the profession
> worldwide able to pay a small annual membership fee . . .

Right - a small fee.

The decision to join any dues based membership organization is in
large part a financial one. Setting one's sights on holding
office in an organzation significantly increases the monetary
consideration. This situation is not unique to ICOM. (In more
overtly political contexts, even in the nominally most democratic
situations, substantial costs accrue when an election campaign is
mounted and are not simply a matter of being able to afford to
attend meetings once in office.)

What organizations are there that are roughly equivalent to ICOM
in terms of purpose, organizational structure and membership fees
that centrally underwrite costs of the type currently under
discussion?  (I am not asking this as a rhetorical device but am
genuinely curious.)

Cary Karp <[log in to unmask]>


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