Dear colleagues,

I have been bombarded by various messages about ICOM reforms. Of
particular interest is the one from my work-mate here in Nairobi, which
seems to have sparked off a lengthy debate:

>I have noted with interest that the National committes especially in Africa
>are led by people who have been in Museums for a long time. Though they are
>an irreplacable source of knowledge, i believe the future of Museums is in
>both the younger and older professionals.

There has been a lot of back and forth about *attracting* young members;
but Josephine specifically talks of young people *leading* the national
committees. In Kenya, we have been led by the 'old guard' - if you will -
for some time, I admit. But voting is held, and no one bars younger
members from vying for chairman/woman(!)-ship. Leading a national
committee is no small task, and no doubt the more experienced (ie older!)
museum staff have much to offer in the way of guidance and insight.
Communication systems (snail mail vs. email) have little to do with
attarcting new members in Kenya, as very few people have access to the
Internet anyway (the NMK does not have a LAN and there are only a few
single-user dial-up accounts).

In Kenya, our natn'l committee is now mostly made up of 'young' people -
so, the challenge now goes out to them. Who will take it up?

Josephine goes further to say:

>ICOM members are making little effort to
>inform even their own colleagues about the organisation.

I beg to differ [maybe Josephine and I will thrash this out on our own
:-)] Last year the Kenyan national committee made a serious effort to
attract new - AND young - staff (Josephine included) to ICOM; this
resulted in our natn'l membership jumping from about a dozen to 53
members! How could we have attracted all those members without informing
our colleagues about ICOM?

And the REAL questions: How young is young? And how old is old? I hope
we're not counting grey hairs!

Cheers!

Lorna



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National Museums of Kenya
Museum Hill
P.O. Box 40658
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel. (02) 742131/4, 742161/4
Fax. +254-2-741424
Email: [log in to unmask]

Visit our web site: http://www.museums.or.ke


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