> 
Dear Patrick

I very much take and support your point that a splinter group of Young
professionals is likely to result in distancing that group as such from the
main ICOM Committee and the good work of other International specialist
Committees.

Whilst I and possibly you yourself were once active members of the then
slightly radical Museum Assistants group of the UK Museums Association, and
at the time that seemed a good group to belong to for eager young
professionals, with its own conference and newsletter [I remember designing
its letterhead when I was in Hull] it would be a shame not to find other
means of encouraging the active participation of young professional members
and means of fostering their interests and an outlet for papers within the
main agendas and publications of ICOM and its international committees.

There is bound to be periods when increased frustration is being felt
amongst younger members when so many seemingly much older and possibly less
radical members dominate committees and thus set the agenda for all.

I am not sure if this is the case at present but my own view is that is in
the best interests of ICOM and its members internationally to engage the
active interest and participation of younger members in the committees,
possibly finding an opportunity periodically for younger members to get
together internationally through subsidised meetings/travel opportunities so
that the 'old guard' are not always the ones to attend since they are the
ones who do tend to have long established roles on Committees in part
because they are free to travel and can usually allocate their own travel
funds for that purpose without recourse to more senior management.

Having been an ICOM member for at least 30 years I can see both sides of
this argument but hopefully common sense will prevail and a stronger,
increasingly younger, fully representative and wholly united international
membership of ICOM will prevail.

Interestingly perhaps, this e-mail debate has prompted me to encourage my
own younger staff to think seriously about joining ICOM - some are members
of the UK Museums Association and active in specialist interest groups.  But
I was rather shocked by the initial response that they had little clue as to
what ICOM really is and certainly they did not see it as being for them.  So
we have much work to do to encourage the next generation.   Perhaps this
attitude is more prevalent amongst UK staff, especially those working
outside the nationals but I would be interested to know if that is the case
since we may need to promote ICOM better if so.

Kind regards

Terry Suthers

Terence Suthers
Director & CEO
Harewood House Trust

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005, Mario Bucolo wrote:
> 
> +++++ [CLIP] +++++
> 
>> Last week I meet, informally, in Paris the ICOM General Secretary and we
>> talk about this idea. He was happy about this initiative and he want to look
>> again to the proposal after a better definition about who will join the
>> group, the group goals and strategic plan to achieve the goals.
>> He was very clear that the creation of a new International Committees inside
>> ICOM it will be difficult (also regarding burocracy) and with long times
>> (about Vienna 2007 general assembly).
> 
> =================
> 
> Mario:
> 
> Please remember that if your suggested Group is eventually constituted as
> an official ICOM International Committee any "younger" ICOM member joining
> it would not be allowed to be a full ("voting") member in any other
> International Committee, such as the International Committee for their own
> academic or professional specialisation (ICME, Nat Hist, CECA, ICMS or
> whatever). (This is clear under the Statutes and Rules of ICOM, which
> allow full membership in only one International Committee at a time.)
> 
> I am sure that nobody - least of all the younger members - would want to
> cut themselves off from perhaps more senior professional colleagues in
> their own specialisation in this way, so some other structure would be
> needed.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Patrick Boylan
> 
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