We appreciate ICTOP's  concern for the dissemination of ICOM information of
ICOM. This reflects aptly the spirit of the Reform Task Force which met
recently and would like ICOM to be a really open organisation. In fact, the
Executive Council discussed the dissemination of information in Madrid and
ICTOP's recommendations fit very well to these discussion.

ICTOP's recommendations focus only on information on the procedures within
ICOM, but an open organisation of course means much more than that. But I
take it for granted that ICTOP would in no way disagree with that.

The Secretariat is already working to speed up the distribution of
information. An electronic mailing list for the Advisory Committee is now
functioning well.

The personnel concerned ( Joelle Thibet, Valerie Jullien) are at present
being trained to use new software and we foresee that a lot of information
on the Advisory Committee and Executive Council will be available at the end
of April.

 The Secretariat has already distributed news on the working groups of the
Executive Council and the RTF in various issues of  ICOM News.  The main
decisions/discussions of the meeting of the EC will be published in the next
issue of ICOM News. Although ICOM News is an important information tool for
ICOM it is not always the fastest. So we really should concentrate on
electronic distribution of information.

That brings me also to the point you raised about the budget.  You mention
the " approved " annual budget. Approval of the budget has been a topic of
discussion by the Task Force and it will propose, among others things  to
speed up the procedures with regard to approval (and so of course,
publication of it).

 As the Executive Council and the Secretariat are concentrating on the
establishing a better spread of information I take ICTOP's recommendations
as a strong backing of this.

With my best regards,

Manus Brinkman
Secretary General


 At 01:11 04/04/00 +0100, you wrote:
>As explained on ICOM-L last year, the ICOM Training Committee (ICTOP) has
>carried out a detailed "SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
>Threats] Analysis" of members' perceptions of ICOM, present and future.
>
>Amongst other things this revealed serious concerns about the small
>amount of information concerning ICOM's central organisation, policies,
>activities and administration that nowadays reaches the ordinary member,
>linked also to worries about the slow progress in making available such
>core information electronically, e.g. on the ICOM web site.
>
>To enable these concerns to be more widely and fully debated, ICTOP has
>now asked for the following formal Resolution to be put on the agenda of
>the June 2000 meeting of the ICOM Advisory Committee.
>
>
>Patrick Boylan
>Chairperson, ICTOP
>
>========================
>
>
>ICTOP PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO JUNE 2000  ADVISORY COMMITTEE
>AGENDA
>
>NOTING: that there is widespread evidence of a lack of
>knowledge and understanding of ICOM's organisation,
>policies, activities and administration among the general
>membership of ICOM;
>
>NOTING: that many years ago ICOM stopped printing in ICOM
>News detailed reports on the work and decisions of ICOM's
>policy and administrative bodies, and on ICOM's financial
>accounts and budgets;
>
>CONSIDERING: that the alternative means of communication
>with the general membership  of ICOM introduced to replace
>this, i.e. the diffusion of minutes and reports of the
>Executive Council, Advisory Committee, Secretariat, ad hoc
>and other central bodies, and financial accounts and
>budgets, through the national and international committees
>is now impracticable because of the growth in the membership
>of ICOM (from less than 800 voting members in 1974 to over
>15,000 today) and of the national and international
>committees (from constitutional maxima of 15 members per
>country and 30 per international committee in 1974 to well
>over 1,000 each in some cases today);
>
>NOTING: that many related bodies, such as e.g. The
>International Federation of Library Associations and
>Authorities (IFLA), or the World Heritage Committee now
>make available all non-confidential documentation of this
>type to the general  membership and other interested
>professionals and organisations very promptly by electronic
>means:
>
>
>THE ICOM ADVISORY COMMITTEE ADVISES the Executive Council
>that in order to increase the access of members to
>information the following procedures be adopted as soon as
>possible:
>
>1.   The Minutes  of all meetings (other than Closed
>Sessions) of the Executive Council, Advisory Committee, and
>other official or ad hoc committees or working groups of
>these, are to be published on the ICOM web site as soon as
>these have been provisionally approved, and in no case more
>than three months from the date of the meeting;
>
>2.   The triennial, annual, and other periodic, progress
>reports of the Secretary-General and ICOM Secretariat to
>meetings of the General Assembly, Executive Council or
>Advisory Committee are to be published on the ICOM web site
>within one month of the date of the meeting;
>
>3.   The annual audited accounts and financial reports, and
>the approved annual budgets of ICOM, are to be published on
>the ICOM web site within one month of the date of the
>Executive Council meeting at which these are first received;
>
>4.  Summary reports of the principal matters considered and
>decisions made by  meetings (other than Closed Sessions) of
>the Executive Council, Advisory Committee, and other
>official or ad hoc committees or working groups of these,
>are to be published in ICOM News as soon as practicable
>after the meetings concerned.
>
>5. Summaries of the Secretariat periodic reports as under
>(2) above and  abbreviated versions of the audited annual
>accounts and financial statements as under (3) above are to
>be published in ICOM News as soon as practicable after the
>meetings to which these are submitted.
>
>
>----------------------------------
>
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