I have a perspective on attracting younger people to organisations which you may find heretical, but I challenge you to consider its truth. Young people tend to have other things on their minds than professional associations. They may have young families and find that school or sport activities occupy their attention. They may love their jobs in museums, but might also love music and dancing, and devote any extra energy to those ends. They may feel relatively powerless in their jobs and feel that ICOM participation is, as one younger heritage person said to me lately, 'too high up the food chain for me'. I confess that in my twenties and thirties, I felt ICOM was not my scene becasue that aspect of the museum world wasn't within my financial reach. But people change. They get older, more confident, better resourced. They begin to be interested in organisations like ICOM. To put it bluntly, maybe there is an age segment to whom ICOM appeals. We should not dismiss the activity of we middle-aged and older members. In some ways, I consider the desperate search for young people to particpate in organisations (it's also an issue in museum visiting) is a kind of ageism. Young is beautiful, young is best, if we don't attract the young we are not a vibrant organisation. In this International Year of Older Persons (older persons are always 20 years older than oneself), let us not devalue the activity of people over 40, or 50, or 60, or however you define 'not young'. Of course, for myself, I can sign off as always young! Dr Linda Young Research Fellow History, Research School of Social Sciences Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Tel: 02-6249 4008 Fax: 02-6249 3969 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html