As the debate begins on the work of ICOM's Reform Task Force, Advisory Committee members have also received from the Secretary-General notice that nominations for the elections of Officers and Executive Council for the period 2001 to 2004 close at the end of next month. Under ICOM's very long drawn-out procedures for constitutional reform it is already far too late to make any significant changes in the make-up of the Executive Council or the way it is elected, before the 2004 General Conference. Even more alarming for those who feel that changes should at least be considered, the June 2000 Advisory Committee is the last practicable date to put forward agenda items for the Barcelona Conference in July 2001, which would in turn come into effect with the elections to be held during the 2004 General Conference. If nothing is agreed to go forward to Barcelona from this year's Advisory Committee in June 2000, no change will be possible for seven years, i.e. in the Executive Council elections to be held during the 2007 General Conference! Perhaps I can start a discussion on this topic? It seems to me that there are at least two areas of serious concern: (1). Is the size of the Executive Council right for today's circumstances? (2). Does the present voting system produce a balanced and equitable result? (1) SIZE OF EXECUTIVE COUNCIL The present Executive Council consists of four Officers (President, two Vice-Presidents, Treasurer), and five other elected Executive Council members. In addition the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee, though not elected to the EC as such, is an additional member with full voting rights. This ten person membership was adopted almost 30 years ago, at a time when ICOM had less than 800 Voting Members - compared with around 15,000 today. In fact, this was a big reduction on previous Executive Councils which had previously had at least 16 members. (To get down to the present number three ordinary EC member posts were eliminated together with two (of four) Vice-President posts, and the (elected) Secretary-General post - the salaried Director-General post being re-titled Secretary-General). QUESTION: If ICOM needed an Executive of ten for 800 members, around 50 national committees and less than 20 international committees when the present structure was adopted, isn't a significantly larger membership now needed to allow better representation of its current 15,000 members, 109 national committees and more than 46 international committees, regional and affiliated organisations? (2) VOTING SYSTEM Currently, the nine elected places on the Executive Council are voted on in two universal lists: one for the four officers, and a second for the five "ordinary" members. The Chairperson of the Advisory Committee is elected by the Advisory. However, for many years there has been concern in some parts of ICOM at least that the result can be capricious and appear unfair, particularly in terms of regional distribution. The current 10 members of the Executive Council are drawn from the following regions: 4 - Western Europe (France (2), Netherlands & Switzerland) 4 - Latin America and Caribbean (Argentina, Barbados, Equador & Mexico) 1 - Australasia & Pacific (Australia) 1 - Sub-Saharan Africa (Congo) This leaves important areas of the world not represented: 0 - Northern, Central, Eastern or Southern Europe 0 - North America 0 - Middle East & North Africa 0 - Rest of Asia QUESTION: In contrast with the present ICOM system, it seems that many major museums associations (e.g. France, United States, United Kingdom) have balanced the universally elected "member-at-large" executive (or equivalent) members with more closely targeted "representative" members (e.g. specialist or regional representatives or ballots). Should ICOM introduce (from 2004) some form of structured membership or voting for at least part of the Executive Council elections? ---------------------- My personal view is that in many ways the first of these issues, i.e. an enlargement of the total membership of the ICOM Executive Council, will be essential before any move towards regional (or other) representative voting for at least part of the Executive would be practicable. Patrick Boylan Chairperson, ICTOP - Training of Personnel Committee - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html