lo que sea mejor para todos y por supuesto para la organización.... -----Mensaje original----- De: International Council of Museums Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]En nombre de Manus Enviado el: Jueves, 14 Julio, 2005 12:01 a.m. Para: [log in to unmask] Asunto: Membership cards discussion Dear Gary, To reward larger institutions with more membership cards is a very good idea, especially now that an experiment in Germany has proven to be a success, especially where we see more institutions AND more individuals. I would like to praise the German national committee for having raised the issue and put a lot of energy in making the experiment a success. Whether this first experiment is representative for other countries remains to be seen. ICOM Germany has a super-active national committee and it is also a country with a relatively weak museums association. It would be necessary to extend the experiment to a few other, very different countries, to obtain a reliable result. However I find it not useful to extend the experiment, because the idea of more membership cards is in itself already a good thing. On the basis of the debate is the question what kind of organisation ICOM wants to be. I find it still a major shortcoming that ICOM has so few institutional members as compared with individuals. The International Council Of Museums is a Council of Museums, which is what its founders had in mind when establishing the organisation. ICOM has grown to become an important organisation, but during its spectacular increase in membership it has sometimes forgotten about its original fundamentals. I realise it is an old debate that is revived every once in a while, but maybe it is time again. I believe that the organisation will become much stronger if more institutions become member. Not only pay institutions more, but they can wield much more power. Individuals, however valuable they are for their specific qualities, are scattered and are rarely able to push an issue to the highest political level in a country. A sizable group of institutions can do such a thing. ICOM is now a large organisation of individuals, with international committees who organise lectures, meetings, run courses and many other things that are practical and useful for individual professionals. The national committees however do not always wield much or enough influence in their respective countries. I am convinced that they would be more powerful if they would have strong institutional backing. There is another reason why institutions should become more involved in ICOM. They will be able to raise more political issues that are museum-institution related within ICOM itself, which would give ICOM more global influence. Institutions are often reluctant to have their staff participate in ICOM activities and I feel that this would change considerably if the institutions themselves have a stake in the organisation. Institutional membership fees should not be lowered as was suggested earlier on in the debate. They should remain an important source of income for ICOM. And I am fully convinced that institutions are willing to pay up, provided they get something in return. More membership-cards for larger institutions is a good start. ICOM cards are especially popular, because they give free access to museums. So it is easy for ICOM to donate these cards, because the museums pay themselves for the benefits by giving free entrance to card holders. It doesn¹t cost ICOM very much and delivers a lot of good will. So that is the easy thing. But to enlist more institutions as members will in the end prove to be a bigger challenge, because I am convinced that institutions want something in return for their high membership-fees, apart from more cards, and that is power. How ICOM will deal with such a demand remains to be seen in the future. Manus Brinkman - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html