Dear Per, I missed Gary's post because I've been simply deleting the mails with the 'definition' subject line, and had not realised it had moved on. I think it telling that ICOM-L has so many posts on this one topic, and so few on any other. I have interspersed my comments (and deleted passages where I have nothing to say) > >1) The ICOM-L. I agree: marketing ICOM-L to members is important; it is also an important benefit of membership, and as such should be marketed to non- members, too. > > >D: ICOM and it's organs have to adapt to this new situation. >The only economically viable way to give ALL ICOM members an opportunity >to react to current issues is through ICOM News. ICOM News must set off >space for ICOM actualities (but watch out: we must not turn ICOM News into >a periodical for the ICOM "insiders", making it uninteresting for the >majority of ICOM members). All members cannot possibly have an opportunity to react through ICOM news - Imagine how much newsprint would be taken up by the discussions we have had here on the one topic! ICOM News is not a discussion forum. However, ICOM News does need to interact more with ICOM-L: where a topic of significance (i.e. one that generates a number of varied responses), it should be reported in the News. The internet seems to me to offer far more opportunities for all than print media or meetings. >Current issues must presented in ICOM news right from the outset and >handled parallelly in different open fora. Otherwise we will be hung up in >an endless process. What fora are there? Alongside ICOM-L there are the meetings (arguably open to even fewer), which can be more structured than ICOM-L. How could ICOM-L be made (upon occasion) less like the coffee break, and more like the business meeting? Not that I have anything against coffee breaks - they are great opportunities to discuss what is going on, make contacts, and so on. But their ability to be more than a prelude to a transparent, vibrant democratic decision-making process is somewhat limited. >But remember the Advisory! We should still trust the Advisory's ability to >sum up the discussions before making it's recommendation to the Executive. >In the heath of ICOM-L discussions, it is easy to forget the role of the >Advisory, isn't it? It is indeed easy - I'm not sure what it is! Best wishes, Pat -- Pat Reynolds [log in to unmask] "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time" (T. Pratchett) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Change ICOM-L subscription options, unsubscribe, and search the archives at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/icom-l.html