ICOM-EUROPE

Minutes
of the Third Board Meeting
Term 2003 - 2005

Held on 30th September 2004, 7.30 p.m. – 11.00 p.m.

At the IBIS Seoul
893-1 Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu
Seoul 135-840, South Korea

Present

Members:
Hans-Martin Hinz, ICOM-Europe (Chair)
Ebba Brännback, Finland
Agrita Ozola, Latvia
Michel von Praet, France

Apologies:
Nick Merriman, UK
Ralf Ceplak Mencin, Slovenia
Theresa Vella, Malta

In Attendance:
Jari Harso, ICOM-Finland
Janis Garjans, ICOM-Latvia

Executive Secretaries:
Katja Roßocha, ICOM-Europe
Johanna Westphal, ICOM-Europe

The letter of invitation to the meeting of the board, including the agenda and papers, was mailed out on 25th of August 2004.

The President of ICOM-Europe, Hans-Martin Hinz, welcomed the members of the board to the meeting in Seoul and declared that a majority of the members of the board were present.

Agenda Item No 1: General Meeting of ICOM-Europe on 6th of October 2004 in Seoul
Hans-Martin Hinz explained that the members of ICOM-Europe had received an invitation to attend the Annual Conference 2004 through a letter from the Chairman, dated August 2004, which included the relevant documents.

The Agenda for the Annual Meeting 2004 comprised:

a) ICOM-Europe Activity Report 2004

The Chairman highlighted the most important activities of the Regional Organisation covered in the written report (see documents).

b) Rules of ICOM-Europe: Amendments

The board of ICOM-Europe recommends two changes in the Rules:

Rules of ICOM-Europe, 4. Membership
In order to accept all National Committees of the region as members of that respective Regional Organisation the following paragraph should be omitted:
“All applications shall be made by the National Committee in writing to the Secretary-General of ICOM who shall, after consulting the existing members of ICOM-EUROPE, submit the application to the Executive Council of ICOM for determination.“

Explanation: The reconstituted board of ICOM-Europe and the Secretary-General decided in early 2003 to accept all National Committees of our continent automatically as members. The application system – as written in the rules – seemed too bureaucratic and time-consuming. The new membership policy is a great success since those National Committees not officially members until 2002, are now very much engaged in the work of ICOM-Europe.

Rules of ICOM-Europe, 6. Management of the Regional Organisation
The following paragraph should be amended as follows:
„The Chairperson and the elected members of the board shall be individual Members, or designated representatives of Institutional Members of ICOM, and be chairman (NEW: „or former chairperson“) of the board of any one of the National Committees forming the Regional Organisation ICOM-EUROPE (NEW: „or an active representative of any other body of ICOM provided they also have the support of the respective National Committee“).

Explanation: Whether an elected board works successfully or not, does not, in general, depend on the status of the member. More important is the engagement of the person. Other regional organisations, such as ASPAC and LAC, are also represented by colleagues who are not, or are no longer, chairpersons of national committees. And they do a good job. Bad experiences of former boards of ICOM-Europe in the past should not limit the activities of experienced members of ICOM who are in close contact with their organisational bodies of ICOM.

Therefore the third paragraph of section 6 should be omitted:
“Any person who is a chairman in good standing of a National Committee that is a member of ICOM-Europe may stand for election to the Board of ICOM-Europe.”

c) Confirmation of the current board of ICOM-Europe for the period 2005-2007

Since the current board was not elected during a General Conference of ICOM, but at the end of 2002, in order to come into the rhythm of board-elections during General Conferences of ICOM, the board recommends the confirmation of the recently-elected board by the Annual Conference of ICOM-Europe for a new three-year-term, although the full three-year programme-period ends in late 2005 (see papers). There was a discussion among the board members as to whether it might not be better to have a re-election instead of confirmation in this exceptional situation, because a re-election would follow a more democratic path than simply confirmation. (In the end, the Annual Conference of ICOM-Europe wished to have all existing members of the current board continue their work and confirmed the board members in an official election on Wednesday, 6th October 2004 (see the minutes of the Annual Conference 2004)).

Agenda, No 2: Co-operation programmess of ICOM-Europe

In addition to the ICOM-Europe Activity Report 2004, the Chairman talked about the most recent developments, such as the international workshops in which the Regional Organisation is involved : the workshop in Aswan with ICOM-Arab, February 2005; the workshop “Shifting borders – changing identities” in Eastern Europe in the autumn of 2005; the International Baltic Summer-School of Museology in summer 2004 and future years; co-operation with ICOM-ASPAC in Vietnam, in winter 2005/2006; participation in the Croatian project “Best of Heritage” in Dubrovnik; co-operation between ICOM-Europe and ICOM-Australia (Exchange Programme for museum professionals) and co-operation with NEMO.

Agenda, No 3: Any other business

The board discussed no further topics during its meeting.

Berlin, 3rd November 2004

Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz
Chair

Katja Roßocha, M.A.
Executive Secretary

Johanna Westphal, M.A.
Executive Secretary