Sonderband 2. International Council on Archives. Dritte Europäische Archivkonferenz, Wien 11. bis 15. Mai 1993. Tagungsprotokolle (1996)

1. Session / Séance. Experiences gained, current Situation, future Prospects / Expériences acquises, Situation actuelle, Perspectives futures - Hall, Kenneth: Perspectives opened up by the Maastricht Symposium / Perspectives ouvertes par le Symposium de Maastricht (english 41 - français 48)

1. Session/Séance: Hall, Maastricht Symposium

To praise the success of the Maastricht Symposium is not to denigrate other forms of international meetings. Those other forums meet other specific and continuing needs, but it can be argued that the Maastricht experiment is an interesting concept to explore for the future. How then might one adapt this formula to serve other purposes?

It would be unwise and unnecessary to build into the ICA programme a Maastricht-style conference on a regular basis in addition to the quadrennial Congresses and the regular meetings of CITRA. This might have the effect of diminishing attendance at all such conferences, since potential participants could not afford either the cost or the time involved in attending them all. However, additional but occasional conferences adapted from the Maastricht model could fulfil a useful role not only in Europe, but also elsewhere. The ICA constitution has recently been revised. Amongst other things, the intention was to streamline the decision-making process and to monitor more closely the various projects and programmes to ensure greater efficiency, better co-ordination and improved cost-effectiveness. The early signs are encouraging. One remarkable feature, however, of the ICA, when compared with other similar organisations, is the low level of individual membership. For some reason in several member states individual members of the profession are not sufficiently convinced of the benefits of the international dimension to join the organisation dedicated, inter alia, to fostering international co-operation and exchange of professional knowledge and thinking. There appears to be a false perception amongst some that one can only benefit from individual ICA membership, and thus from the international dimension, if one is a senior member of the profession.

Maastricht demonstrated to those who attended their ability to participate in international debate whatever their position within the profession. Few can have returned from the Symposium with the belief that they had been given definitive statements about the matters being discussed. Most participants, however, left with new ideas, having been afforded an opportunity to discuss common problems with colleagues whose perspective was often different from their own, but nonetheless valid and worthy of consideration. They were better equipped to engage inconstructive debate at the national level as a result of having been exposed to the views of those from other countries. One possible use of the Maastricht model might be to encourage national professional archival associations to expand their annual conference on occasion by making it a regional conference. (I use the term regional in a general sense as encompassing a geographical area and not in terms of the ICA regional branch structure.) Obviously it would only be appropriate to do so when the theme was of regional interest and one which would benefit from international input. In such cases the organisation of the conference would be the responsibility of the host association, but the programme planning would be assisted by advisers or consultants drawn from other associations within the region and from the ICA.

It would be appropriate to limit attendance to 400 or less, encouraging participation from other countries, and to limit the conference to two or three working languages. In this way, costs could be contained and spontaneous debate in small groups

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