January 2003

To members of the Advisory Committee

Dear Colleague,

You will find enclosed the procedure to be followed in proposing candidates for elections to the 2004-2007 Executive Council at the 2004 General Conference. You may remember that during our past General Assembly in Barcelona, in 2001, new modifications of the ICOM Statutes have been adopted which change the number of members of the 2004-2007 Executive Council. A copy of the new adopted Statutes is included with this procedure for your information.

You will be aware that another decision of the General Assembly was to create a pilot Nominations Committee to assist the Advisory Committee in its work to establish the list of candidates proposed to the General Assembly. They have already started their work in developing a public information campaign to educate the membership about this most important process.

1. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS

1.1. Nominations to the Executive Council

Any individual member or the designated representative of an institutional member of ICOM in good standing, including past officers and past Executive Council ordinary members, may be proposed by a National or International Committee or an Affiliated Organisation. Proposals should be either for one of the four (4) officer positions (President, 2 Vice-Presidents, Treasurer) or for one of the eleven (11) ordinary Executive Council member positions . There are however restrictions on the eligibility for immediate re-election (without interruption of at least three years) of outgoing Executive Council members.

1.2. Eligibility of outgoing members of the Executive Council for re-election (article 27 of the Statutes)

The ICOM Statutes place certain limits on the number of terms that a person can serve on the Executive Council. They provide that persons who have served two terms as Ordinary Member may subsequently seek for re-election as Officer, but not the reverse, i.e. persons who have served two terms as an Officer may not seek re-election as an Ordinary Member. Further, they provide that service for one or two terms as Chairperson of the Advisory Committee does not prevent that person from seeking election to the Executive Council.

The application of these provisions to the current membership of the Executive Council indicates the following results:

Should you wish to propose the re-election of a current member of the Executive Council or the nomination of any other candidate, please follow the procedure indicated at paragraph 2.

2. NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES

You may nominate persons from countries and National Committees other than your own , but you must first ascertain that the person concerned is

1. eligible for election to that position
2. an individual member or the designated representative of an institutional member of ICOM in good standing,
3. willing and able to serve as a member of the Council (including accepting responsibility for all travel and other costs related to this work)
4. if the nominee is the Chairperson of the Committee, his/her nomination must be signed by persons other than himself/herself

Evidence of the requirement in the paragraph (c) should be obtained from the person concerned in writing, together with a brief biographical note and both should be attached to the nomination which should be signed by you.

3. NOMINATION FOR OFFICER AND ORDINARY MEMBER POSITIONS

It is no longer possible to nominate a candidate simultaneously for both Officer and Ordinary Member positions. You must choose one position for each of your candidates.

4. SELECTION OF THE LIST OF CANDIDATES

Finally, may I remind you that, under Article 21, paragraph 1(c), in accordance with Article 27, responsibility for drawing the list of candidates, that will be voted on at the General Assembly to be held in Seoul (Korea), in 2004, rests with the Advisory Committee. If the final list of nominees compiled exceeds 30 (thirty) names, the Advisory Committee will be required to select by vote among the list proposed. The selection of not more than 30 (thirty) candidates, to be sent forward for election in 2004 (as required by Article 27, paragraph 5.) will be held on June 4, 2003, during the 64th Session of the Advisory Committee.

Deadline: you are therefore requested to send nominations to the ICOM Secretariat before 15 April 2003.
Nominations will not be accepted after this date.

It is essential that you attend the 64^th Session of the Advisory Committee to be held from June 2 to 4, 2003 in Paris (France) or, in the event that you are unable to do so, that you give a written proxy to another ICOM member attending the meeting (using the form included with the invitation to the Advisory Committee session), so that your Committee/Organisation can participate in ICOM's important electoral process.
Members may hold only one proxy for this vote.

If you have any further queries or concerns regarding the above, I will be happy to clarify these for you.

Yours sincerely,

Manus Brinkman
Secretary General

Contact:
Joëlle Thibet, Administrative Officer
ICOM Secretariat, Maison de l'UNESCO,
1, rue Miollis, 75732 Paris Cedex 15, France.
Tel. (+33) (0)1 4734 0500 - Fax (+33) (0)1 4306 7862
Email secretariat@icom.museum