I am pleased to receive the results of the presidential election (see below) and I offer my congratulations to Josée Kirps, national archivist of the Grand Duché of Luxembourg and President of the Association Internationale des Archivistes Francophones as ICA’s President-elect.
This election has been quite unique in the history of the ICA; to my knowledge we have never seen a process run with three archivists with such different backgrounds and ambitions for the organisation – but all of whom deeply wanting to serve the ICA and its members.
It is also historic in that the ICA full membership elected, a woman at the helm of the association for the first time in an open election. It is a positive indication that ICA continues to evolve to be a more representative and inclusive organisation: noting here the strong candidacy of another woman from our ranks – our colleague Rita Tjien Fooh, national archivist of Suriname and a formidable figure within the ICA community.
I am also very grateful for the candidacy of Dr Abdulla Alraisi, who for many years as national archivist of the UAE has dedicated his considerable talents and resources to the ICA and will be setting new standards as host of the ICA Congress in Abu Dhabi in October 2023.
I would like to sincerely thank the three candidates and I hope their different but complementary expertise and style that have been showcased during this election can continue to work together for the good of the ICA and its future. I will plan, as soon as possible, to meet with each of them and I will gladly be supporting the smooth transition with Josée as President-elect in the coming weeks.
This election completes a refresh of the ICA leadership. Last fall Normand Charbonneau was succeeded, unopposed, by Meg Phillips as VP Programme and Gustavo Castañer is now, also unopposed, VP elect Finance, replacing Henri Zuber. Coincidentally, this transition happens as ICA greets a new Executive Director, Carlos Serrano Vasquez. A new team, a fresh outlook – a very exciting moment for ICA!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Normand Charbonneau and our hard-working ICA secretariat team who ran and delivered the electoral processes in a period of substantial change and transition within the organisation. Three elections were run simultaneously: for VP Finance, for President and to elect our first ever Executive Board member at large representing the category D membership. These elections also needed to comply with recent changes to our Constitution and new policies made by the Executive Board last spring regarding the notion of a member in good standing. Normand and the secretariat team managed through these new arrangements with good judgment and fairness to make sure we had an open and democratic elections; I have no doubt that the lessons learned from this new experience will improve the next electoral cycle in three years.
My congratulations to all the candidates, and my very best wishes to the new team of Elected Officers as they now set the course for ICA’s next chapter.
David Fricker
President
International Council on Archives
Please click here to read the report with the results of the voting process.