ICA Governance Meetings 2021

The International Council on Archives (ICA) held its governance meetings which included that of the Programme Commission between 12 October to 20 October. These meetings held particular importance as the governance committees continued to approve and implement reforms in line with ICA’s strategic plan Empowering Archives and the Profession 2021-2024, approved by the General Assembly in 2020. 

Programme Commission (PCOM) 

The Programme Commission drives the ICA's technical and professional programme, including the workplans of ICA’s Expert Groups (such as the development of tools and standards, management of projects, etc.) and the programme for the ICA Conferences and Congresses. It is chaired by the ICA Vice President Programmes and consists of 8 Executive Members. 

During this second meeting of the year, the PCOM members were informed about the results of the Call for nominations for PCOM Elections 2021, which was the first step towards moving away from executive appointments to PCOM and toward elections among self-nominated candidates. The elections held this year are aiming at establishing the new PCOM model defined as a result of the conversations on the PCOM Membership Reforms between 2019 and 2022. 

New PCOM Model 

• 7 elected at-large members 
• 3 elected strategic programme liaisons 
• 1 New Professional representative 

PCOM also focused on the activities of ICA-PCOM professional programmes developed in 2021. Regarding the Africa Programme, Prof. Basma Makhlouf-Shabou, Francophone Programme Coordinator, presented a plan regarding the upcoming projects for developing trainers’ competencies and the efforts to establish a Register of Regional Experts. For the Anglophone Programme, PCOM was presented with plans for a collaboration between the ICA Secretariat with Dr. Cleophas Ambira and Prof. Justus Wamukoya to sponsor 165 participants to allow them to attend ICA’s online course Introduction to Records Management. The sponsored participants are affiliated to different archival and records management institutions in more than 5 countries.  

Nicola Laurent, New Professionals Programme Coordinator, commented on the 2020/2021 NP cohort which currently has 6 active new professionals, and on progress with the evaluation for selecting the 2021/2022 cohort. Cécile Fabris, Coordinator of the Mentoring Programme, presented the Call for Mentors for 2021, which was scheduled to close at the end of October.  

In addition, Margaret Crockett, ICA Training Officer, presented the conference workshop planning, a parallel activity to the ICA Virtual Conference 2021. The Training Officer has also developed in collaboration with Nancy Mc Govern ICA’s fourth online course Managing Digital Archives course, which was due to be launched on 4 November, on World Digital Preservation Day. In closing, a Training Programme Advisory Board will be established in 2022 to assist the Training Officer and provide strategic advice to PCOM on the priorities for this programme.  

For 2022, PCOM has planned the following activities: 

• Call for papers Roma 2022 (November 2021 – March 2022) 
• Call for PCOM Projects 2022 (January – March 2022)  
• Call for Applications New Professionals Programme 2022 (first semester 2022) 
• Call for Mentors (second semester 2022) 

This session was also the last meeting chaired by Normand Charbonneau as Vice President Programmes, who took this opportunity to offer the attendees a summary of his tenure since 2016.  

PCOM is planning an interim virtual meeting in March (dates to be determined) and the regular spring meeting in conjunction with other ICA governance meetings on 16 and 17 May 2022. 

Executive Board (EB) 

The Executive Board is responsible for implementing the decisions of the General Assembly and overseeing the operations of the association between AGMs. The Board is comprised of up to 32 members, including the Elected Officers along with the Presidents of the ICA forums, branches and sections. 

As the Executive Board considered the constitutional reforms between 2019-2020, there had initially been recommendations to reduce the size of the Board to a maximum of 12 representatives. However the Board felt that in order to maintain representation and diversity of voices, it should not be reduced. In the end, it was decided that it would be good to examine EB operations to create a more efficient and effective governing body. A Working Group was established after the Adelaide 2019 EB meeting and the group delivered its final report at the meeting that took place in October 2021.  

The main recommendation that the membership should be aware of concerns the creation of two subcommittees: Finance and Membership, and Communication and Partnerships. The subcommittees are consultative bodies, they cannot make any binding decisions such decisions being the preserve of the Executive Board for subsequent validation by the General Assembly. The terms of reference and membership of each of the subcommittees still remain to be finalised but that will happen during the first quarter of 2022.  

Also discussed during the meeting in October was the succession planning for the Elected Officer positions, namely President, Vice President (Programmes) and Vice President (Finance). There had been a call earlier in the year for Vice President (Programmes) with one candidate presenting their nomination, Ms Meg Phillips, and her nomination by acclamation as Vice President (Programmes) was accepted by a majority of the EB to be taken forward for final confirmation by the General Assembly. A call for the Vice President (Finance) position received no nominations. As a result, a further call will be initiated in the new year and, finally, the nomination and process for President was discussed, with more detailed information provided below in the report on the General Assembly proceedings. 

The next Executive Board meeting is slated for 23 and 24 May 2022. The focus of this meeting will be the implementation of the recommendations from the EB Working Group, along with a plan for enforcing the constitutional reforms. 

General Assembly 

This year the General Assembly took place on 20 October 2021 and was divided into two sessions: Ordinary and Extraordinary.  

At the beginning of the Ordinary General Assembly, the ICA remembered its deceased members: Mrs Veno Kauaria, Dr. Charles Kecskemeti, Mr Antoine Lumenganeso Kiobe, Dr. Michael Moss, Mr Ivan Murambiwa and Dr. Frank Upward. 

During the meeting, a significant point that was addressed was the succession planning for the Elected Officer positions, namely President, Vice-President (Programmes) and Vice President (Finance). It was announced that Mr Normand Charbonneau was stepping down as Vice-President (Programmes). The members then elected Ms Meg Phillips as his designated successor. A call for nominations had been issued for Vice President (Finance) closing 15 October, but no nominations were received. Mr Henri Zuber, current Vice President (Finance) asked the membership for interested candidates to come forward, recalling that the position required a good knowledge of French accounting rules. Finally, Mr David Fricker announced that while he is retiring from his position as Director-General National Archives of Australia in January 2022, in the interests of continuity he would complete his full term as President ICA, stepping down from this post at the Rome Conference in 2022. A call for candidates will be launched in June.  

The membership validated the 2020 audited accounts and received updates from all the Elected Officers on activities carried out over the course of 2021. In closing, updates were given about the upcoming ICA conferences and congresses: ICA Virtual Conference (October 2021), Rome Conference 2022 (September 2022), Abu Dhabi Congress (October 2023) and Barcelona Congress (October 2025) 

Once the regular business of the Ordinary General Assembly was completed, the Extraordinary General Assembly was started. According to the 2012 Constitution an Extraordinary General Assembly can only be called to amend the constitution, dissolve ICA, distribute its assets, or to merge ICA with another body see Section 3 (a) for reference.  

At this EGA the membership was presented with constitutional reforms that had been circulated on 20 August, with a comment period open until 10 September 2021. During the meeting comments received were addressed and reforms were put to vote for approval. The constitutional reforms were approved with 99% of the voting members present in favour.  

Some of the reforms include: 

• Voting rights for category D members 
• The change from annual to biennial conferences 
• The creation of the Forum of Professional Associations 
• Updating the constitution and transferring decisions regarding Internal Regulations from the General Assembly to the Executive Board 

To see all the constitutional reforms, please see: https://www.ica.org/en/ica-general-assembly-2021-0 

The Elected Officers, along with the Executive Board, will be working on an implementation plan to ensure that all the approved changes are implemented over the course of 2022-2023. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to the Secretariat at ica@ica.org 

Governance Committee Representatives for 2022 

Programme Commission* 

*Please note that PCOM is in a period of transition and this does not constitute the final composition of the commission. There will be a call for nominations that will be sent out in the 2nd Quarter of 2022 to build out PCOM in line with the strategic vision described above.

Executive Board 

*Member at Large D position is a new member of the EB elected from the Category D members. The call for nominations will take place in early June 2022.