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Welcome to Portal of the South and West Asian Regional Branch of International Council on Archives (SWARBICA) - Trail Version -

1. Since the Chairman Dr. K. M. Karim was not present at the meeting. the Vice-Chairman Mr. B.D. Dangol was unanimously requested to chair the meeting. On taking the chair, Mr. Dangol remarked that the present SWARBICA Executive Board was meeting for the first time and extended his apologies for any inconvenience caused due to the unforeseen circum­stances, which had made certain alterations necessary in the arranged programme for the Board Meeting [please see note proceeding the minutes).

He also remarked that this meeting was most important for SWAR­BICA as well as to Nepal, for although India and Sri Lanka had a well de­veloped Archival system, Nepal had yet to establish one, and hence it sought the corporation from the members of the region, for assistance it required, for building an Archival system for his country.

With these opening remarks the Board proceeded to consider the other items of the agenda.

Before proceeding to item 2, the Board discussed the composition of the membership at an Executive Board meeting. As was seen from the previous Board Meetings, although non-members of the Board had at­tended its meetings as Observers, the present Board thought it fit, that at future meetings, they be consisted only of Board members and if need be by an observer from the National Archives of the host country. It was also decided to seek a clarification from the ICA Secretariat, as to whether a National Member, on his being unable to attend a Meeting could nominate a member from among his staff, to be present at an Executive Board Meeting, and have voting rights on his behalf.

2. The Chairman then called upon the Secretary-General to present the draft Agenda. The draft agenda having been read, the Secretary-General read out the following additions which had been subsequently brought to his notice:

At item 4 to read the report submitted by Iran

At item 8 to add Turkey

At item 9 to discuss the means to faciliate the establishment of an Archives Service in Nepal

At item 12 to establish in the region, an Information and Documenta­tion Centre for Archives, and

At item 14 the nomination of an Archivist from the region to the Bonn Conference in 1984.

Having considered these items the meeting agreed on the amended agenda.

3. Thereupon, the Chairman requested the Secretary-General to present his report for the year 1982-1983. The Secretary-General having distributed the Report read its contents. Commenting on the report, Dr. Perti ob­ served that at para 8 it may also be mentioned that in Nov. 1982 he had a discussion with Mr. Abdul Nabi Noor, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Pakistan, while he was in New Delhi, the Member­ ship of Pakistan. Subject to this addition the report was approved.

4. On item 4, the Treasurer distributed his report for the year 1982-1983 and read its contents. Re para 1, the Secretary-General pointed out that the Executive Board took effect from 1st April 1981 and not from May-June of that year. The amendment was accepted. The Treasurer also ex­plained that the reference to the US$ 300/ = mentioned in para 10 and the US$ 500/ = mentioned in para 9 was only for information and was not reflected in the Audited Accounts appended to the report.

After a lengthy discussion on the position of membership payment of individual countries the following action was decided on: Afghanistan: Treasurer to pursue the matter

Bangladesh: Treasurer to request a statement of accounts re the publish­ing of the journal. It was noted that at the request of Bangla­desh it had been allowed, to utilize the 1981 and 1982 dues for printing the journal, in addition to USS 1000/ = given earlier for the same purpose. The Treasurer was requested •to seek payment for the year 1983.

Iran: Presented a paper giving the reason as to why their payments had been delayed, and pledged its full support for future activities of SWARBICA. They stated that all dues would be paid before mid 1984.

Pakistan: The Secretary-General was asked to pursue this subject, and was asked to request Pakistan to make its payment of mem­bership dues, as from the initial date of joining SWARBICA in 1976.     

Sri Lanka said that they had already paid the 1983 dues and India and Nepal stated that their payments for the current year would be made shortly.

These points having been discussed and the accounts examined, the Board accepted the Report, subject to the amendments to para 1 stated above.

For the information of the Board the Treasurer also stated that on the 21st of June 1983, he had paid the following sums of money in Indian rupees for the air-tickets for Dr. K. M. Karim and Mr. A. Z. Sheikh to at­tend the present Executive Board Meeting.

Bangladesh:  Indian rupees 2436/ =

Pakistan:        Indian rupees 4587/ =

5. Re the draft Biennial budget, for 1983/84 the Treasurer said that he was unable to propose an estimate of expenditure, due to the uncertainty Of the activities of the Branch. However, he had expected a revenue of Rs. 71,100/—made up as follows:

National Members        Subscriptions 1983           21,000.00

Arrears                             36,000.00

            57,000.00

Institutional Members Subscriptions 1983              8,500.00

                                         Arrears                                3,500.00

Individual Members      Subscriptions 1983                900.00

                                         Arrears                              1,200.00

                                         Total                                    7.100.00

On discussing the items of expenditure the following was noted:

                    Executive Board Meeting -Indian Rs. 40,000/ =

                    Archives Journal            - Iran to notify any assistance required

        Secretariat Expenses   - Nil

        Treasurer's Expenses   - Rs. 3000/ =

At the conclusion of this item, Secretary-General explained the cir­cumstances on how the ICA had come to grant an assistance of US $3000/ as, which had been an extra-ordinary measure taken by the ICA, in order to ensure the holding of this vital session.

The Board members, who were most appreciative of the action taken by the ICA, unanimously agreed to convey to ICA the sincere thanks of the Board for the very great interest shown by it for the continued activity of SWARBICA.

The Board also noted with much regret the absence of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan at the meeting, as their presence would have been of invaluable help for its proceedings, and for a more complete re­presentation of the whole region.

6. Since Dr. Karim was not present at the meeting, there was no report on the printing of the journal No. 3—regarding the printing of the next issue of the journal Vol. 4, the Board agreed on the principle that the ideal would be to rotate among the countries the printing of every subsequent issue of the journal.

Having discussed in extenso the working of this principle, Iran of­fered to print and publish Vol. 4, and stated that if any financial assistance was required by them for that purpose; it would inform the Secretary-General and the Treasurer.

The Board also agreed to the following:

1) The Secretary-General circularizes a letter calling for articles from the member countries.

2) Articles to be sent to Iran and a copy of it to the Secretary-General by Nov. 15, 1983.

3) Articles to be preferably on Archives and source materials for the study of history.

4) The journal to contain around 100 pages and 3-500 copies to be printed.

5) The journal to be published by Feb. 1984.

It was also agreed that each member country would be given   free around 15 copies of the journal.

7. The Board agreed that request for an increase in the sub-vention for printing the journal, would not arise now, as Iran had undertaken to bear the full cost or a major part of it.

8. Having considered the countries still to join SWARBICA, the follow­ing course of action was decided.

Bhutan and Burma: Dr. Perti to contact the embassies in India and report his findings to the Secretary-General, so that official correspondence could be addressed to them, with reference to the discussions had by him.

Maldives, since action has already been taken, by Sri Lanka in this regard Secretary-General to pursue the subject.

Turkey, Iran to make initial exploration and to report the results to the Secretary-General for commencing official correspondence.

9. After a very lengthy discussion, on the subject of, more active participa­tion by SWABICA in the furtherance of archival activity in the region, it was decided to organize a seminar in Nepal, at a suitable date. The theme, date and period of the seminar was to be worked out at a subsequent date/meeting.

10. The Chairman stated that the fixing of a venue and date for the General Conference was most important, as the General Conference scheduled to be held in early 1981 had not been held so far.

Thereupon Iran offered to host the General Conference. They said in explanation that the latter half of April 1984, would be more suitable as there was a period of long-holidays in the first half of April.

The Board   having accepted the   offer and agreed  on the period   in general proceeded to discuss the agenda and agreed on the following:

Day 1 S/l    inauguration 

1) Welcome speech by the Host

2) Minister Inauguration—speech

3) President ICA

4) Unesco

5) Keynote address:

6) Vote of thanks: S-G-Refreshments

S/II    Professional Session

Record Appraisal for Archival Needs

Practices and problems in the appraisal of traditional re­cords in Government offices, for transfer and disposal-discussion.

Day 2 S/l Practices and problems in the appraisal of non-tradi­tional record material computer sheets, films etc, for transfer and disposal-Discussion.

Day 2 S/II   Paper II on the same theme-discussion

Day 3 S/I    Executive Board Meeting

1)        Agenda

2)        Secretary-General's report

3)        Treasurer's report

4)        Editors report on the publishing of the Journal

5)        Election of office Bearers: Chairman

Vice-Chairman

Secretary-General

Treasurer

6)        Any other business

S/II    Meeting of the new Executive Board;

Work programme 1984-85

Draft Budget

Printing of the Journal

Venue for the 1986 General Conference.

Day 4  Visit to Archives

Day 5  Executive Session of the General Conference

S/l Agenda

S-G report for the period 1982 April—1984, April

Treasurer's report

Amendments to the constitution

Confirmation of the ejection of new office-bearers

Closure of the meeting address by:?

Chairman declares the General Conference closed

In conformity with the Board decision held on July 1980, it was re­iterated that

1) all National members, and

2) one Archivist/historian from each member country, be extended full facilities to attend the General Conference.

The host country agreed to look-after the hospitality of all participat­ing members.

The Board thereupon agreed that the details should be communicated to all member countries and ICA, and to seek a subvention from ICA/ Unesco for the holding of this meeting-

The following dates were fixed for the meeting: 21-25 the April, 1984. If there were to be any slight adjustment in the dates Iran agreed to com­municate the change, on their return to the country.

11. On the item on exchange of Guides and Finding-Aids of the region, the board had the consensus of opinion that, while certain publications could be exchanged freely, there may be restrictions on the free-exchange of more expensive publications. However, the Board agreed that there should be a:

a) Free and exchange of publications on a reciprocal basis and

b) Free exchange   of information   about   publications   amongst   the member countries of SWARBICA.

12. Re training facilities Dr. Perti remarked that the Indian National Ar­chives had engaged in training personnel for Archive work since 1943 and at present they had a one year Diploma course for professional and an 8 week short-term course for Record Management, Conservation and Repro­graphy. There was also a sub-professional course and a course for technical personnel.

It was stated that the diploma awarded by the National Archives was with the concurrence of the Ministry of Education and the Certificates after the 8 weeks course, was awarded by the Archives.

India did not charge any fees from students and placements could be held by writing in advance to the National Archives.

It was also noted that the Diploma given was by the National Archives and the National Archives had no association with an University, as that aspect had no bearing for India. Sri Lanka pointed out that for promotions of its Assistant Archivists a Diploma obtained from a University was a requirement, and India agreed to look into this aspect too, so that its course could be made to be of greater benefit to the region.

The necessity for an information and documentation center for ar­chive activities was explained by Dr. Perti. The reasons adduced were that such a center could provide regional archives with complete informa­tion on various subjects of a professional and technical nature pertaining to Archives. This question having been discussed in extenso, it was agreed that since India had a well established archives, a training school and professionals on many aspects of archives, it could be possible to es­tablish such a center in India. However, it was decided to write to the other members of the Board not present at the meeting seeking their opinion on this matter.

13. On the subject of maintaining a separate account by the Chairman SWARBICA, the reasons advanced by him were read out by the Secretary-General. Having discussed the request, the Board decided that any ex­penditure for the Chairman to travel outside the country could be met by the Treasurer SWARBICA in accordance with lCA and SWARBICA rules and regulations. It was also observed that the Colombo Account was opened due to some moneys remaining in Sri Lanka after the 1st General Conference, and the Chairman in Sri Lanka did not use it for General travel or for secretarial work.

14. Under any other business, the Secretary-General read out the request sent by Dr. Oldenhage dated 07.02.1983 requesting the nomination of an archivist of the region under 40 years, to assist in the working of the con­ference to be held in Bonn in 1984.

The Board agreed that the person nominated should be a permanent employee in the professional grade of Archivist, and should be from an Archives which have had less exposure to such meetings.

Working on this principle, it was unanimously agreed that Dr. Olden­hage be informed, that a nominee be requested from the National Archives of Iran, as the representative of the SWARBICA region.

There being no other business for the day, the meeting terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

G.P.S.H. de Silva

Secretary-General.

4th July, 1983