In what direction goes FIAT/IFTA?
Contribution to a discussion

by Tedd Johansen, Vice President FIAT/IFTA

To ask critical questions of the aims and the strategies and the activities of FIAT/IFTA is a right every member has. To start a debate on the mentioned subjects is also an activity we all should appreciate.

According to a letter published by some of FIAT/IFTA's members concerning the work of the association, we are not doing well. To put it more directly: FIAT/IFTA's work is not a mirror of the demand and the need for information in the field necessary to cope with the new technology and new challenges. So far the voices of the members of the critical group.

I appreciate the publishing of the statements of the group and also statements made by supporters of the group. Letters of this kind are important to make it more clear for everyone why you joined the association and why you do not appreciate actions made by the Executive Council on behalf of the members. So far so good.

Aims and work and strategies - do we all accept what has been done within FIAT? Before I give you an answer I will let you know my thinking and attitude to the work of the association and the qualifications and dedications required as member of the society called FIAT/IFTA. But I need to establish a group of persons whose life and activities demonstate my own wishes: I call upon : Lord Locksley, Winston Churchill and Winnie the Pooh for advice. The group appointed has in common what I would appreciate to find among the majority of FIAT's members: The combination of actions made to benefit themselves and the majority of the society. To highlight only one of the actions will not be satisfying to all of the members of the society. You join an association to get information or to make contacts needed for your work. A mutual exchange of information among members will take place. Those of the members whose interest in the association are limited to their own prestige or status or personal progress, will leave the association gradually if their needs are not satisfied.

Let us take a look back in FIATs history. Why did a group of dedicated heads of television archives in the year of 1977 take the time to set up an International association? According to information given by one of the founders: FIAF did not want us as members. Television ment a threat to film production.We were a group of outcasts so to speak. And I do think we had a lot in common with my appointed group too. Outcasts have changed the history you know. In the year of 1977 the heads of the archives of BBC, RAI, ARD and INA made history in the field of audiovisual archiving. Thank you dear Founders.

I joined FIAT in 1979. I recall the agenda of the time. My question is: Is the agenda of 1979 out of date? Have we finished once and for all with the problems of that time? Sorry, dear fellow members and Founders of FIAT. The answer is no.We still have to advise members on how to deal with old film material and old tapes and we still have to advise members whose computer systems should have been forwarded to a technical museum. The past is there regardless of the Founders of FIAT the year 2000 have a different opinion.

The agenda of the conferences and seminars arranged by FIAT do show the priorities of the work of FIAT. The strategy of FIAT has been to make programmes to benefit all the members of the association. The quality of the work is a result of the activities and the dedication of the members only. Annually we set up an international conference to make an attempt to satisfy the members' demands.

I have advocated and also initiated local seminars for members who will have difficulties in attending the annual conference. And I will continue to fight for a strategy based upon the aims of the association. The "rich" members must assist the "poor" members - but who is rich and who is poor is a question of a policy of solidarity and friendship.

I have a wish to invite the FOUNDERS OF FIAT OF 1977 together with their successors of the year of 2000. And I will leave it to them to set up an agenda to make it possible to meet the new technology and to satisfy the archives whose daily life means to work with equipment of historical interest.: And I do talk about a majority of FIAT´s members. Few of FIAT´s members have made a statement about the future strategy of digitalization - very few, in fact. Lord Locksley, Winston Churchill and Winnie the Pooh I hereby appoint you as honorary members of the Board of FIAT to make plans for the future. Tank you for your attention, dear fellow members.

Tedd Johansen
Vice President FIAT/IFTA .

(This page was updated Sept 2nd, 2000)