President's Report

Dear colleagues,

I am sorry to begin my report with a very sad news, the sudden death of Anatoly Vystorobets, head of the Russian Archives (Gosteleradiofond), last 20th February in Moscow. Anatoly had joined FIAT in 1999 and in this short time, he has been very active in the development of regional and international cooperation. It is a great loss for FIAT.

I am working on the strenghtening of FIAT links with its sister organisations.

I went to Rome, last 31st January, to present FIAT concerns and policy to the EBU Interdisciplinary Archive Group meeting. You will find my speech in the next pages. I have asked Roberto Rossetto, from RAI, to represent FIAT EC views in this group.

Along the same line, FIAT will chair the next CCAAA (Coordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Association) meeting, next 21st March in Paris. I'll defend, with Kurt Deggeller, President of IASA, the idea of developing joint training activities, and a new concept of training for less advanced archives, based on the INA experience in Afghanistan.

Following former talks in January with COPEAM officials, I'll represent FIAT at their annual conference in Dubrovnik, next 1-3 May, where the "South East Europe archive preservation project" will be discussed.

I have asked Dominique Saintville to participate in the Lugano Round Table, a Swiss initiative aiming at submitting recommendations and concrete proposals regarding less advanced archives. This Round Table is part of the preparatory process of the World Summit on the Information Society. We'll also attend the second Information for All Project Intergovernmental Council, next April at Unesco headquarters.

The organisation of the Brussels Conference is striding forward, due to the deep involvement of our hosts, Alain Goosens (RTBF) and Erik de Groef (VRT), and the steady work of the COC (Conference Coordinating Committee). Steve Bryant reports on its progress. Moreover, I invite you to answer the VRT "Call for clips". I wish that our next conference will be the occasion to view archive images coming from all of you.

I have the pleasure to welcome our new member, Marco Jamanca, from IRTP, the public Peruvian Television. On the occasion of joining FIAT, he wrote a detailed report on his archive. I invite all Spanish speaking members to consider his questions and for all members to offer solutions and answers bases on their knowledge and experience. As many archivists in developing countries, he feels very isolated and needs your support to access the basic professional information.

At last, have a look at the Requested ! page, in which the FIAT office publicises the requests - for information, footage, second hand equipment - sent by some of you. You might be the one who has the answer !

Emmanuel Hoog
President of FIAT/IFTA   - E-mail: ehoog@ina.fr
12 March 2003