1. MANDATE STATEMENT

The Committee shall promote and make possible the exchange of information on archival material at the international level by specifying requirements for standards related to archival description that are acceptable to national archival administrations and the international archival profession.

2. TERMS OF REFERENCE

2.1 Membership
2.1.1 The Committee shall consist of experts on archival description and descriptive standards. The members shall be chosen from the international archival professional community based on their demonstrated expertise in archival description.

2.1.2 The Committee consists of the following two categories of members:

a. Full members: shall consist of no more than fifteen members and no less than ten. Appointments are for four-year terms and may be renewed once on the advice of the Chair and Project Director. To facilitate the work of the Committee all communications will be by electronic mail.

b. Corresponding members: shall be regarded as full members of the committee but are not expected to attend meetings unless specifically invited to do so. Corresponding members are expected to contribute to the work of the Committee by commenting on draft working papers produced by the Committee, and by keeping their respective archival communities informed of committee activities.

2.1.3 The Chair and Project Director shall be appointed by the ICA Secretary-General. The Project Director shall also be its Secretary.

2.1.4 The other members shall be appointed by the ICA Secretary-General in consultation with the Chair and the Project Director.

2.1.5 The ICA Secretary-General is an ex-officio member of the Committee.

2.2 Reporting
The Commission shall report to the ICA Secretariat.

3. RESPONSIBILITY

3.1 Meetings
The Committee will meet at times to be announced by the chair, normally once a year, and may meet more than once a year if required and resources permit. The host country normally will pay the accommodation costs. Members are expected to pay travel and other costs not borne by the host country. All full members will be expected to attend committee meetings and failure to attend without cause will signify an unwillingness to continue as a full member.

3.2 The Committee will prepare a four-year strategic work plan at the commencement of its mandate which will consist of a number products (not exceeding four) related to the mandate of the Committee and which should be completed within the four-year term of the Committee.

3.3 The Committee shall endeavour to ensure that the standards developed can be applied in a non-automated or in an automated environment.

3.4 The Committee shall endeavour to ensure that the standards can be applied in all cultures, languages and scripts.

3.5 The Committee shall consult widely with the international archival community and related professional organizations in developing archival description standards.

3.6 Any publication arising from the work of the Commission shall be published under the name of ICA.

3.7 The working language of the Committee is English and French.

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