SEAPAVAA was conceived as an international organisation but with a firm focus on the issues and needs that matter to audiovisual archives and archivists in the Southeast Asia/Pacific region. This is reflected in its membership structure: full members must be AV archives within the region, but associate members can be anywhere in the world.
Before setting up SEAPAVAA, the founding group considered the alternatives – i.e. being a subgroup of one of the existing federations (such as IASA, AMIA, FIAF, FIAT etc) – and decided against them. It was felt that a new association was needed because (a) none of the existing federations covered the entire audiovisual spectrum; (b) the existing federations had a predominantly Euro/American membership and focus, and the concerns of our region would never get to the top of their agendas; (c) we needed an organisation that could embrace both corporate (commercial and non-commercial) and individual membership in a workable manner, and none of the existing federations met this need (d) our region and its audiovisual heritage was a largely invisible part of the global AV archiving movement, and we needed to make it visible; (e) SEAPAVAA could establish a direct relationship with UNESCO; and (f) many archives were small and impoverished and needed the moral support of a network.
There were practical considerations. Political and economic groupings in the region (such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN) offered structures to which SEAPAVAA could relate. Nobody had much money so membership fees had to be low and conferences reasonably cheap to organise and travel to: travel was within the region and not further afield. Bodies like ASEAN-COCI (Committee on Culture and Information) and UNESCO helped with both financial and in-kind assistance.
SEAPAVAA now has an international presence because it has been true to the original vision to make the AV heritage of the region visible, and because its conferences are quality events that warrant the attendance of colleagues from around the world. AV archiving is a young and small profession in the larger scheme of things and thus the profession can get “lost” in the wider picture. It is actually imperative that SEAPAVAA has an international presence and work with the larger global bodies so we can best serve our members. The global connection enables us to be aware of trends and opportunities that are occurring so we can relay information and take advantage of opportunities as these arise.
Last but not least, SEAPAVAA also has a special quality in the warmth of its personal relationships and from a certain perspective, it could be seen as not so much an association, but perhaps more of a family. While we go global, we remain focused and are inherently local.
2. Please, tell us a little bit about SEAPAVAA major challenges nowadays and what are the main activities sponsored by the association?
The major challenges are:
· Funding to keep the organisation running. Even though SEAPAVAA’s subscription fees are very low, there are always difficulties in receiving membership dues. Sponsorship funding for the major events that SEAPAVAA would like to offer such as large training workshops, is hard to come by because AV archiving is a small profession and has not been able to position itself successfully as a major cultural player along with libraries, galleries and museums, thus showing benefit for commercial sponsors is problematic.
· Keeping a balance in the membership. SEAPAVAA was set up to support AV archives. However there are comparatively few of these across the region. At the same time, there are many people and companies out there who are interested in the work of SEAPAVAA and wish to become members and participate in SEAPAVAA. The number of AV archives is not increasing as fast as the number of these other people and organisations who are potential members. The dilemma is who SEAPAVAA can best serve to carry out the crucial role of advocacy for AV archiving that ultimately benefits the core membership (i.e. AV archives).
· Most of the archive institutions are bureaucratic with limited budgets. Some of them face financial challenges. SEAPAVAA needs to support these institutions in their archiving tasks.
What SEAPAVAA has been doing is to organise training workshops and conferences in our member countries. These provide the opportunities for host institutions to raise awareness on the importance of preserving audiovisual archives in their respective countries.
· All archives are facing the challenges of digitsation and tight budgets. These are perpetual issues.
3. How important are the conferences for you and how do the members keep in touch between them?
The annual conferences are the most important part of SEAPAVAA. They enable the association to fully connect with all our members face-to-face, and are also crucial for our members to network with global bodies, and build up awareness and professional development. However, we acknowledge that conferences are expensive for some members to attend, especially as SEAPAVAA covers a widely diverse range of national economies from wealthy countries to poorer economies. In this regard, funding support from organisations such as the REI Foundation Limited is important SEAPAVAA, as it enables a number of our members with constraints to attend the conferences each year.
There have been significant improvements in communications since SEAPAVAA’s inception, however even e-mail cannot be taken as a given. While e-mail access may exist for all member countries, members may not have unfettered access due to a member organisation’s financial constraints or internal structure (as official communications replies may have to pass through several layers of bureaucracy for approval). There are also limitations on bandwidth that makes taking full advantage of web based technologies problematic for some members. Unfortunately, the members with the most problematic access to the web are the ones most in need of SEAPAVAA’s assistance.
4. Do you have any plans for social media presence and how does this digital and social world affect the association’s day-to-day life?
Social media is both a boon and a problem. While there are many platforms to work with, there are significant costs involved in “doing it well”. Even maintaining regular updates in Facebook or Instagram takes up more resource than SEAPAVAA can readily muster. Other comments regarding engaging in social media vis-à-vis challenges faced by some of our members, are made in point (3) above.
Notwithstanding these challenges, this Executive Council will look into harnessing social media to benefit SEAPAVAA and our members positively, moving forward.