Building a Community for Early Career Professionals
Prepared by ECaPS Committee members Gina Chacon Vargas, Laura Yturbe Mori, Lerato Tshabalala, Susannah Tindall, Oscar Zamora Flores, and Janny Sjåholm
1 April 2026
In October 2025 at the ICA Congress of Archives in Barcelona, we launched the provisional Early Career Professional Section (ECaPS). Through both a presentation and a poster, we introduced the new section and shared information about its first initiative, the Outreach Pilot Project. We made good connections and hope we sparked interest in this new space. Following the initial introduction, we would like to take this opportunity to further present the section and our vision for its first year.
Poster presentation, ICA Congress Barcelona 2025. From left to right: Gina Maria Chacón Vargas, Susannah Tindall, Laura Yturbe Mori, Janny Sjaaholm, Oscar Zamora Flores. Tuesday, 28 October 2025. Barcelona International Convention Centre (CCIB), Barcelona, Spain. Photo credit: Gina Pellicer.
Currently, ECaPS has the status of a provisional section. According to the Internal Regulations of ICA, members may form a provisional section for up to 8 years. After this time, they can request that the section be formally established by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Executive Board.
ECaPS aims to be a dedicated space for new professionals, students, and emerging professionals. Its main goals are to advocate for and represent this community within ICA and to strengthen their engagement and participation in the association.
The idea to create this section came from Nicola Laurent, Coordinator of the ICA New Professionals Programme (NPP), who identified the need for a structured space for students and emerging professionals beyond the programme. At the same time, the NPP 2021–2022 cohort was already working on the Outreach Pilot Project to increase awareness of ICA among students and new professionals. As both initiatives shared similar goals, the cohort took on coordinating the establishment of the section. Members of this cohort now lead the section and form the core of the Section Committee, including:
- Chair: Gina Maria Chacón Vargas
- Vice Chair: Laura Yturbe Mori
- Secretary: Oscar Zamora Flores
- Communications Officer: Open
- General Committee: Susannah Tindall, Janny Sjaaholm, Lerato Tshabalala
Objectives:
To guide our work, we defined the following objectives in our terms of reference:
- Advocate for the needs and representation of early career professionals within ICA and the wider archival community. Facilitate access to training, resources, and professional development opportunities.
- Create opportunities and collaboration through digital platforms, events, and forums.
- Engage early career professionals in leadership roles and sections’ activities.
- Promote diversity, inclusion, and equity in the archival field.
- Foster international exchange and collaboration across regions.
Vision for the Year Ahead
In its first year, ECaPS will focus on learning the ropes as a professional section, building a community, and advancing the Outreach Pilot Project.
Community Building
Our first big challenge is to build a strong community that grows and remains active for years to come. Keep that in mind: we are focusing on how to do it and on planning and exploring meaningful ways for early-career professionals to participate, collaborate, and engage within the section to achieve our goals. These efforts aim to foster long-term commitment, professional development, and sustained contribution toward achieving our objectives.
We are specifically planning:
- Collection voices: Survey what early career professionals need in a section.
- Develop Professional Development Resources to support career growth
- Create Opportunities for Collaboration, work with other sections and groups within ICA to find ways for NPP to be involved.
Outreach Pilot Project
The Outreach Pilot Project serves as ECaPS’ first official initiative and the vehicle for expanding our network. Its goal is to raise awareness of ICA’s mission, resources, and opportunities among students and early-career professionals through university talks.
We have been developing the pilot project in three stages:
- Stage 1: Creation of a presentation: “What is ICA?” with the specific topics and elements to understand ICA and its benefits for professionals.
- Stage 2: Compiling a directory of education institutions. We have been mapping universities, institutions, and potential contacts globally. We believe we have identified a good initial list of institutions across different regions to start the talks.
- Stage 3: Currently in planning, focusing on how to deliver presentations, engage institutions, and involve early career professionals. We plan to invite alumni of the NPP and early-career professionals to serve as regional points of contact to engage with Universities.
Getting Involved
There are different ways to get involved with ECaPS. The first step is to join the section through your ICA profile. To do so, log in to the members-only area, access your ICA Profile section at the top of your profile, select “Edit profile”, go to the “Professional sections” section, and choose ECaPS from the drop-down list.
As a member of ECaPS, you will receive news about the section and its initiatives. If you would like to be actively involved, you can join the General Committee and help plan and organize activities. You can also volunteer for our first initiative, the Outreach Pilot Project, by giving presentations and helping raise awareness of ICA opportunities and benefits.
To get in touch with us, please contact the section at ecaps@ica.org
You can access our materials here for more information:
You can also explore the ICA Outreach Posters developed in a previous initiative: New ICA Outreach Posters Now Available and the ICA Welcome Kit.
