'The IFA conference provisional programme and booking form are now available to download at http://www.archaeologists.net/modules/ic...hp?page=18. The deadline for the early bird booking rate is 11 March 2006.

There is a small bursary available to IFA members to help cover the cost of the conference. If you would be interested in applying for funding please send a covering letter along with a completed booking form explaining your circumstances'

Another day another WSI?

As things seem pretty quite on the BAJR message front, I thought I would take this opportunity to plug my recently updated OutWage blog site.

http://www.freewebs.com/outwageuk

It is coming up for a year now since I started monitoring the wage rates in BAJR archaeological job adverts. In this time I have collected adverts from a total of 66 separate archaeological employers, of which exactly one half (33) have come from IFA RAOs.

I have decided to change the format of the original OutWage 'league' table slightly to now rank the archaeological employers in alphabetical order. This has enabled me to include many more jobs and employers that previously didn't fit the Outwage format (particularly to include SMR/HER type posts). Change 2. I have separated UK and Ireland jobs into separate tables.

This is potentially an interesting time in the survey as pretty soon now annual salary increases should begin to start showing through, as well as the results of the upgrade to IFA/BAJR minimum pay scales. I am interested to see what difference this might make to wage rates. It is also interesting to see the frequency and infrequency with which some employers advertise (not necessarilly a negative factor by the way, as it appears some advertisers do take advantage of the BAJR annual subscription rate to bang out an ad virtually every month).

I am still interested in any feedback from BAJRites (always treated confidentially of course).

Hi All.
We were having a chat in the office today concerning small finds and no one could come up with a definition of a small find. For example do loom weights get a SF number and quern stones not? or is it up to the digger/supervisor to decide during excavation??
Thanks

The Trade Union 'Prospect' have recently updated their H&S advice regarding Zoonotic diseases i.e anthrax, Weils Disease, Lyme's Disease etc that might affect archaeologists as well as other workers. A PDF copy of their handy guide can be obtained at:

http://www.prospect.org.uk/dl/2612_84596...c6ed232d87

I notice that the current BAJR job advert for the Humber Field Archaeology Unit carries the sentence:

'Please note. Unfortunately we are not able to pay expenses for attending interviews'

Seems a tad harsh on people of limited financial means i.e most archaeologists, who might otherwise satisfy all of the requirements for the post, particularly as the interviews appear to qualify the attendee for the 'pool' of labour and not for any specific job.

Is it normal for a local authority employer not to pay interview expenses? Any chance that our Host could clarify the situation with the Humber Field Unit?

Hello.

Haven't posted in ages because I've been on a vast and muddy away job. About to go off on another....

What I want to know is, has anyone got experience of digging in the US? What kind of archaeology do they get up to? I'm geussing that it will be the prehistoric/Mesolithicy/native american stuff, and elaborate recording of nineteenth century stuff that we would machine through here. Anyone know what the conditions and management are like, and would they give me more kudos for having a posh accent? If so, I will work on one.

many thanks,

Oxbeast

My Hosty,
It appears that BAJR web site has a section titled 'Funding and Grants' but the page is empty and declares itself to be 'Coming Soon .. A searchable list of funding opportunities and grants bodies in the UK. (expected March 2005)'
Er...have you applied for the grants yourself before not letting anyone else know...?

My first book of archaeological techniques.
Which? (end of the trowel)
Tape Measure monthly (length and stiffness matters)
Build your own matrix (free number with first issue)
101 Damnations
Annihalating the globe (theatre) in 180 ways
Readers Digress
Treasure Island (thanx ppg16)
I know what you did last summer

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

Rightyho-Own up! Who out there operates a thorough quality control system in terms of commercial report writing?

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

"In a profession that works for both the public and private sector, there is a great need for a strong, authoritative body to ensure effective self-regulation.This role is fulfilled by the IFA,the profession`s institute"

IFA website under the heading "profession"

Discuss.......
In my humble opinion-"yes there is and, no it`s not"

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)