7th March 2006, 06:55 PM
There is a lot of concern expressed here about the level of fees for IFA membership - but also a lot of criticism, on this thread and others, about whether or not the IFA does enough.
If we want the IFA to be very active in campaigning about wage levels, investigating complaints, enforcing standards, lobbying government on heritage issues, etc. etc. etc., it all costs money. Where do you think the money will come from? To the best of my knowledge, the only major funding stream that the IFA has is subscriptions. So, if it lowers the subscriptions, it would have to do less. If you want it to do more - be willing to pay higher subscriptions (or else each of you persuade six other people to join).
Speaking as someone who is in the top income bracket for subscriptions, I would support an increase in the top level subscription, to fund more activity. As a couple of people have pointed out, many of the top-level payers are actually paid for by their employer, and in any case we could afford to pay more. However, don't expect any such increase to enable a significant reduction for lower-paid members. The number of high earners in archaeology is low, so a big increase in our subscriptions would make a tiny difference to the subscriptions for the lower-paid majority.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
If we want the IFA to be very active in campaigning about wage levels, investigating complaints, enforcing standards, lobbying government on heritage issues, etc. etc. etc., it all costs money. Where do you think the money will come from? To the best of my knowledge, the only major funding stream that the IFA has is subscriptions. So, if it lowers the subscriptions, it would have to do less. If you want it to do more - be willing to pay higher subscriptions (or else each of you persuade six other people to join).
Speaking as someone who is in the top income bracket for subscriptions, I would support an increase in the top level subscription, to fund more activity. As a couple of people have pointed out, many of the top-level payers are actually paid for by their employer, and in any case we could afford to pay more. However, don't expect any such increase to enable a significant reduction for lower-paid members. The number of high earners in archaeology is low, so a big increase in our subscriptions would make a tiny difference to the subscriptions for the lower-paid majority.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished