9th March 2006, 05:41 PM
Some examples (not exhaustive by any means) of potential benefits of IFA membership:
1. It can help you as an individual to get jobs. My company certainly prefers IFA members; others are not excluded, but are encouraged to join a.s.a.p. after joining the company (subs paid).
2. Opportunity to contribute to valuable initiatives in relation to professional issues. I have had the chance to make such a contribution as a member of an IFA working party (finished some time ago), and I think the work we did was of value to all commercial archaeologists (even the ones, probably a majority, who are not aware of it).
3. It provides some assurance to curators that I am competent to do my job.
4. It provides some assurance to potential clients that I (and my company, an RAO) are competent. Some firms now only invite tenders from RAOs, or require that certain individual roles are occupied by MIFAs.
5. In the event of my proving, despite the above, to be incompetent or dishonest, it provides curators and clients with the assurance that there are professional sanctions (as opposed to legal/financial ones) that they can take against me personally or against my company in its role as an RAO.
6. If the IFA was a Chartered institute, I would gain an instant ?1,000 salary hike on gaining Chartered status.
Much of the above does benefit me personally - but probably benefits my company, and the profession as a whole, more. In most professional institutions, the main benefit of membership to the individual is that jobs become available, because (unlike in archaeology) jobs (or, in some cases, promotion) are often not open at all to non-members. The actual point of these institutions is to benefit the profession concerned as a whole, principally through the promotion and maintenance of high professional standards, hence the element of compulsion. For that reason, I would favour the IFA becoming a Chartered institute with a requirement that membership (little M) is gained before you can call yourself an archaeologist. That way, the power of the IFA to maintain standards is not undermined by the fact that less than half of archaeologists are subject to its disciplinary procedures.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
1. It can help you as an individual to get jobs. My company certainly prefers IFA members; others are not excluded, but are encouraged to join a.s.a.p. after joining the company (subs paid).
2. Opportunity to contribute to valuable initiatives in relation to professional issues. I have had the chance to make such a contribution as a member of an IFA working party (finished some time ago), and I think the work we did was of value to all commercial archaeologists (even the ones, probably a majority, who are not aware of it).
3. It provides some assurance to curators that I am competent to do my job.
4. It provides some assurance to potential clients that I (and my company, an RAO) are competent. Some firms now only invite tenders from RAOs, or require that certain individual roles are occupied by MIFAs.
5. In the event of my proving, despite the above, to be incompetent or dishonest, it provides curators and clients with the assurance that there are professional sanctions (as opposed to legal/financial ones) that they can take against me personally or against my company in its role as an RAO.
6. If the IFA was a Chartered institute, I would gain an instant ?1,000 salary hike on gaining Chartered status.
Much of the above does benefit me personally - but probably benefits my company, and the profession as a whole, more. In most professional institutions, the main benefit of membership to the individual is that jobs become available, because (unlike in archaeology) jobs (or, in some cases, promotion) are often not open at all to non-members. The actual point of these institutions is to benefit the profession concerned as a whole, principally through the promotion and maintenance of high professional standards, hence the element of compulsion. For that reason, I would favour the IFA becoming a Chartered institute with a requirement that membership (little M) is gained before you can call yourself an archaeologist. That way, the power of the IFA to maintain standards is not undermined by the fact that less than half of archaeologists are subject to its disciplinary procedures.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished