9th February 2007, 11:54 AM
Societies are all different, and have different memberships, aims and aspirations: these change over time within any one society as well. Having said that, there is indeed a definite tendency for a "white middle class middle aged" membership, only really interested in attending monthly lecture meetings and the occasional outing. So what? Membership can only consist of those who want to join! Some societies have excellent programmes of speakers, from the academic and commercial spheres, and it can be well worthwhile joining just to hear them. Others have some complete drivel of course.
Some societies have memberships clamouring for fieldwork - excavation - but committees who either don't want to know, or the oppurtunities do not exist, for reasons you will all know. Others do fieldwork but are "cliquey" and only a select few are allowed to join in. Yet others have committees who are keen on fieldwork but cannot raise the enthusiasm of the membership.
It also seems to me that there is (AUP in mind) a bizarre campaign of misinformation by a popular magazine, representing commercial archaeologists as deliberately and malicously squeezing the downtrodden gentleman/lady amateur out of the picture for reasons of pure greed, and giving the impression that but for these monsters the good retirees of suburbia would be happily carrying out PPG16 work for nothing. A gross distortion of the picture....
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
Some societies have memberships clamouring for fieldwork - excavation - but committees who either don't want to know, or the oppurtunities do not exist, for reasons you will all know. Others do fieldwork but are "cliquey" and only a select few are allowed to join in. Yet others have committees who are keen on fieldwork but cannot raise the enthusiasm of the membership.
It also seems to me that there is (AUP in mind) a bizarre campaign of misinformation by a popular magazine, representing commercial archaeologists as deliberately and malicously squeezing the downtrodden gentleman/lady amateur out of the picture for reasons of pure greed, and giving the impression that but for these monsters the good retirees of suburbia would be happily carrying out PPG16 work for nothing. A gross distortion of the picture....
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.