30th April 2008, 10:55 PM
Mr Belford - excellent point. I'd never really thought of Maritime Guidelines having that sort of info in them. It's my case of a bad knee jerk reaction to a heading on a piece of paper!
I certainly agree the profession has to move as a whole and include all heritage dsiciplines, but I feel that information and services need to be more targeted.
I think my main problem is getting lots of letters through and services that I don't really feel are relevant. While standards and ethics guidelines are much needed and well worth persuing, it's difficult to not feel like your specific needs aren't being met when you're struggling on low pay, crap conditions, no training and wondering where your next job is coming from. As others have said, these problems have been going on for years and there "appears" to be no real movement on these issues.
I suppose what it does come down to is that the IFA can't be both a union and a governing body.
What I'd really like is value for money. I'm being asked for a membership fee of over ?100 and a lot of the benefits - jobs list, magazine, list of archaeology contacts are already being done superbly by Mr BAJR on his laptp for free. Being asked to the IFA conference is great, but it's a huge sum of money for me.
I think the IFA should really have a "rep" in the larger units. We've got a guy in work in the IFA higher escehlons and it's great to talk to him and find out exactly what is going on and why. He makes a good case for joining and this should be carreid through. MAKE me want to join.
At the moment I just feel its a bit faceless and that the personal benefits for over ?100 aren't worth it. To the profession, i think its been great, however.
Leading a crack team of archaeologists in the hunt for death or glory.
No-one's died yet and I think we lost the glory down the back of the sofa.....
I certainly agree the profession has to move as a whole and include all heritage dsiciplines, but I feel that information and services need to be more targeted.
I think my main problem is getting lots of letters through and services that I don't really feel are relevant. While standards and ethics guidelines are much needed and well worth persuing, it's difficult to not feel like your specific needs aren't being met when you're struggling on low pay, crap conditions, no training and wondering where your next job is coming from. As others have said, these problems have been going on for years and there "appears" to be no real movement on these issues.
I suppose what it does come down to is that the IFA can't be both a union and a governing body.
What I'd really like is value for money. I'm being asked for a membership fee of over ?100 and a lot of the benefits - jobs list, magazine, list of archaeology contacts are already being done superbly by Mr BAJR on his laptp for free. Being asked to the IFA conference is great, but it's a huge sum of money for me.
I think the IFA should really have a "rep" in the larger units. We've got a guy in work in the IFA higher escehlons and it's great to talk to him and find out exactly what is going on and why. He makes a good case for joining and this should be carreid through. MAKE me want to join.
At the moment I just feel its a bit faceless and that the personal benefits for over ?100 aren't worth it. To the profession, i think its been great, however.
Leading a crack team of archaeologists in the hunt for death or glory.
No-one's died yet and I think we lost the glory down the back of the sofa.....