gosh...isn't it getting better all the time.....not

[Dinosaur]

Dinosaur - what's the point in running down the IFA?.

I think if you check back a couple of pages you'll find it was Oxbeast who started that? - and judging by the following posts quite a few people hold similar views....

The idea of a poll is an excellent one, the IFA claim to represent British archaeolologists but do they?

The mantra of "JOIN THE IFA YOU BUGGER" has been used to batter diggers for the last quarter century with surprising little effect, looking at the membership figures, and if you take out all the people who joined merely to get access to the jobs service and those who joined because they were told it was a good idea but have since regretted it the figures would look even sicker.

The fact that I've "been on the circuit a while" (actually 30 years+) and never seen any point/value whatsoever in joining IFA, and have been having these 'discussions' with people including senior members of IFA (one of whom once actually admitted after a couple of beers that IFA membership is of no value to diggers whatsoever) for a similarly long time should be telling you quite a lot?

I've got nothing against a lot of what IFA do, most of the documents they produce about archaeology are extremely useful, by and large, but they've not really treated diggers well over the years - like inventing the PIFA category since they didn't want grubby people messing up the AIFA membership category? I gather digging was regarded as a 'special interest' activity for a while - errr, isn't that what most real field archaeologists spend their time doing?

Good to have sparked some proper discussion on this site, finally! Been a bit tame for the last couple of weeks since the Women's Workwear thread fizzled out.....}