12th August 2011, 01:52 PM
RedEarth Wrote:Above board maybe, although I am not sure which part of that very long statement would include 'allow merger of smaller organisation into IfA'. It might have at least been polite to ask members of the IfA. I have been a member for a while, I'm not sure if something like this, or on this scale has come up before.
The issue is, as BAJR was perhaps hinting, the terms of the merger. Certain level of AAIS being made MIfA, certain level being made AIfA etc, but the manner in which the 'equivalent' grades in the AAIS were judged is completely different. So now you have people who are MIfAs on the basis of being able to draw well, which is fair enough, but are they going to change the entry requirements for everyone else? The AAIS members seem to have shot themselves in the foot, and the IfA has hobbled itself by carrying them. So some consultation would have been nice since I now have no idea what the membership levels mean or what the point of membership is.
I've two points:
Surmising an illustrator as 'being able to draw well' is the same as surmising a fieldworker as 'being able to dig a hole'. Illustrators are specialists... it's such a common attitude and really disheartening. Just because our output is graphic doesn't make an illustrator any less of an archaeologist.
So why didn't you contact the IfA and tell them what you thought beforehand? Or did you?