13th July 2014, 10:13 PM
barkingdigger Wrote:Feel free to add some!
I wouldn't be daft enough to claim I had an answer in the first place.
Increasing the perceived value of what we do might be achieved through a more joined-up process, with museums more involved from the beginning, perhaps even in the planning process as they are likely to be medium through which people view what is found with the developer getting a lovely pat on the back and some good PR for doing the right thing. Speeding up the accessing of results that are going to show the value of what is found - i.e. getting shiny stuff into museums as quickly as possible, making it clear where it has come from, no more 'workmen found...' stories in the papers and proper press-releases, less heads-bowed looking at the points of trowels and more getting out and talking to people about what we do. Of course, this is happening with plenty of jobs but not enough. Everyone could take a lead on this - it would be nice to get to a point where you don't have to keep explaining to people who should know better that the developer pays for it, no, not the council, not EH, no, we're not volunteers or students, yes, you can access the results of the reports (making that happen quicker and more consistently would be nice though), no we haven't found any treasure (not today anyway). The issue of the quality of the work done always seems like a sideshow, something we just like to torment each other with and which is always going to be virtually impossible to conclusively deal with, whatever that would mean anyway.