Is it just me or are IFA membership fees rather high for the majority of archaeologists? Once all the dosh has come out of the account for silly things such as living there aint a lot left to throw around. Specially for an organisiation that talks the talk but can't walk the walk.[?]
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I totally agree: 92 quid plus 10 quid 'application fee' is not a good starting point for an organisation that wants all of the profession to join. Also, their 'income related' fee scale seems rather skewed. Anyone lucky enough to earn in excess of ?28,000 (!) only pays ?195 + ?10.
To add insult to (wallet) injury, their members have to pay an extra ten pounds a year to receive their job adverts service!
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My feelings exactly Real. I sit here wondering how to pay the Council tax, car tax etc. I HAD been a member of the IFA for about 5 years, now it's become an issue of surviving and while I support the principles of the IFA it just doesn't have he immediate affect on me that would warrant staying in. Let face it, the old pay argument has been going round in circles since Mosses was a boy. I don't particularly want to sit and listen to HOW the IFA is going to fix things, I want to see some action for my money. I've waited 5 years, other countries have better prospects and no IFA. No change, no point, get your hand out of my wallet!
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?83 a year if you pay by direct debit, spread over 10 months that's ?8.30 a month (if you earn 13 - 16K)
http://www.archaeologists.net/modules/ic...2005-6.pdf
There is of course the diggers forum at ?5 a year for non-IFA members
http://www.archaeologists.net/modules/ic...p?page=151
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It occurs to me also that the higher you rise in archaeology (does anyone earn ?28,000+ by the way?), the more likely it is that your institution will pay for you to be a member of a 'professional institute'. That makes their income related scale even more unfair since us poor sods at the sharp end usually pay our own fees (not that I'm a member).
They will no doubt defend themselves by saying that comparable institutions for architects etc charge comparable fees, but there are some important respects in which we are not comparable!
Out of interest, did you feel that you got anything (on a personal level) out of your membership when you were one?
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Real
?28k is the bottom end of the project managers pay scale in the bigger units.
By the way, I have just seen an SMR job (?West of Scotland) on offer for ?23K - ?28k - is this the start of (hopefully) progress towards better pay for archaeologists in the public sector (curators etc) ?
Last time I worked for an archaeological contractor they paid 50% of everyone's annual IFA fees regardless of membership grade, and all of the application fee. All staff were encouraged to join as individual members despite the fact that the company was RAO, in fact it was a condition of contract for new staff that they applied within 1 year of joining.
Beamo
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The IHBC (Institute of Historic Building Conservation) has a flat fee of ?80 per year, however they are likely to have a larger membership than the IFA as their 'market penetration' within the historic building community is much greater than the IFA's. For what we actually get my ?140 a year does seem far too much.
And before anyone asks all the historic buildings people I know moan about the IHBC almost as much as we all moan about the IFA.
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Tile Man, cheers, but it still adds up to nearly a hundred quid with the application fee. Thats a lot of money to pay for a luxury when, as Digger says, the essentials are hard enough.
Beamo, thats an interesting example (one wonders why your company did not pay the full amount, especially if they were contractually obliging you to join!), but I don't think its typical that a unit pays for its diggers to become members of the IFA.
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Make it a fiver and I'm back. I think I originally joined to be more professional about my career. In reality all I got was lots of promises and a very expensive glossy mag. Discussed issues with their recruitment Johny (not Tim Howard, the current bod) about maybe combining the shiny cardboard membership card with discounted entry to EH or Nat Trust properties as a little extra for members (wasn't interested). Ok, if you cant get people to join, how about a free first year as once in they might stay? (not interested).'But they are going to do many, many, many wonderful things over the next five years'(two down and counting).
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Well you'd pay your aspplication fee, and then ,if accepted, you'd start paying your ?8.30 a month.
I know its unpopular to say so - but the IFA is not a luxury. The only way that archaeologists pay and standards can be improved is by grouping together and making the case to the powers that be that out professional aspirations and skills need to be taken seriously. and this does take times. Things would be a lot worse if the IFA did not exist (e.g. for many years the IFA provided the only mechanism by which pay was increased and things have improved markedly since I started in the profession in the 80s...
Elsewhere on these threads some initiatives by the IFA have been posted, and I have put up some of the costs involved in running a national organisation.
If you don;t agree with me there is a cheaper option of the diggers forum as I mentioned.
Frankly IMO the situation is not going to improve whilst the majority in the discipline vote for the status quo by doing nothing, complain that organisations they don't belong to don't represent them or put most of their efforts into denigrating what is being done to improve conditions.
These things take time and money - no one else is going to do it for us.
