IfA - A Chartered Institute

[Noddy]

Chartered Status has benefits. and they are........................

Once earned respect and prestige with clients and colleagues in other professions eg Engineers, Architects, Ecologists (Environmentalists) etc etc

[BAJR]

Good start.

[Wax]

Will IFA start enforcing its rules on its own members? One reason pay's only average around here is because we keep getting undercut by RAOs....

I agree with Dino. I like the idea of being a chartered archaeologist but I want the organisation that sets the standard to have teeth and at track record in its commitment to all members of that profession (diggers on their first contract as much as long serving managers of super units). Does the IFA have this yet? (please quote examples in detail).

[trowelfodder]

Agree - am not against chartered status but would prefer a clean slate rather than all the baggage of the IfA

[kevin wooldridge]

I agree with Dino. I like the idea of being a chartered archaeologist but I want the organisation that sets the standard to have teeth and at track record in its commitment to all members of that profession (diggers on their first contract as much as long serving managers of super units). Does the IFA have this yet? (please quote examples in detail).

Don't know how many members the IfA has at the moment and can't be arsed to look it up but say its 3000 or so. How many of those members are long serving managers of 'super-units'? Err....maybe (extending the definition of managers to its extreme) 100. But everyone who is a corporate member of the IfA is entitled to vote. So how come the 'grunts' who make up the remaining 97% of IfA members have never risen up and changed the organisation into the type of body its many critics have suggested it ought to be? Maybe the answer to that tells us a lot about British archaeology and UK archaeologists......Trowelfodder's suggestion of starting from scratch might be one way to go, but wouldn't it be largely the same people rejoining and recreating the IfA much in the form it presents at the moment. The organisation does not exist in any form of description independent of its members. Its commitment is first and foremost to its members and through them to the profession.

I have never really understood the logic of suggesting that a membership organisation like the IfA should have teeth and then refusing to join because you don't agree with or happen to like its members!!

[Sith]

Don't know how many members the IfA has at the moment and can't be arsed to look it up but say its 3000 or so.

..3152, divided into 2201 Corporate and 951 Non-Corporate members. The current breakdown of those figures is as follows:

Honorary MIfA 15
MIfA 1232
AIfA 567
PIfA 387
Affiliate 617
Student 334

[Oxbeast]

@P Prentice,

if they do work for a chartered organisation they will have certain training, cpd and employment benefits and a right to complain process backed by the chartering body.

Well I work for an RO now (who is also an investor in pe

[P Prentice]

@P Prentice,


Well I work for an RO now (who is also an investor in people), and I don't get any training or CPD. I'm sure I could fill in a form with the books that I read in my own time, but why should I pay to do that and give the credit to my employer?

I'm not sure how one senior manager being chartered would mean a cultural change in career progression. I already have a right to complain process to the IfA in its present form. What are these employment benefits that you mention?

why are you letting your employer get away with it? are you in fear of loosing your job? do you need help?

[P Prentice]

Will IFA start enforcing its rules on its own members? One reason pay's only average around here is because we keep getting undercut by RAOs....

you may well be getting undercut by ro's but i bet it is not because they pay less than your mob

[Wax]

I have never really understood the logic of suggesting that a membership organisation like the IfA should have teeth and then refusing to join because you don't agree with or happen to like its members!!

I have never refused to join the IFA as they have never come to me and asked me to join (actually that's not true several members I know personally have invited to referee me should I want to apply for membership). I have on various occasions got the forms and even got half way through filling them in. However when I look at what they are offering me and how much it costs It comes down to do I personally really need them and so far the answer is no. I get work and survive in archaeology on my personal reputation being known as someone who delivers. I can to some extent choose who I work for and avoid those companies who have a bad reputation on the grape vine. That has nothing to do with whether they are ROs or not which bothers me. Yes perhaps I should join and change the IFA from within but I have choosen to join other organisations and work for change from a different direction. I do not dislike people who belong to the IFA it is infact of no concern to me whatsoever if they are members or not and again that must say something about the IFA as an organisation.