IfA to be abolished and replaced by......

[Dinosaur]

Cant be those conferences where they spend all their time trying to impress each other....

[kevin wooldridge]

So, Kevin would you care to enlighten the doubting Thomas's here on how your 28 year IfA membership has actually benefitted you ?

Not quite the right question Mike....cos I think more of my membership of the IfA as what I can give back to the profession rather than how it benefits me. My trade union membership is where I would look to improve my terms and conditions. The IfA is not and never has been a trade union. But I am happy to talk about achievements of the IfA.

When I joined in 1986 the first consultation I was involved in was regarding the IfA support for the World Archaeology Conference which was including white South African participants. The support was dropped after members voted not to. Following that I was a supporter of the ACT group whose aim was to move the IfA in the direction of supporting those at the bottom end of the profession a role now taken up by the Diggers Forum (which I have also supported since its inception). I always vote to support Diggers Forum candidates for election to IfA council. I was a member of the IfA working party responsible for creating Principle 5 of the IfA Code of Conduct and drafted the text that is pretty much as you read it today (thats the principle concerned with pay and conditions etc). I was also one of the instigators (along with James Drummond Murray) of the Outwage survey which was the first time that IfA looked at comparable salaries across the profession and helped lead eventually to the Profiling the Profession documents. I was one of the objectors to plans to introduce Competitive Tendering to UK archaeology and remove local archaeological expertise and chaired the fringe debate at conference in 1992 over these matters. I only occasionally work in UK archaeology these days so don't have such an active role in IfA matters anymore, but I am a member of the IfA international group.

In my time as a member I have seen the use of voluntary 'paid' labour regulated by the IfA and the introduction of wage minima that have greatly increased the wage levels of all archaeologists. Also the introduction of bursaries to help graduate archaeologists onto the first step into careers in archaeology and now the establishment through Chartered status of archaeologist as a recognised profession. So a few things......

[Jack]

So, Kevin would you care to enlighten the doubting Thomas's here on how your 28 year IfA membership has actually benefitted you ?

Well, I can tell you my plan........if it becomes a nessesarity to join the IfA, i'll try and get my company to pay for it.

Then once I'm in I will claw my way through the ranks, forming a power-base network of like-minded allies until everything is in position for one of several plans available. Assuming that the powers within the society are found at fault/in need of 'guidance' the plans are:

Plan A - destroy from within. Easier than you think

Plan B - improve from within. Through wresting power form/exposing the unworthy or supporting those that are worthy

Plan C - unseen guidance. Steer the society onto the right track as a whole

Plan D - hostile take over. Then vote on a new constitution.

Look out you lonely gods in your ivory towers.....

.....we have all the weapons we need. Now fight!

Or is that all a dream I had once?

[Tool]

Someone's been sniffing the Sharpies again...

[Dinosaur]

You should try reading his reports... :face-crying:

...

[GnomeKing]

2sharpiesUPnose+FindsBaGonHeadxx(

[Mike.T.]

Not quite the right question Mike....cos I think more of my membership of the IfA as what I can give back to the profession rather than how it benefits me. My trade union membership is where I would look to improve my terms and conditions. The IfA is not and never has been a trade union. But I am happy to talk about achievements of the IfA.

When I joined in 1986 the first consultation I was involved in was regarding the IfA support for the World Archaeology Conference which was including white South African participants. The support was dropped after members voted not to. Following that I was a supporter of the ACT group whose aim was to move the IfA in the direction of supporting those at the bottom end of the profession a role now taken up by the Diggers Forum (which I have also supported since its inception). I always vote to support Diggers Forum candidates for election to IfA council. I was a member of the IfA working party responsible for creating Principle 5 of the IfA Code of Conduct and drafted the text that is pretty much as you read it today (thats the principle concerned with pay and conditions etc). I was also one of the instigators (along with James Drummond Murray) of the Outwage survey which was the first time that IfA looked at comparable salaries across the profession and helped lead eventually to the Profiling the Profession documents. I was one of the objectors to plans to introduce Competitive Tendering to UK archaeology and remove local archaeological expertise and chaired the fringe debate at conference in 1992 over these matters. I only occasionally work in UK archaeology these days so don't have such an active role in IfA matters anymore, but I am a member of the IfA international group.

In my time as a member I have seen the use of voluntary 'paid' labour regulated by the IfA and the introduction of wage minima that have greatly increased the wage levels of all archaeologists. Also the introduction of bursaries to help graduate archaeologists onto the first step into careers in archaeology and now the establishment through Chartered status of archaeologist as a recognised profession. So a few things......

Fair enough if you see it that way. I'm looking at what the IfA can do for me, not the other way round. After all they've had my money. The concrete benefit of it still eludes me ....

As for the wages, well they had to go up, IfA or no IfA. If companies today paid what they were paying 10 years back they'd have no staff.

[kevin wooldridge]

Fair enough if you see it that way. I'm looking at what the IfA can do for me, not the other way round. After all they've had my money.

It is a little sad that too many people appear to share that attitude.....but a degree of honesty is to be applauded. If more people were as honest it would save making excuses to deflect from the real reason they won't support the IfA...

[Steve H]

'It is a little sad that too many people appear to share that attitude.....but a degree of honesty is to be applauded. If more people were as honest it would save making excuses to deflect from the real reason they won't support the IfA... '

Who are you refering too?
I object to the IFA because it is a private club that frequently people have to join to get a job.
And to continue in the same vane as Mr Wooldridge; they do little if any good and seem to attract people who consider their own self importance as more important than their skill and ethics... That's my real reason I won't support the Institute of FA thank you very much

[BAJR]

At the worrying hope that this can be constructed differently/.

AS opposed to "what has the IfA ( of CIfA) ever done for for me. " WHat about asking what would you want them to do?

Remember they can only be one type of organisation.

If you want a Union... join a union. ( as Kevin said) recently when I tried to help promote that concept, nobody got involved and the unions did nothing to help.

If you want to be represented in a professional institute... join the IfA .. really, it does not really affect your job prospects at anything lower than PO to be honest.

I suspect you would want to see - and this is the nub of most hesitation to join - the bad boys punished.

SO standards must be upheld. standards set by.... the IfA

BAJR does it's little thing. and has grown into a big boy as well. through support and belief. made a few enemies as well. but hey... thats life.

So.... using teh positive wand. what do you want. (and it is not more sharpies!)