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European Association of Archaeologists here we come methinks.Unless of course anyone can provide me with a convincing argument as to why we should`nt?
..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)
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MR Hosty, I may be able to provide personal details such as my monthly or yearly income and outgoings if your wanting to put together some statistics.Mine are probably a little different to most as I'm in that 13-16K band, run a car, pay mortgage (with all the other asociated costs- car and home insurance, stopping the place from falling down etc.) I work for a county unit so they do not pay professional memberships but I am in the pension scheme (not getting any younger). Also trying to pay for and finish an MSc. Also have mates with stay at home partners (raising the children). I guess you could call us the older mob with increasing financial responsibilities but little prospect of better pay/positions in the immediate future. And somewhere we are supposed to squeeze in the IFA.
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I was wondering if perhaps we could have a quick straw poll of how much we are paid? It seems to have a bearing on this issue.
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Quote:quote:Originally posted by Digger
I work for a county unit so they do not pay professional memberships.
I used to work for a county unit and they did in fact pay professional memberships, but not for temporary staff. I would suggest that you check with the appropriate spods in the council. You may find that the situation is different to what you currently think.
Cheers,
Eggbasket
Gentleman Adventurer and Antique
"Consultancy; if you are not part of the solution, there is money to be made from the problem."
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I would have thought Kevin's site at
http://www.freewebs.com/outwageuk would serve as a good straw poll on pay levels.
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Thanks Mercenary, I really must try and keep up. Excellent site- nice to see there is little difference in terms of pay between a Curator and an experienced Digger.
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Really! I must have another look. Guess that rules out a career switch when the body goves out.
I'd kind of figured out that one out for others reasons tho'.
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There is a lot of concern expressed here about the level of fees for IFA membership - but also a lot of criticism, on this thread and others, about whether or not the IFA does enough.
If we want the IFA to be very active in campaigning about wage levels, investigating complaints, enforcing standards, lobbying government on heritage issues, etc. etc. etc., it all costs money. Where do you think the money will come from? To the best of my knowledge, the only major funding stream that the IFA has is subscriptions. So, if it lowers the subscriptions, it would have to do less. If you want it to do more - be willing to pay higher subscriptions (or else each of you persuade six other people to join).
Speaking as someone who is in the top income bracket for subscriptions, I would support an increase in the top level subscription, to fund more activity. As a couple of people have pointed out, many of the top-level payers are actually paid for by their employer, and in any case we could afford to pay more. However, don't expect any such increase to enable a significant reduction for lower-paid members. The number of high earners in archaeology is low, so a big increase in our subscriptions would make a tiny difference to the subscriptions for the lower-paid majority.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
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If field archaeologists felt that they were benefitting from membership of the IFA then I'm sure many would join but seeing as though members gain absolutely nothing other than a newsletter and a few letters after their name that they can use if they feel the need to act as snobs, is it worth the money? Field archaeologists are already poorly paid when compared to other graduate professions (yes. field archaeology is a discipline of its own right with professionals practicing it) and so even around ?8 a month is too much to expect people to pay when they see nothing in return. Field archaeologists need an organisation to promote their interests rather than the interests of a mixture of people, many of whom look down on us as if we are dirt and don't even have the decency to recognise us as the professionals that wwe are.
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i agree that there is a need for a professional organisation more tailored to the role of the field archaeologist but how can we actually go about getting this implemented - is it actually something that could be realistically attained? i know this has been mentioned in previous threads but could the EAA really be the answer and if so how do we go about it?
I do not believe and hope it isnt true that many other professionals within archaeology and other fields look down on us - i am sure there are a few but it can be demoralising enough being out in the rain and snow all day without adding to it by knowing that everybody is looking down on us! hard not to when your in a bloody great pit or ditch though
Although, to turn this argument around, i am sure a few field archaeologists have said similar things/share similar opinions about those who have managed/chosen to get out of the field and pursued other more office based roles, for example. Isnt it about time that we all started to work together and respect eachothers professional positions under the umbrella that is archaeology [?]
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
