Advisory Council has a wide range of topics on its agenda and minutes of meetings can be downloaded from the website. In this bulletin we’ve highlighted a few of the key items discussed at the latest meeting in September.
Early careers information and CIfA partners programme
During the summer Natalie Olembo joined CIfA on an 8-week placement as part of the Historic England Heritage Training placements specifically for individuals of Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic heritage.
As part of the placement, Natalie was tasked with researching two projects to look at
- how CIfA can improve the way it communicates careers information to a diverse and technologically aware audience, and
- how CIfA can set up programme to identify individuals in archaeological organisations to act as a ‘partner’ to promote the work of the Institute and feedback views from members.
Advisory Council discussed how a partner or ‘buddy’ programme might work in terms of what information could be provided to individuals and what incentives and benefits could be offered as part of this. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact admin@archaeologists.net
Advisory Council also discussed how CIfA can improve its use of various social media channels and set up a social media working group to come up with a strategy.
Strategic plan workshop
The Institute’s current strategic plan runs until 2020 and the Board of Directors has agreed a programme to develop the vision and objectives for the Institute for 2020 onwards. Advisory Council will play a key role in this process by offering advice on where it thinks the Institute’s resources should be focused.
At this meeting Advisory Council members were asked to comment on the developing vision statement and to consider what the Institute would need to do to achieve the various elements of this: the objectives and strategies.
Advisory Council also took the opportunity to look back at what has been put in place under the current plan and to identify what the top achievements have been. A short summary is available from the link below
Minimum salary recommendations
Each September Advisory Council considers recommendations on the increase to the recommended minimum salaries for the following April. Any recommendations are made in line with CIfA’s Policy Statement on pay and taking into consideration other factors such as the current rate of inflation.
The recommendations on minimum salaries along with the advice offered by Advisory Council and any further recommendations from the Industry Working Group will be taken to the next Board meeting in November, where the Board of Directors will decide what the CIfA recommended minimum salaries will be from April 2020.
Update from Advisory Council working parties
Wellbeing
The Wellbeing working group was set up in June and since then have sent a survey to Registered Organisation’s to gauge what wellbeing support is being offered to staff, if there are good practice examples CIfA can use as a resource for members, and what other useful information we should signpost. The next step will be to collate the responses and to set up a section on the CIfA website with all the information gathered by the working group.
Equality and Diversity in archaeology
The final summary report from the Board which incorporates the recommendations from the Equality and Diversity in archaeology working group has been published. The report sets out the scope of issues to be considered, identifies priorities for immediate action and longer-term strategies, and acknowledges the vital role of other bodies and the need for collaborative working.
The next Advisory Council meeting will be on 13 February 2020. If you have an issue that you would like the Advisory Council to consider, or you would like Advisory Council to raise with the Board of Directors, you can email us at admin@archaeologists.net, or contact the Chair of Advisory Council, a Group representative or any of the elected members
