Championing Archaeological Businesses

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Author: Doug Rocks-Macqueen

  • Maximising Media Coverage for Your Archaeology Story

    Find out how to attract media coverage for your archaeology update, project or discovery, a FREE training event.

    Register and full details here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/maximising-media-coverage-for-your-archaeology-story-tickets-163064272629

    About this event

    “The process and results of archaeological discovery should be shared widely and provide benefits for the people of Scotland. ” – Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy

    Enjoy a session delivered by Maiya Pina-Dacier, Head of Community at DigVentures, a social business that specialises in crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and digital methods to increase public participation in archaeological research.

    In 2020, DigVentures released a story about a Viking-era board-game piece found at Lindisfarne which spread like wildfire. In addition to being covered by The Guardian, Forbes, Smithsonian, and The Times, it reached international papers from Denmark to India. But this wasn’t the first time one of their stories received local, national and international attention.

    Speaking from experience, Maiya will talk about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to getting your archaeology news picked up by radio stations, newspapers and more. Whether you’re recruiting volunteers for a small event or announcing a nationally important discovery, you’ll leave with a better sense of how to get the fundamentals in place.

    Maiya’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A session to cover any key issues or questions in more detail.

    This webinar is part of Scotland Digs 2021, the annual campaign coordinated by Dig It! to promote the summer dig season.

    #ScotlandDigs2021

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    WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

    This event is designed for anyone who works/volunteers in Scotland’s archaeology sector.

     

  • FAME Statement on Pay and Conditions in Archaeology

    FAME believes that appropriate levels of financial reward, together with attractive terms and conditions of employment, is good business practice and an essential requirement for our members to recruit, retain and develop the best staff. We work with and support our members’ intentions to achieve this through the interaction between demand and supply for heritage services within the market place.

    Tim Malim

    Chair: FAME Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers

    14th July 2021

    Download the signed statement here: FAME Statement on Pay and Conditions

  • FAME welcomes new member Magnitude Surveys

    We are happy to welcome a new member to FAME, Magnitude Surveys.

    Magnitude Surveys is a social enterprise and independent provider of archaeological geophysics to the commercial, community, research, and education sectors. Founded in 2015, the company has since grown to become one of the largest suppliers of specialist geophysical services within the archaeology and heritage sector. Based in Bradford, we are active across the UK, undertaking surveys ranging from small-scale community-archaeology or research-led projects, to large-scale infrastructure schemes.

    Find out more on their website: https://www.magnitudesurveys.co.uk/

     

  • FAME briefing on bullying and harassment in UK archaeology

    There have been several recent surveys on bullying and harassment in Archaeology which has shown that, while the sector is better than the NHS, we are worse than civil servants in terms of incidents in the last year. Of particular relevance to FAME members is the finding that these incidents are causing 29x more loss of staff time than RIDDOR injuries.
    We have put together a brief highlighting the key findings of these recent surveys for you: FAME briefing on bullying and harassment in UK archaeology
    However, sector wide statistics may not be helpful to individual organisations. Oxford Archaeology has recently run an internal staff survey to better understand issues of bullying and harassment. They found this experience helpful in understanding the nature of these issues and how they are affecting their staff. Oxford Archaeology has generously shared their template of that survey for FAME members  to adopt as they see fit – questions around roles, offices, talking with union reps, etc. will likely need to be changed for each of you. They do ask to be appropriately credited if you do use the template – something in the survey blurb introduction, along the lines of ‘this survey has been produced using a similar example provided by Oxford Archaeology – we are grateful for their help’.
    Such a survey will be of use to our larger members but we realise it may not work for all of you. If you need help further adopting it to a smaller organisation please do get in touch.

  • Build for the Future Exhibition

    FAME member Archaeological Project Services is hosting a construction sector exhibition, Build for the Future Exhibition. This annual event is directly marketed and aimed at those within the Construction, Property, Heritage, Sustainability and Trade Industries across the East Midlands. The main aim is to connect businesses together within these industries, to ensure that they are accessible to businesses of all sizes and capacity.

    Prices are below the average price to exhibit at an event such as this and they are hoping to draw in attendees from across the East Midlands area by working with some key partners and influencers in the industry.

    Build for the Future Exhibition is being held at the Lincolnshire Showground on the 16th September. The event is hosted by Heritage Lincolnshire and Archaeological Project Services, sponsored by Arion & Arion Shop UK and working in partnership with the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce following the successful event in February 2020.

    For more information see the website: https://website.heritagelincolnshire.org/exhibition

    Or see the poster: HTL Build for the Future East Midlands 2021 POSTER A4

    Booking form: HTL Build for the future exhibition BOOKING FORM for conference 2021 v4 fillable

  • Rebuilding Heritage Webinars

    The Heritage Alliance’s programme, Rebuilding Heritage, has released the schedule for its final 8 webinars. There are free and we encourage all FAME members to review them to see if any can be of value to you or your organisation:

    •    Managing Organisational Change, Thursday 24 June, 2pm – 3.30pm
    •    Back by popular demand – Wellbeing Gym 2, Monday 5 July, 5pm – 6.30pm
    •    What’s the point of you? Clarifying your mission, Thursday 8 July, 1pm – 2.30pm
    •    What’s the point of you? Communicating who you are and what you do, Wednesday 14 July, 11am – 12.30pm
    •    People-led: Internal Communications, Monday 19 July, 11am – 12.30pm
    •    Needs-led: Fundraising for sustainability, Thursday 22 July, 10am – 11.30am
    •    Values-led: Leadership for change, Thursday 29 July, 2pm – 3.30pm
    •    Digital is not the answer, Monday 26 July, 3pm – 4.30pm

  • Introducing the Archaeological Achievement Awards

    Introducing the Archaeological Achievement Awards

    The British Archaeological Awards are changing – join us on Friday 18 June at 10am as we announce the awards new name, why it has changed and our new award categories.

    Join us for a discussion about what’s next for the awards and how we will be using them as an opportunity to celebrate the latest archaeological activity across the UK and Ireland. We will also be discussing the role of archaeology in society and the value it creates and you will have the opportunity to put your questions to the panel on the importance of archaeology.

    CBA Executive Director Neil Redfern will be hosting the conversation and joining him will be representatives from across the archaeology and heritage sector including:

    Laura Hampden, European Society of Black and Allied Archaeologists

    James Kyle, Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland

    Paul Belford, Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust

    Keith Lilley, Queens University Belfast

    Tim Malim, FAME

    The event will be live on Zoom. To join the event and put you questions to the panellists please use the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82252358907?pwd=Z0VsVVV5WFdWdGtiUFlWZTBEYUpHdz09

    Passcode: 497008

    You can also watch a live stream of the event on the CBA YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/CouncilforBritishArchaeology

    Can’t make the live event, a recording will be made available the following week on the CBA YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/CouncilforBritishArchaeology.

  • The Official HSE Health and Safety app for SMEs

    The Official HSE Health and Safety app for SMEs

    FAME would like to alert all FAME members and archaeology organisations that the Health and Safety Executive has released an a bespoke mobile app designed for small businesses or anyone new to health and safety. This app will help you to understand the law, your health and safety rights, your responsibilities and how to protect employees. The app contains core guidance on what the law requires and the responsibilities an employer has under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

    This app is not designed for health and safety professionals, consultants or those looking for detailed information on health and safety law.

    There is a very small fee of 2.99 and can be bought on the Apple iOS store and the Google Play Store.

  • Using Social Media to Encourage Public Engagement with Archaeology

    A free webinar on using social media to encourage public engagement with archaeology.

    About this event

    A session delivered by Christopher Wakefield from the University of York which sold out at CIfA’s Innovation Festival earlier this year. Christopher is the archaeologist responsible for Must Farm’s online outreach and is currently working on a PhD on the same topic.

    The presentation will use excavations at Must Farm (a Bronze Age settlement site in England) as a case study to discuss strategies, social media plans, content creation, generating engagement with audiences and evaluating the impact of projects. It’s designed to be practical and cover some of the key barriers to digital engagement in both commercial and community-led environments (such as client confidentiality and lack of time and resources).

    Christopher’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A session to cover any key issues or questions in more detail.

    Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-social-media-to-encourage-public-engagement-with-archaeology-tickets-155596099121

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    WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

    This event is designed for anyone who works/volunteers in the archaeology sector. There will be some brief discussion on Scottish Archaeology but the majority of the event will be applicable to everyone.

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    BOOKING

    Booking is essential to receive the Zoom event details. Our emails may end up in your junk mail folder, so either add Eventbrite to your address book or check the folder before the event begins.

    If you’re new to Zoom, click here to find out how to get started.

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    SHARE YOUR ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

    Do you have a press release date that you want other organisations to avoid or a campaign you’d like them to share? We’ll ask for this information during the event, but you can also contact us ahead of time if you can’t make it or would rather not speak up.

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    FAQs

    Will it be recorded?

    No (sorry), but you can read about Christopher’s work here.

    Will there be subtitles?

    The event will utilise Zoom’s closed captioning service, which provides subtitles of the spoken in-meeting communications.

    Do I have to talk?

    Everyone will be invited to join the Q&A and discussion, but you’re welcome to stay muted and keep your camera off for the duration of the event.

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    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

    All attendees are expected to act with respect to one-another during this event and anyone making comments which we believe to be inappropriate or abusive will be removed from the event immediately.

    If you have any questions or want to know more about the campaign before the event, please don’t hesitate to email digit@socantscot.com.

    Dig It! is coordinated by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and primarily funded by Historic Environment Scotland.

    Using Social Media to Encourage Public Engagement with Archaeology image
  • Development-led archaeology Health and Safety statistics 2019-20

    Development-led archaeology Health and Safety statistics 2019-20

    The results of the FAME 2019-20 Health and Safety Injury Survey are now available. The document can be downloaded here: FAME Health and Safety Injury Survey 2019-20

     

    3 Key Findings:

    1. Significant drops in RIDDOR Injury frequency rates & Incident rates:
    • Specified injuries:
      • 0.21 & 42 in 2019-20
      • 2.01 & 342 in 2018-19
    • Injuries resulting in over 7 days absence:
      • 0.43 & 84 in 2019-20
      • 1.51 & 256 in 2018-19
    1. Archaeology had comparable RIDDOR injury rates to the arts and entertainment industries in 2019-20, lower than construction and construction-related industries. Caution: it will take averaging multiple years to get accurate numbers for the sector, this is only year two of a four- to five-year process.

     

    1. Ergonomic/Manual Handling made up a third of non-RIDDOR reported injuries as it did for 2018-19 and is of concern for the sector.