Greetings!

I hope you all had a joyous and peaceful holiday and can embrace the new year with renewed hope and energy. This is typically a time to reflect on the past year, and for the Register, I believe 2022 will be remembered as the Year of Transition. In the past year, we have drafted new Bylaws and Codes and Standards, begun work on overhauling our Policies and Procedures, and hired a new Executive Director whose qualifications are focused not on archaeology but in running non-profit organizations. We have overhauled our accounting system to more efficiently document our finances and provide historical data for future decision making. In doing so, we have been able to streamline our annual budget. We have completed an internal audit of our human resources, insurance, and finances, and implemented changes to ensure transparency, accountability, and sustainability. We have established and strengthened relationships with our legal, investment, and accounting consultants such that we are truly partners in safeguarding your organization.

We have also strengthened our relationships with our Founding Organizations and with major Partnering organizations such as ACRA, identifying as a team what we all do best, and how we can support each other toward our common goals while staying in our own “lane”. As a result of this, the Register has let go of activities and tasks that other organizations are doing so we can focus on what makes us unique and important, no critical to our profession:  credentialing and accountability.

While we will continue this year to focus on administrative efficiencies, our renewed focus on credentialing and accountability has provided the first major step in our Strategic Plan by clearing the way for proactiveness in terms of aligning our Registrant categories with professional practices, providing opportunities for professional development beginning at the student level, and establishing partnering relationships that ensure that the Register not only works as part of the archaeological community but truly serves that community.

We have accomplished so much this year and this is much yet to do. Please share your thoughts with us and let us know how we can continue to serve you and better reflect our entire archaeological professional community.

In your service,

Trish Fernandez, M.A.

RPA 989366