The Register is uniquely positioned to provide resources and excellence to affiliate organizations that represent local or state interests which could extend the Register’s networking, education, and outreach opportunities for their members as well.

Currently, there are 18 affiliate organizations across the US and Canada, but we would love to see more. That's where you come in. We need your help to reach out to your local and state archaeological societies and encourage them to become RPA affiliates. 

By becoming an affiliate, these local and state societies can enjoy many advantages, such as:

- Increased visibility and recognition as a professional group

- Access to RPA's online database of certified archaeologists

- Eligibility for grants and awards from the RPA

- Participation in RPA's networking meeting and workshops

- Collaboration and communication with other affiliates and the RPA board

To become an affiliate, a society needs to meet the following criteria:

- Have at least 10 RPA members in good standing

- Have a mission statement that aligns with the RPA's goals and values

- Agree to abide by the RPA's code of conduct and standards of research performance

- Pay an annual fee

If you know of a society that meets these criteria and might be interested in becoming an affiliate, please contact them and share this information with them. You can also direct them to our website (www.rpanet.org) where they can find more details and an application form.

We appreciate your support and involvement in the RPA. Together, we can make a difference for archaeology and its practitioners.

President’s First Quarter Report Greetings, Registrants! I hope you all had a nice winter and are ready for what promises to be a busy year for all of us. It certainly is busy here at the Register, so I’ll get right to it! The President of any organization is responsible for ensuring and facilitating the implementation of the organization’s Strategic Plan. Our Board approved the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan early last year. 2022 Strategic Plan Activities. The Board prioritized auditing our administrative and governance components and restructuring and revising them to ensure that the Register was functioning properly to support our programs. The audit also served to ensure that there is adequate documentation to provide consistency through leadership transitions. Having set those components on the right path, I am now able to focus on the program aspects of our Strategic Plan: credentialing and accountability, which translate to the registration and grievance processes. One of the guiding tenets of our reorganization has been to focus on credentialing and accountability, which is what the Register was created to do by our Founding Organizations. As a result, we have stripped ourselves of activities that other professional organizations do on a much grander scale in the belief that our energy and funds will better serve our archaeological community in the long run by doing so. To help guide this effort, one of my priorities as President has been to reach out to our fellow organizations to build community (also part of the Strategic Plan) and my request has been that we all figure out:  what the community’s priorities are what each organization does best, and how we can all work together toward our common goals while staying in our own lane. This effort seems to be working but it takes constant communication and recalibrating when we get distracted off the path. So, what does that mean for you, the Registrants, and the rest of the archaeological community? We hear you. We know that addressing the issues of adequate training, proper pay, respectful recognition of our various roles--respectful treatment throughout the community for all of us—is so overdue. Our Strategic Plan helps us here, and this is what we have in store for 2023: Diversity. First, I am seeking diverse representation in all of our committees, task forces, and advisory groups. And our new Nominating Committee is tasked to do the same for our elected positions (President, President-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, Registrar, Grievance Coordinator Elect, and Standards Board). You should be seeing a voluntary survey soon asking for you to help us in this effort by telling us how you identify. Registration Categories. To focus on credentialing, we are reviewing our current requirements through our newly developed Registration Categories Task Force, comprised of a representative of a large CRM company (SEARCH), a small DBE CRM company (Dovetail Consulting), academia (Edward Gonzalez-Tennant, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), a Registered Archaeologist (Jesica Huddleston), and a tribal representative (Wendy Ferris, Hoopa). Their tasks are to determine how we can broaden our categories to include all working archaeologists and to raise our highest level of qualifications to exceed the Secretary of Interior standards. This may require a change in acronyms. Professional Pathway. To assist archaeologists gain entry-level positions and advance in their career, we are developing a Professional Pathways program under the umbrella of our Professional Development Committee (which now encompasses the Continuing Education and Field Schools Certification programs). This is a major effort, the vision of which is for the Register to serve as a hub for the vast and growing network of grassroots and institutional training venues available to us. The Register will first have to create a core curriculum (in consultation with our community representatives), then we can certify even the smallest training event or on-the-job activity for Register credit. We would then track training through a sort of Passport program. Our hope is that training for our student members would be free or low-cost. Partners. Of course, we need help from our community, so our Outreach Committee will be focusing on strengthening our existing relationships with Founding Organizations and Affiliated Societies, and expanding our partnership program to include other like organizations (such as ACRA, National Association of Environmental Planners, the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, and the European Association of Archaeologists) and to educational partners that would include universities (through the ACRA Academic Collaboration program), CRM companies (for on-the-job training or specific training courses), existing partners (Founding Organizations and Affiliated Societies) and other non-profits such as: Career Readiness Commission: https://anthrocareerready.net Partners for Archaeological Site Stewardship: https://sitestewardship.org Early Career Archaeologists  https://ecarchaeologists.com California Tribal Unilateral Apprenticeship Program https://ctuap.org. Our goal is for registration and partnership funding and pro-bono education services to sustain our overall funding needs. Please send us names of other organizations we should be reaching out to; we know there are so many out there and need your help. Financial Health. We also are auditing our financial policies (through the help of our new Financial Plan Task Force) to ensure we are not only running efficiently, but that we are also clear about what our needs are for operations and program expenses, that we ensure our liability insurance covers us in the event of the unfortunate, and that our investment account is appropriately funded. We hope this effort will identify where we may find additional savings and where we may see surpluses to put back into our programs. Grievance. We also hear you on the Grievance process and are working to review it to ensure it remains fair, swift, and anonymous. We also want to help archaeologists and other stakeholders understand their role in bringing grievances to us. Finally, we want to ensure the repercussions for breaching our Code are adequate. We will have more information updating you on our progress on these fronts throughout the year. Overall, we hope that these efforts continue the vision of the Register to increase professionalism in our industry by setting the standard and holding us all accountable. In your service, Trish Fernandez, M.A., RPA 12198 Register President president@rpanet.org

At The Register, we value the contributions of volunteers who help to plan and implement programs, events, and fundraising initiatives. Volunteers are essential to our successes as they share their knowledge, expertise, and enthusiasm to help our organization achieve its mission.

There are several different areas where volunteers are needed, including:

• Help with the planning and organizing of events and meetings
• Participation on committees
• Serving on the board of directors
• Assisting in the development of activities, projects, and fundraisers

We are seeking volunteers who are enthusiastic and committed, who have experience in the areas in which our organization works, and who are able to give their time on a regular basis. If you know of anyone who would be interested, please let us know.

If you would like to apply for a volunteer position or would like to recommend someone for a volunteer role, please contact our Communications Director, Dina, at commsdirector@rpanet.org.

We thank you for taking the time to consider this important request.

Sincerely,

The Register Team

Our colleagues at the Society for American Archaeology would like to invite you to help define the topics that will contour the future of cultural resource management (CRM) archaeology in the United States.

In 1974, cultural resource management legislation spurred the organization of a conference at the Airlie House retreat in Warrenton, Virginia. Published in 1977, the report from the conference helped shape federal archaeology and cultural resource management over the next four decades. But the world is rapidly changing, and archaeology needs to convene a new Airlie House-like conference in order to address such issues as improving engagement and partnerships with descendant communities, climate change impacts, decolonizing archaeology, and academic training that supports and advances compliance with our nation’s historic preservation laws.

Please provide advice about the topics that should be discussed at such a workshop.

You may have already participated in the October 2022 survey on an initial list of topics; thank you for sharing your thoughts.

As further outreach, the SAA will host an online Zoom webinar on February 8, 2023. And as a third conduit for information, if you are coming to the SAA 88th Annual Meeting in Portland, you can also join our in-person conversation on Thursday, March 30: “Back to the Future: The National Historic Preservation Act and the SAA/NPS Airlie House Seminars Revisited.”

Online Zoom Webinar

Date: February 8, 2023

Time: 2:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m. Eastern

Register: Webinar Registration

Content: The digital conversation about workshop topics will review the impact that Airlie House had on the profession, outline the results of a recent survey on priority topics, and open the floor for conversation about missing or additional workshop topics.

You do not need to be an SAA member to register. Registration will close on February 6. Registrants will receive an email on February 7 with a link to the webinar.

You may forward this email to any relevant lists, but please only register once for the Zoom webinar as registration is limited to the first 300 registrants. The webinar will be recorded and posted after February 8, 2023, in case you cannot make the online event.

To facilitate the online discussion, the survey results from October 2022 are posted online here. Once received, interviews from original Airlie House workshop attendees will also be posted on this page, as will the recording from the February online conversation.

Please help shape the conversation about the future of archaeology in the United States.

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

The Register of Professional Archaeologists is excited to announce that the participation category for Students and Early Career Archaeologists is now live and accepting applications! 

This initiative is part of our continued efforts to implement the Strategic Plan, the goals of which include promoting shared values and archaeological training and practice, facilitating professional development, and advocating for archaeologists.

The eligibility requirements for this new category are listed below:

• Currently enrolled or graduated with a minimum of a B.A., B.S., A.A., A.S, or equivalent in the past 2 years with a Major in Archaeology, Anthropology, Classics, or another germane discipline with a specialization in archaeology from an accredited institution
• No Experience is required
• An unofficial copy of Academic transcripts will be required to verify enrollment dates and declared major.
• Recommended by an active RPA in good standing with the Register
• Like all Register applicants, Accept Register’s Code and Standards and Grievance Procedures
• Student/Early Career Registrants will not be able to vote on Register decisions but will be represented through an advisory committee liaison to the board.
• Annual Fee will be $25 for the length of academic enrollment and up to 2 years after graduation with a Bachelor level degree.

One key benefit of this category is that it extends the Register’s support to students to provide low or no-cost training as part of our evolving Professional Development Program. Other benefits include access to JSTOR, Registrant focused job listings, and the Archeological Ethics Database, as well as the increased opportunity for broader networking, support, mentoring, and career path assistance.

Our goal is to provide a place at the Register not only for students, but for those who may have taken a respite from their studies, who may have begun a graduate program, or those that want to return to their studies. We aspire to embrace and encourage all students and early career archaeologists to progress into a profession that wants to help them along the way.

Learn more at the Register FAQ and Apply today!

From our colleagues at the Society for American Archaeology:

The sale of illicitly-procured objects of Native American cultural heritage in overseas auction houses remains a major problem. Numerous auctions of such items are held overseas, and foreign governments are often unwilling to step in, citing the lack of a U.S. law that specifically prohibits the export of looted tribal objects.

Congress can fix this now. Bipartisan legislation, the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act (STOP Act) (H.R. 2930), would create an explicit prohibition on the export of items obtained in violation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) or the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA). This measure will make it possible for Native American tribes to access other countries' law enforcement mechanisms to regain their stolen property.

The STOP Act passed the House last year. Now we need the Senate to follow suit. Because time is short, we need the Senate Armed Services Committee to add the STOP Act to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the Senate will take up in the next few days. Please take a few minutes today and use our Take Action portal to send a letter to your senator, who sits on the Armed Services Committee or is in the leadership, and urge them to support the STOP Act as an amendment to the NDAA.

We have successfully joined forces with Suntect Apparel to provide Registrants a 15% discount on any of their products. This exclusive opportunity is for The Register Only. Please do not share outside of our organization. Visit Suntect.com or scan the QR code below to check out the Suntect product line of high quality UPF50+ apparel; and download this PDF to find out more about Suntect. Your discount can be accessed by using the coupon code: RPA15PCT Download this PDF to find out more about Suntect.

We will continue to look for opportunities to improve and support the lives and careers of our registrants. If you have any suggestions, comments, or concerns, reach out to The Register's Communications Director, Dina, at commsdirector@rpanet.org.

The Register of Professional Archaeologists (Register) is calling on you as a Registered Professional Archaeologist to make nominations (that includes yourself) for our upcoming elections. Registrant nominations are critical to the continued guidance of the Register as it presents another forum for you as individuals to make your voices heard. The positions listed below are up for election. Secretary-Treasurer (Jan 2023 – Dec 2024) Standards Board Member (Jan 2023 – Dec 2025); serves as Chair for last year of term Standards Board Alternate (Jan 2023 – Dec 2025) Grievance Coordinator-Elect (Jan 2023 – Dec 2024); serves as Grievance Coordinator Jan 2025 – Dec 2026)

As an incentive, the third individual who submits a nomination for each position (for a verified RPA) will have their 2023 fees waived.

Position Descriptions are attached below: Secretary-Treasurer Standards Board and Standards Alternate Grievance Coordinator-Elect Please send your interest reply to executivedirector@rpanet.org with one page including: Position statement A short biography Your qualifications for the position.  A headshot photograph Thank you for your help in guiding The Register through another year! Download this announcement as a PDF

 A short review of RPA’s activities at WAC-9, the 9^th World Archaeological Congress, held in Prague, Czech Republic, between 3^rd and 8^th July 2022 by Register Ethics Chair Kenneth Aitchison

WAC-9 had been twice delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic; it was originally scheduled for summer 2020, then summer 2021, before finally being delivered in hybrid form in 2022. There were approximately 350 delegates at the conference, with a truly global range of participants. At any given time, there were eight simultaneous sessions running.

Prior to the congress, Kenneth Aitchison (as Chair of Ethics Committee) and Deb Rotman (the then RPA Executive Director) had discussed the potential to organise an Ethics Bowl, in the same style as those supported (and organised by RPA Ethics Committee members) at SAA and other conferences. SAA Ethics Bowls involve considerable organisation, with teams of students representing different universities entering and competing in a debating competition format. A cash prize, funded by RPA, is normally presented to the winners.

We saw the organisation of an Ethics Bowl as a good way to raise RPA’s international visibility and to promote the Register to new audiences.

The session was accepted on to the conference programme, as the “WAC Archaeological Ethics Bowl“.

Prior to the WAC congress, Deb Rotman’s period of employment with RPA came to an end, and it was proposed (and agreed) that the two other members of RPA’s Ethics Committee, Katie Chiou and Danny Perez, who organised the successful Ethics Bowl at SAA 2022 in Chicago, would attend WAC-9 in addition to Kenneth Aitchison to organise, promote and manage the WAC Ethics Bowl.

In the month immediately prior to the Congress, Kenneth Aitchison was contacted by the Congress Local Organising Committee to ask if the event we were organising could be in some way combined with a WAC Student Ethics Debate. This had apparently been a regular fixture at previous WAC Congresses, but was not actually proposed for WAC-9. After some discussion with the Local Organisers and the WAC Student Committee (including that Committee’s representative to the WAC Board), it was agreed that the session would go ahead as planned, that WAC Student Committee (none of whom would actually be able to attend the Congress in person) would help to prepare cases to be debated in the session, that RPA would consider providing prize funds, and that RPA would seek to formalise a relationship with WAC that would encompass RPA supporting future Ethics Bowls at future WAC Congresses (these Congresses are organised on a four-year cycle, but because WAC-9 had been delayed by two years, WAC-10 will be in 2024). Trish Fernandez, as RPA President, wrote to Koji Mizoguchi, WAC President, to confirm this.

There was then further confusion about the size of room that we would be allocated; in the week before the Congress, it was finally decided that the session would be held in the Congress Centre’s Board room, rather than one of the lecture theatres, and would be timetabled for a whole day on Thursday 7^th, the third day of the Congress. This room could accommodate a maximum of 15 people, and so it was decided that we could not stage a competitive Ethics Bowl, but rather an Ethics Debate. This would be in the style of an event RPA ran at AAA 2021 conference, where delegates discussed the issues presented in a series of cases, but did not present arguments and counter-arguments to be judged

Danny Perez and Katie Chiou selected eight cases from previous SAA Ethics Bowls that we could use as discussion cases in the session.

After arriving at WAC, in the days before the session we actively encouraged people to attend and contribute – we had printed business cards with the details and handed many out.

The session ran successfully, over the course of a full day. Delegates were free to join the session as they saw fit (moving in from, or out to other sessions at breaks through the day).

We led discussion of seven cases, with between 45 minutes and an hour spent on each. For each case, discussion was preceded by presentations of RPA and RPA’s objectives in terms of ethics, of what ethics bowls and debates in archaeology are, and an explanation of how each case would be run. The case was read out, colleagues in the room also had paper copies, and a small number of online contributors followed the discussion.

For each case, between six and ten WAC delegates contributed to the discussion, with a total of approaching 20 colleagues attending in total. Representatives from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, China, Korea, UK, US, India, Australia, Canada, Germany, Bulgaria and Lebanon all contributed in the room across the day.

Discussion was remarkably free-flowing, with participants confidently presenting a wide range of well-considered different perspectives, experiences and opinions on each case study. Every attendee was able to actively contribute, and throughout discussion remained cordial and open – at one point, after hearing the case, one participant exclaimed ‘that was me!’ – they had been in a very similar situation, and felt able to discuss just how that had affected her and how she had dealt with it. Another delegate shared their feeling that it was a safe place to express their opinions in front of strangers, which they had not expected to be able to do at a high-profile academic conference.

At competitive Ethics Bowls, we have found that the student teams tend to focus on Codes and Standards as canonical articles of faith, and all arguments are presented in terms of these, with an intention of presenting a solution (all cases set out a scenario that a fictional individual is in, and all end with – ‘what should X do?’); here at WAC, we found that the discussion was much more exploratory, considering the situations in much more detail without paying as much attention to presenting a neat ‘resolution’.

The conversation was remarkably energising, and didn’t flag – which left the three organisers simultaneously exhilerated and exhausted when the session ended.

We were able to collect a number of email addresses, and many people expressed interest in finding out more about RPA.

Claire Smith, the former President of WAC, attended one of the cases and told us that she was really impressed, and that this was definitely the sort of thing WAC should be supporting. She encouraged us to propose a publication about Ethics Bowls to the WAC One World Archaeology series.

A couple of the doctoral students who attended the Ethics Bowl told Katie and Danny that our session was the best part of their attendance at WAC-9.

We feel that the session was a considerable success. RPA made a very positive impact at the WAC Congress, and on WAC Officers past and present, and we should ensure that this relationship is maintained and that momentum is not lost.