Paul,
You've raised very good points. I appreciate your response and
your willingness to discuss this issue. You've reminded me of the
importance of considering alternative societies and cultures. I
let that dreaded American tunnel vision take over.
Evidently many of the modes of fundraising that are familiar to
Americans are foreign elsewhere <pun intended>. I'll have to poll
my colleagues to find out how nonprofits raise funds in their
countries.
I readily agree that the issue of fundraising raises eyebrows.
Dr. Pettigrew and I were concerned about how members of the
various listserves to which I posted his e-mail would respond.
I'm happy to report that none of the very few responses to our
posting were negative. (I consider your post, especially in light
of your clarification, as a "more information needed" rather than
a rejection.)
I've forwarded your comments to Dr. Pettigrew so that he can take
them into consideration in future efforts. Thanks again for
taking the time to respond.
Cassie Hemphill
Volunteer List Serve Coordinator
The Archaeology Channel (www.archaeologychannel.org)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Barford [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 8:45 AM
> To: Arch-theory list is for international discussions, reviews,
> andexchanges o
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ArchTheoMeth] Odp: How non-profits survive
> (was The Value of
> Archaeology -- from TAC)
>
>
> Cassie Hemphill > assumed that most professional
> > archaeologists, especially those that subscribe to
> this list serve,
> > would be familiar with the The Archaeology Channel ...
> Your message reached a number of milieux well outside
> that in which it
> originated. I got a message inviting (challenging) me
> to give my money to
> Dr Pettigrew whom I do not know personally and so all
> I have to go on is
> what I read. I got it alongside I must say a whole lot
> of other spam, from
> hair loss treatments to mortgage schemes and also
> buying diplomas of
> academic achievement from "non accredited academic
> institutions" as well as
> a handful which i did not even bother to read before
> deleting. The
> difference between them is the first came to me
> through an academic
> discussion list. So instead of deleting straight away
> I read it and then I
> tried to initiate some discussion about it.
>
>
> > If you'd conducted a modicum of background research
> > before posting your message. [...] TAC is a
> > respected research and education organization, reaching
> > the public and your profession through extremely effective
> > use of the internet.
> Well, actually I have visited the website on more than
> one occasion. (does
> that count as a "modicum of background research"?). I
> am not really sure
> what to make of it. Anyone can of course found an
> organization and call it
> the "Archaeological Legacy Institute" or any other
> high-sounding title and
> write an idealistic mission statement covering a wide
> range of problems and
> produce dozens of reasons why any company or
> individual would want to
> sponsor it. As for the "research" conducted by the
> "Institute", I could not
> find much mention of that in Dr Pettigrew's latest
> "status report", so it
> would be difficult to assess what kind of respect it
> has generated in the
> profession from that.
>
> > Apparently, you must not [...] in fact, support any
> charitable
> > organizations! If you did, you would be well aware
> that challenge
> > grants--from both anonymous and named donors--are a well
> > established method of increasing donations.
> Not here they aren't. People (including myself) give
> money because they
> believe in the cause and not because they want to
> compete with somebody
> else.
>
> What though I asked - and I will ask again - is how in
> this case the
> sponsor who decides to "accept the challenge" can be
> sure that their
> donation will indeed be matched by the anonymous
> donor, apart from your
> say-so that this will not be purely "on paper"?
>
> If TAC or the ALI or whatever it is really is a bona
> fide educational
> organization of the stature it claims to be, then
> surely in order to prove
> its legitimacy when raising funds from potential
> donors, it could let them
> have a list of the financial support it has applied
> for and received from
> official grant-giving organizations to accompany its
> more gimmicky
> fund-raising attempts such as this one. The last
> status report says that ten
> had been applied for.
>
> > I hope that after you've had a chance to look at the website,
> > you'll appreciate the benefits Dr. Pettigrew's vision and
> > hard work are bringing to your profession and the world in
> > general.
> Well, to be frank, I am not at all convinced of that.
> Video programs which
> start with the habitual mellow male American voice
> intoning intensely:
> "There are mysteries here, mysteries covered by the
> centuries..." and
> followed by a slide show of mystically-lit artefacts
> only encourage the
> Indiana Jones view of the discipline, and there is
> enough of that already in
> the media. Of the 26 videos currently on offer, 15
> were of the United
> States (many of them on the mound-builders), three
> Mesoamerica, four Greece
> and Rome. Hardly very representative. Few of the
> titles suggest that they
> are in any major way connected specifically with the
> conservation of the
> archaeological heritage, although that is one of the
> major points stressed
> in the mission statement. Personally, although I fully
> agree that one of the
> things we should do is to make the results of our work
> available to a wider
> audience, I really do not see how these TAC videos
> are bringing any more
> benefit to my branch of the profession than (say) the
> better efforts of
> Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Cassie
> Hemphill is obviously
> sincere in her absolute belief in the values of TAC.
> Other list-members can
> however look at the website themselves, watch a few of
> the videos, and
> decide for themselves.
>
> Paul Barford
>
>
>
>
>
>
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