a good Friday-afternoon topic!
Speaking personally, I do not want designatory letters and would not use
them - I don't use those I have already! I haven't felt a need of them when
dealing with other members of the profession and as for outsiders, do we
really think they will know or care what the letters mean? Someone will need
to explain to me what use they are....
Susan Healy
(in luddite mode)
> ----------
> From: ELS Oldham Archives Service[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To: ELS Oldham Archives Service
> Sent: 07 May 1999 14:44
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Designatory letters
>
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering if anybody's got any views on the Society of Archivist's
> plans to award designatory letters to registered members. The letters
> under consideration at the moment are RPMSA or PMSA, standing for
> (Registered) Professional Member of the Society of Archivists.
> Apparently, as it doesn't affect our Articles of Association, we could
> just go ahead and do it whenever we like without balloting members, so
> I'd be interested to hear what people think.
>
> I can appreciate that if it's all part of the Society's attempts to
> achieve Chartered status and raise our professional standards then it
> could be a good thing, but a couple of points occur to me:
>
> The idea does not seem to have been widely publicised within the
> Society, and I am unsure of exactly why we are doing this and where the
> impetus for it has come from. Many registered members I have spoken to
> do not seem to particularly like the idea, and feel that they would
> probably never use the letters, suggesting that they don't really see
> the point of them either.
>
> If the letters are to represent Registered PROFESSIONAL members, what
> are non-registered members? There seems to be a trend within the
> Society to increasingly link registration with professional status.
> Does this mean that pre registration training candidates and archivists
> who are unable/unwilling to participate in the registration process will
> no longer be viewed as professional archivists?
>
> If you have any views at all (for or against) on this, then say so. Too
> often things just seem to happen in the Society of Archivists with the
> majority of the membership seemingly unaware of possible implications.
> How many members, for example, are really aware of the problems
> registration is causing for their newly qualified colleagues? The idea
> of designatory letters may not be a big issue, but it could affect us
> all in some way eventually.
>
> Maria Sienkiewicz
> Archives Officer, Oldham Local Studies and Archives
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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