I'm afraid I agree with Caroline Shenton - this discussion doesn't seem to
be going anywhere.  There are bigger issues for the profession to sort out
before we reach the stage of designatory letters. 

The situation with professional registration is still highly unsatisfactory,
as shown by previous communcations to the list, with highly qualified and
experienced professionals excluded from the 'club' because they have a
foreign qualification.  Who are we to judge the value of a professional
qualification made overseas?  This is a point I made to my Regional
Councillor over the new membership structure which is something else that we
should be examining.

I agree wholeheartedly that we should be as inclusive and open as possible
offering support and guidance to those people working in archives without a
professional qualification.  Instead of navel gazing amongst ourselves we
should be out there promoting archives and records management on the basis
of what we can actually do for organisations on a practical level.  My
employers don't really care if I have a frankly silly acronym [I'm currently
at MA MArAd] after my name - they want a records management system that
works, a properly catalogued archive and sound advice on digital records and
Data Protection.  

Before we develop a system of even more letters we should be looking at what
the Society is actually for and assessing its role in this quite radically.
I have yet to have a sight of Nigel Hardman's document - it is coming in my
next Regional Mailing.  Hopefully his working party can offer some guidance
here.

Also we need to sort out why we have professional registration and exactly
what the PRTDS will achieve.  I am a member of the PRTDS for no other reason
that it might in future help me secure a better job / more pay.  Currently
there is no other benefit that I can see and until the profile of the
profession is raised even this benefit will not be achieved.

This is a long message and is not meant to be as negative as it perhaps
seems.  These are issues we have to discuss but we have to look at the wider
picture and stop looking at our navels.  It seems to me that we want letters
because the librarians have got letters - this is an attitude from the
playground and indicative of a deep seated insidious inferiority somewhere
in the archival psyche which is not pleasant and ultimately does us no good
at all.

Carolynn Bain
Archivist
The National Trust for Scotland
5 Charlotte Square
Edinburgh
EH2 4DU T: 0131 226 5922  F: 0131 243 9501

The opinions expressed in this email are purely personal and in no way
reflect the policy of the National Trust for Scotland.
====================================
The National Trust for Scotland
The Trust is a charity (No SC 007410) and depends for its support on the
subscriptions of its Members, donations and legacies


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