Carol
   
  the PI might "magically find the money" by letting you succeed at another firm.  I wonder if you are regularly on a different page from the PI?  Isnt your PI an archaeologist, too?
  Sure you must do the most complete analysis possible (within the parameters of the phase of work and level of effort/scope)...but why over run the budget (and probably schedule too) at the expense of generating a top notch technical report (or at least many hours of "off the clock" report writing). 
  I'm sure you're an adequate analyst, but show some pragmatism....how will your measurements help your staff to interpret cultural variables at this site?
   
  oh, I'm sure I'm gonna catch hell for this one...fire 'em up.
   
  Ray Ezell, RPA

Carol Serr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Oh...dont worry Ron - I am basically ignoring the PI's grumbles and
doing a proper job of the analysis. He will have to magically Find
money some where.

But, I just wondered how Others do things (since we archys often live in
isolation). And wanted reasons to give...to justify Taking
Measurements...since "uh, because we just Do"...didnt go over too well.

>-----Original Message-----
>From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
>Behalf Of Ron May
>Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 4:08 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Management Interference in Standard Archaeology Procedures
>
> 
>
>
>
>Carol,
> 
>I am appalled at what I am reading. When people bid on jobs, 
>they build in enough time to take the proper measurements and 
>collect the data our profession requires. Why on earth would 
>your supervisor at Jones & Stokes interfere with standard 
>laboratory analysis? As to the luxury of time, I think your 
>supervisor has lost the point of conducting comparative 
>analysis with other relevant collections. The whole purpose of 
>curating collections is so future researchers can study them, 
>and this includes consultants. But collections cannot be 
>dumped in sacks with zero measurements or catalog codes. This 
>time is also built into contract proposals. Failure to consult 
>other people's reports or the collections could render a 
>deficiency in the report that could cause your client a 
>significant delay or even kill the project. If, on the other 
>hand, the reviewing agency is allowing poor quality work to 
>pass over their desks, then shame on them. Proper 
>documentation is standard procedure. Is your supervisor an 
>archaeologist or a bean counter? What is he doing for 
>conservation of the collections?
> 
>Moreover, I would like to add that 40-years ago people ran out 
>to salvage collections in the path of bulldozers and then just 
>dumped sacks of artifacts in museums with the misbegotten 
>belief some future person would count, measure and make sense 
>of the mess. But all that ended with the raft of federal and 
>state laws and court decisions that defined the 1970s-1990s. 
>No one fails to record basic data today. What happened to the 
>Ph.D. archaeologist who assumed the management role of your company?
> 
>Ron May
>Legacy 106, Inc.
>
>
>
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