It's a good thing that Ned Heite's post (de-professionalization) didn't
appear in one of the technicians' newsletters floating around. After reading
in "The Underground" newsletter about how techs are so poorly paid and
treated, I replied by writing a letter to its editors -- a pair of techs who
once worked for me on a project. They responded by printing my letter in full
(including return address) and subsequent issues ran with vitriolic and
incoherent rebuttal letters under the masthead "The Rotenstein Page."
 
I agree with Heite that techs should be techs. But I also acknowledge that
much of the blame for the situation lies with senior staff members who place
less-qualified people (techs) in charge of projects because of staffing or
budget shortages. We as cultural resource management professionals need to
stop "signing off" for less qualifed people doing professional tasks. The
regs detailing professional qualifications were written for a reason, yet as
a whole they are circumvented by creative P.I.s and project managers.
 
Because professional qualifications are spelled out in a variety of regulation
s and state CRM guidelines, the ceiling for how much a person with only a
B.A. plus experience should be crystal clear. And, impenetrable unless the
additional education and experience is obtained.
 
Look at it this way, just because a nurse's assistant has 10 years of
experience working in an operating room, I would not want that person to
perform surgery on me. We need to take our profession more seriously and be
more consistent in adhering to the rules, otherwise in the long run some one
outside the profession is going to wake up and hold us accountable for the
millions of dollars spent in a federally mandated and regulated field for
which there are no real watchdogs to see that the regs and guidelines are
followed.
 
Just my two cents.
 
David Rotenstein
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