Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society nearly exists

L'Anse aux Meadows National
Historic Site. The Norse site on the
 northern peninsula.

It was a full weekend of drum building and planning for the soon-to-be incorporated Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society (NLAS).  More on the drums in a later post as I want to give a brief update on our second planning meeting to discuss the creation of a public archaeology society in the Province.  In our first meeting we decided that having a society was probably a good idea and we sent people off to research some of the nuts and bolts of incorporating and securing funding.  In this meeting we discussed what we found and made plans to act on the information gathered.

Ramah chert debitage and
reproductions

A dozen of us met in the boardroom over Bitters.  (Bitters is the  graduate student bar next door to the Archaeology Department on the Memorial University of Newfoundland campus.)  There were fewer people than at the first meeting, but everyone who couldn't make it sent their regrets and we picked up another handful of extra regrets from people who haven't been able to attend either meeting, but are still keen to be involved.  One of the big decisions to come out of this meeting was settling on  a name: Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society.  We are very close to landing on the final wording of a mission statement and we decided to incorporate as a not-for-profit corporation with five people volunteered to serve as directors.    We'll grab a domain name for the eventual website and try to find a few dollars to pay for expenses that come with starting up a society.  If we incorporate online, it will only cost $73, including reserving the name.  We have volunteers following up on funding sources, drafting a constitution, filing the articles of incorporation, researching charitable status, opening a bank account, and registering the domain name.

L'Anse Amour National Historic Site.
An archaic burial mound in Labrador

Our plan is to have one more planning meeting in June before everyone disperses into their respective fieldwork locations for the summer.  So if you are interested in getting involved in these early planning and foundation building stages, please get in touch, there is still room for volunteers; elfshot.tim@gmail.com.

Public archaeology programming
at The Rooms

One of the big jobs that a society like this needs done for its own benefit as well as to fulfill the requirements of funding agencies is a 3-5 year plan.  That's where we'll be looking for public feedback and seeking input from everyone who would have an interest in seeing a Newfoundland and Labrador Archaeological Society.  What should our goals and services to members include?  We intend to hold that public planning meeting early next fall, when we all get back from the summer field season.

Photo Credits: 
1, 4) Lori White
2,3) Tim Rast