#202 Field Archaeologist's Survival Guide

As many of my readers know, I've had a long running series of posts called the Shovelbum's Guide. The posts are designed for field archaeologists and cover a variety of topics. Well, I've blogged earlier about Left Coast Press publishing those posts into a book. For the last several months I've been editing, adding to, and revising my posts. I'm glad to announce that the book is now available for pre-order, in paperback and eBook, on the Left Coast Press site for $24.95! It won't be out until about April, but, now is a great time to tell friends and family to get you a copy for the holidays.

The book's sections are designed to take you from college, to getting a job, to living on the road, to unemployment, and to coming back after a long break. I've also included a few helpful appendices. My goal is to see people using this book in the field. I'd love to see someone with a copy that is dog-eared, has notes written inside of it, and has coffee and dirt stains on the cover! That means it's getting used and that people are getting something out of it!

So, pre-order a copy before your holiday comes up. If you're into autographs for books, like I am, I'll sign your copy in Austin at the 2014 SAAs!

Here is the table of contents:

Section 1: Getting A Job
1. Education
2. The Curriculum Vitae And The Résumé
3. Cover Letter
4. Job Hunting
5. The Interview

Section 2: Shovelbumming
6. Essential Gear
7. Types Of Projects
8. Job Positions
9. Lodging
10. Hotels
11. Cooking On The Road
12. Camping

Section 3: Location, Location, Location
13. The UTM Grid
14. Township And Range
15. Smithsonian Trinomials
16. Mapping

Section 4: Good To Know
17. Dimensional Lumber
18. Munsell Book Of Color

Section 5: The End, For Now
19. Unemployment
20. Preparing For The Winter
21. Coming Back

Appendices
Example CVs And Resumes
Cover Letters
Interview Questions
Dimensional Lumber
Fieldwork Checklist
Winter Checklist

That's it! I'll remind you later, but, I expect harsh criticism so, together, we can make the second edition even more helpful.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the field!

#201 #SAA2014 #BlogArch Carnival November

From Doug's Archaeology Blog: At this year’s SAA conference there is going to be an amazing Blogging in Archaeology session [which I'm chairing, incidentally]. It has been a few years since there has been one. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend the session and I know a couple of other archaeology bloggers who can’t either. My way of contributing is to widen the participation by hosting a blogging carnival (what’s a blogging carnival, click here) on archaeology and blogging. This was done for the last blogging session by Colleen and this is inspired by her work.

Question 1: Why blogging? Why did you start a blog?

I've written about this before. Actually I probably wrote about it in my very first post, as I suspect most people do. I'm going to write about it again, however, because of the importance of the circumstances.

Prior to the SAAs in Sacramento in 2011 I wasn't a blogger and I didn't even read any blogs. Blogs were pretty much off my radar. Since I wasn't on Twitter either, that was likely the reason. I was always very interested in blogging, however. I'm one of those arrogant bastards that thinks everything he says is important and profound. It's true. Just ask me.

Actually, my first thoughts about writing recreationally  about archaeology started on my very first project. I'm the type of person that reads instructions, reads technical manuals, and follows recipes. The fact that there wasn't a book I could read that would tell me how to be a CRM archaeologist really annoyed me. After a couple jobs I thought I should write one. I even went so far as to send in a table of contents and sample chapter to the people at Rough Guides. They said it was too much of a "niche" market. These are the same publishers with a "Rough Guide to Opera". Right.

Fast forward to 2011. I have a fresh MS degree in Archaeological Resource Management and I'm at the SAAs. I was starting to get more interested in talking about archaeology and was intrigued by the Blogging Archaeology session organized by Coleen Morgan. What I saw not only humbled me, but, blew me away.

While I was waiting for the session to start I opened a Twitter account because of the Twitter information on the projector screen at the front of the room. I was amazed at the behind-the-scenes activity going on! I was also pissed that I wasn't part of it.

After hearing some awesome papers by awesome people I immediately went back to my hotel room and started a blog. I wrote my first post that day and tweeted it out. I had an initial surge in followers to my twitter handle and my blog, but they fell off and things equalized. Now, my blog is read by about 2000-4000 unique visitors a month (about 10,000 page views a month) and I have over 560 Twitter followers.

My blog is designed to help fellow archaeologists. Occasionally I'll talk about a specific project, but, that's usually not allowed in CRM so I stay away from it. Also, being fired twice for blogging will make you a little gun shy. It's one of the reasons I started my own company. Ef those bastards. I'll just blog about my own projects.

I have a series of posts under the title, "Shovelbums Guide" where I give helpful information to new and experienced archaeologists. Recently I started a "Word for Archaeologists" series too. Many of us in report writing need all the formatting help we can get.

So, to make a long answer even longer: I blog because I'm the most interesting man in the world and I want all of you to know how much I know. Or, I just like to help people and I want everyone to learn from my spectacularly colossal mistakes.

Why are you still blogging?

In short, I'm still blogging because I feel like I still have something to say. When every field tech is informed and treated fairly I'll stop. I don't think that's ever going to happen, though, so I think I'll keep this going for a while.

I've tried to blog on a schedule, but, unfortunately life and other commitments get in the way. If I were getting paid for this I'd be able to devote more time to it (see subscription levels to the right!). It's not all free work, though. My Shovelbums Guide series is being turned into a book by Left Coast Press (click on the image above) and will be out for #SAA2014. Or, around then, at least. Because of the payment system, though, I won't see a dime until June of 2015. When I do get a check, I doubt I'll be quitting my day job. Books are more of a labor of love than a way to pay the bills. Well, archaeology books, anyway.

The blog has also turned into a podcast that me and some other great archaeologists put out every two weeks. I'd like to do it every week but I don't think I can ask for that sort of commitment from the panelists. Again, you can't look a free gift horse in the mouth.

The CRM firm I started back in January will eventually pay someone to blog, podcast, and make videos. I have to get some work, first, though. My savings have pretty much dried up and this week I'm working part time at my wife's workplace. Her boss is cool and came up from starting the business too. She's the ideal to strive for. I won't deny that working there part time during the winter feels a little bit like giving up and failing, though. Stupid bills. I have a meeting this week that could change everything, though, so we'll see.

If I get to the point where I have project archaeologists I'll expect them to blog. I think it's a great way to coalesce your thoughts so the public can understand them, I also think it's a necessary part of our job. Recording history is only the first half. Your job isn't done until you tell someone about what you found and your conclusions.

OK. That's enough for now. Thanks, Doug, for organizing this!

Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the field!

#200 Shovelbums Guide Summary

I don't put too much stock in the fact that this is post #200. So, I'm not going to dwell on it. Instead, I'm going to give an index of my Shovelbums Guide posts for those of you that don't know about it. These posts constantly get hits so someone wants to see them. 

Incidentally these posts are currently being turned into a book with expanded information and a few extras. Should be on the shelves this spring. It will almost certainly be on the Left Coast Press table in Austin.

Shovelbums Guide Posts (So Far)

•  Series Introduction
• Part 1: The CV 
• Part 2: The Cover Letter
• Part 3: Job Hunting
• Part 4: The Interview
• Part 5: Lodging
• Part 6: Types of Projects 
• Part 7: The UTM Grid 
• Part 8: A Note About Hotels
• Part 9: Holiday Wish List (Part 1 and Part 2) 
• Part 10: Unemployment
• Part 11: Dimensional Lumber
• Part 12: States with online digital site records (may need revision) 
• Part 13: Educational Choices 
• Part 14: Munsell Book of Colors
• Part 15: The Smithsonian Trinomial System
• Part 16: Pace and Compass Maps
• Part 17: Township and Range
• Part 18: Answering the Call 

I do take requests...so if there is something you'd like me to write about let me know. 

Thanks for reading all 200 posts and I'll see you in the field! 

#199 Teaming

As I build this company I’m finding it difficult to get government contracts because of the requirements. All the requests for qualifications (RFQs) I’ve seen place a heavy emphasis on what they call “Past Performance” (PP). The past performance is like a list of references for your company and often it’s more important than price. I actually lost a proposal to a company that had a much higher price than me because I lacked in the PP area (Wow - that sounds really bad).

Past Performance doesn’t refer to your personal work history either. It only refers to your “Corporate Past Performance”. That means the work your company has performed. Here you can see the dilemma. How can a new company have PP and get new contracts to build PP if they don’t have the PP to begin with to win the contract!? It’s a frustrating and confusing cycle that is tough to break. 

Most of the government RFQs have a provision for not having past performance. Since the PP should be relevant to the project you are trying to win and be current (usually the past three years) sometimes you have to claim “Neutral Past Performance”. This doesn’t really help you all that much. Sure, you’re proposal won’t be thrown in the trash for not meeting the requirements of the RFQ, but, you won’t get a very high score on the PP side of things either. 

Combining Efforts

As far as I can tell there are two ways to add past performance to your proposals. The first is to buy another company and use their past performance. Not really an option for me right now.

The second is to team with other companies that do have past performance and combine your efforts. This is what I’m trying to do right now. A few months ago I was contacted by a GIS firm in San Diego. They do all sorts of environmental things but they don’t have archaeologists on staff. After finding me on LinkedIn we decided to pursue contracts with an archaeology component together. Since they have over 25 years of experience I’m able to piggy back on that a bit. Unfortunately, they don’t have any direct archaeology experience so we are still forced to submit “neutral past performance” (NPP) proposals. 

After the declaration of NPP, however, we have a section called “Relevant Past Performance”. It’s here that the other company, hereafter referred to as the “primary” puts down similar government contracts they’ve one and where I put down projects that I’ve managed for other companies that are similar. It’s not the best solution but it’s better than nothing.

Recently, we’ve added a third company to our team. This is actually an archaeology CRM firm and they’ve been in business for the past 33+ years. They have seen and done it all. Most of the experience is in California, which doesn’t help too much for Nevada, but, they have some great projects that we can put down in the PP section. I’d love to partner with a firm here in the Great Basin but the ones I’ve talked to aren’t interested. Everyone is just interested in making the most money possible and don’t see how a teaming arrangement can actually be better for both companies in some cases. For example, I can do fieldwork at half the cost of some of the larger firms. I can also digitize site forms at half the cost.

Teaming Arrangement

So how does a contract work when you have three companies? Well, it depends on their capabilities. Since the San Diego firm is the primary that means they are dealing with the contract. They except payment from the government and they submit all reports and other deliverables. When they get paid, we get paid. That’s the only real downside. It could take months to get paid for fieldwork or any phase of the project.

For most of the projects we’re teaming on I’ll be responsible for all of the fieldwork and most of the report writing. Since the primary is a GIS firm they will handle all of the site sketch and location maps and any other maps required by the project. That saves me from either doing it myself or sub-contracting the work out. 

The third Arch firm, since they are based in central CA, will handle some report writing and mostly quality assurance. I’m relying on their experience to make sure the report is top notch and as good as it can be. My goal is zero comments on the draft report and I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

These arrangements might change from time to time based on the needs of the project but this is the general layout. For example, some field employees might be employed by the GIS firm and the third arch firm might do some of the fieldwork. 

#Winning

View fullsize

So, this is my strategy. If I want to win good-sized government contracts this is the only way I can really do it right now. I think teaming is a good way to do it in the future too. We all need to share the wealth and learn to work together. When firms try to do EVERYTHING they end up with expensive employees sucking up profits during slow times. I don’t want a full-time GIS person if I don’t have full-time work for them. I’d rather they stayed busy by working with a number of firms and only work with me when I need it. 

Also, I wouldn’t mind doing fieldwork for a firm that has too many field projects going on and can’t handle one more but won the contract anyway. They can write the report if they want, but, I’ll do the fieldwork. Like I said, we all need to work together to survive.

I’ll let you know how this teaming thing goes and what works and what doesn’t.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field.