Join the Council!
Requirements
Individuals must be nominated or endorsed by an active member of the Council. The Executive Board recommends advancing the application to the membership for final approval.
Members almost always have a postgraduate degree with a research specialization in archeology or allied field. They are concerned with the problems of West Virginia archeology as evidenced by direct employment in or published work on the archaeology of the state. Members generally meet RPA standards.
In some cases, an advanced degree is not required for membership if the applicant can demonstrate equivalent professional qualifications through publications, reports, and experience.
For more information, contact the Council for WV Archaeology.
You can download an application by CLICKING HERE FOR THE APPLICATION.
Please submit a current curriculum vitae along with your completed application.
Benefits
Show your support for West Virginia archaeology. Demonstrate that you care about high quality, problem-oriented research, and ethical "best management" archaeological practices, in West Virginia. Share that passion with your colleagues, and combine your talents with our own, to make a bigger positive impact!
Become part of an RPA Affiliated Society. Aside from the sharing our interests in good stewardship of our shared archaeological resources, the RPA also provides additional benefits, such as access to more journal content on JSTOR. As a member of the CWVA, you'll be eligible for the Affiliated Society rate when paying your annual RPA dues (for 2023, that rate is $95 USD, compared to the $135 USD paid by Unaffiliated members). Our annual dues are only $15 USD, so you will be able to join both organizations for a combined total of $110 USD.
Get access to more Google Workspace tools. As a not-for-profit corporation, we are eligible for the Google for Nonprofits program. This provides with a powerful suite of organizational tools that compare favorably with the kinds of enterprise tools available to larger, commercial operations; furthermore, because of the wide availability of the same tools to free users, these tools allow us to work more collaboratively with the public. Finally, as a non-profit, we get access to features that would typically be reserved for Google's users from academia, such as Google Classroom.
Get editing privileges on the CWVA wiki. There are many ways to build a website; and, these days, many of them are designed to be "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) from the end user's perspective. However, a wiki does not necessarily have to be used to host encyclopedic content; in our case, the decision to use wiki is more about allowing all our members to generate content, without needing to learn a lot of computer coding. Our software, PmWiki, is very easy to learn; and, the help pages are internal to our site. As long as it is related to practicing archaeology in West Virginia, you'll be welcome to talk about your work/business/employment on your personal Profile page. We do fairly well in searches for archaeology in West Virginia; and, we do allow for all legitimate bots/spiders to crawl your Profile page data.
Additional Membership Notes
Organizational Liaisons are individuals who are invited to participate in the corporation by virtue of the position they hold in another organization or institution. Institutions or organizations with an interest in West Virginia archaeology may petition the Executive Board for a position.