DetectingWales.com

I emailed the Welsh Assembly  a week ago voicing my concern over plans to scrap the Welsh F.L.O position in April 2012. I had a reply off them which I've attached.

Result.. Seems someone is seeing sense at last.

That's a bit of good news. I bet one or two are breathing a sigh of relief. ;D

I need to find something worth recording to keep them going. ::)

Val

Good news  for our hobby and the Scheme. :) :)
Al :) :) :)

Now all you lot have got to do is use it.

when the flo visits our club, we all try to bring in worth while finds to be recorded, they normally take away a dozen or so we are doing our bit here in llanelli  mickycoin ;D ;D

Great news Rob and most do CHEF.

Well "most" could do with putting some batteries in their machines or giving up and taking up fishing.
These are finds recorded with PAS for 2011 as of this morning. The finds are recorded on location found not where recorded.

Swansea......................60
Bridgend.......................9
Rhondda ....................10
Newport.......................48
Torfaen.........................9
Monmouthshire..........233
Vale Of Glamorgan....213
Neath Port Talbot..........5

Now that's for 10 months and just to put it in perspective I have detected 21 fields in the last 10 months, all of which are on the Polden hills nr Bridgwater and although I have been lucky with some they are nothing too spectacular.
And I have recorded 193 finds out of those fields. So are people being selective in what they record? If so that's not quite the idea of the scheme.
Have your records appeared? I know some of Taff's seem to have never made it on to the database, although he has the printouts from the FLO, if so complain.
Does anyone on here other than me self record? If not think about it it's simple.

Now I am not one to bang on about "you must record" because I believe that it is down to the individual, but after hearing people complain that they might of lost the scheme from Wales and then seeing the statistics, it made my blood boil a little.

I am glad the the flo,s are keeping their jobs in Wales.It shows a MARK of respect for them in their field.
Looking at the list of recorded finds (which maybe more) for 2011 and those which have been recorded for 2012 (not known) it will take the FLO another 5 years to return them all to their finders.LOL

not one for carmarthenshire, somthing wrongthere ??? lots have been taken away to be recorded, will have ago at recording my own mickycoin ;D ;D

I don,t know how the system actually works but My local FLO Peter Reavill though I doubt he would admit it is snowed under and does a fantastic job. Just under two years ago I took a tin of flints into him of at least a couple of hundred different scrapers, burins, rods etc all from the same field. He has kept me informed on their progression but imagine having to draw, photograph and record these alone. I know he has had two hoards to deal with as well but he will be the first to say if we did not keep him busy so as Chef says as I know quite a few do come up to Herefordshire detecting if you find something to record do not think twice about it. He was well pleased with Our rallies last year when some of the finds literally changed the history of the area. Good thread.

Sorry I didn't do all of Wales, only the parts with electricity and inside toilets ;D
Carmarthenshire   33

nice one geoff, im only on line as i have a generator in the outside toilet, powered by coal, ha ha, 33 not a bad score thanks for that mickycoin ;D ;D

Is this an actual 33 or a photoshop generated figure ;D.

Geoff - the figures available from the online database are not complete. It appears to me that very many of the finds recorded by Mark Lodwick do not appear there. I don't know why this is the case - they are recorded as we get the printouts back from Mark.

there is sometimes a delay in the handing out the finds sheets and the uploading of the information. The longest i've had to wait is 2 weeks, though our FLO now makes sure that she uploads our finds onto the database, in the same week that she attends our club meeting to return the finds and findsheets.

Pete,I would agree with that - there are lots of my finds that have been recorded by Mark (and returned with reports ) that cannot be found on the database. In fact there are even finds that I could access on the old database which I cannot find on the new "improved" one. However things may be improving slowly (!!) - Mark has set me up as a registered user and when I check on my finds it is now showing 9 items up from 7 a couple of months ago. Unfortunately the extra 2 items are ones recorded last year !! This is just a fraction of the items recorded and returned.

great thread and excellent news.
we all should know the importance of recording for historical purposes.

It can only be good for our hobby,there is also the knowledge of where human activity was taking place,and detect the broader area.

I agree there does seem a disparity in what is recorded and what is actually available to view on the database. This is why I said complain or at least enquire.
There are a few layers to the recording process and it is not until the FLO is happy with the particular record that they then promote it for public view on the database, but of course without them then the database is useless as the research tool it was set up to be.
Because of this Mark Lodwick has only 78 records attributed to him for 2011, whereas Simone Johnson who I presume is his assistant has 1200. So the question has to be asked does he know how to operate the system ??? and if he does then it would appear, on paper at least, that his assistant is doing all the donkey work and...is he worth the money?

I think this will show you that something isn't right with the Welsh record or maybe the FLO;

Mark Lodwick.....South Wales......78
Laura Burnett.....Somerset.........883
Kurt Adams........Gloucester.......747
Katie Hinds.........Wiltshire..........755
Peter Reavill.......Hereford
                       and Worcester....623
Nina Corey.........Cornwall..........780  (this is one of the sparsest counties in England)

I think you probably get my drift.

I also report my finds with Peter Reaville, why because Cardiff / south Wales is too far to travel to record. CPAT (Jeff Spencer, Welshpool) have lost their funding so cannot activly promote the PAS , though they will try record if possible. Basically if you want to record in POWYS go to Hereford and Shropshire, The figures for mid wales may be greater if we had more access to a welsh FLO in this area.
I agree self reporting is he way to go if you have some experience with identifing your finds,