In taking over the helm of the ARF from Captain Conkey, I am blessed to be working with the excellent staff of the Archaeological Research Facility.  Sherry Parrish and Sabrina Maras continue to devote their energies to administering a healthy and continually growing organization that now includes over 35 faculty associates in 11 departments on the Berkeley campus.  Their workload has increased tremendously over the last couple of years as they are now managing over 1.2 million dollars in external grants and contracts, and the Stahl and Braun Endowments worth over 1 million dollars.   During the last funding cycle, the National Science Foundation awarded ARF faculty over $300,000 for undertaking field work in the Pacific, the Americas, and eastern Europe.   Sherry and Sabrina are constantly on the move managing these funds, assisting faculty and students with their travel and field plans, and working closely with almost every administrative office on the Berkeley campus.

The ARF publication program is also burgeoning under the careful scrutiny of our editor, Tanya Smith.  The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research has kindly increased the editorial job from a 50% to 75% funded position.  Our last publication, "Prehistoric Use of the Coso Volcanic Field," by Amy J. Gilreath and William R. Hildebrandt is selling very well.  This year’s line-up of manuscripts being readied for the ARF Contributions Series includes: a volume on the early settlement of Chiripa, Bolivia edited by Professor Christine Hastorf ; a monograph on Polynesian archaeology by Professor Patrick Kirch; a co-edited volume on the pottery of Ancient Egypt by Professors Carol A. Redmount and Kathleen A. Keller; and a monograph on the eastern European Village of Opovo edited by Professor Ruth Tringham.  As you can see, it will be a busy year in the ARF editorial office.  You will want to save your Christmas money to purchase your own copy of the upcoming ARF volumes!

In September our much beloved Lab Tech, Lisa Holm, resigned her position in order to attend Oxford University where she will pursue a Ph.D. degree in Medieval Archaeology.  She has been a wonderful asset for ARF over the last two years, and we will all miss her very much.  We are fortunate, however, in being able to replace her with another exceptional person, Dennis Ogburn.  Dennis is now managing the many ARF laboratories, computers and equipment that kept Lisa in the basement of College and Kroeber Halls on many a late night.  Dennis is currently completing his Ph.D. in archaeology from the Anthropology Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he is specializing in the prehistory of South America.  We welcome Dennis and wish him all the best in his new job.  I also want to welcome Amy Ramsay, a graduate student in the Anthropology Department, as our ARF outreach coordinator.  Amy brings considerable energy and networking experience to her new position of managing ARF’s outreach program on archaeology that involves classroom visits, "hands-on-demonstrations," and tours of the ARF laboratories to school children.