Joining Membership Organizations: When $100US Is A Big Waste Of Money

By Deane on December 31, 2007 -- 10:07am

Interesting to hear your comments. As a content management consultant, I joined CM Pros a couple years ago.

I never did quite understand what I was getting.  I tried very hard to work my way around the Web site, but I could never figure out the “secret sauce” of the organization that made it the “in” thing for CM professionals to do.

I got a newsletter every day, it seemed, which was too often to read it.  Other than that, I was a member in title (and credit card charge) only.

I renewed this year.  I’m not sure why, but there was some specific reason why I did.  In my renewal, I sent a comment that said that I thought new members needed a “sponsor” or something to help them figure out the value of the organization.  There needs to be some way for new people to understand just what the organization is provided for you.  I was (am) never able to understand that.

I’m still a member because I believe in the idea of a CM professional organization.  I was unaware of the evident problems in CM Pros, and I hope they work them out, because I’d love to be able to get my arms around the organization and actually start drawing some value from it.

By Scott on December 31, 2007 -- 1:28pm

A very interesting post. I can empathize—situations similar to the one that you describe with CM Pros have driven me away from several organizations over the years. Not just professional organizations, either, but community-based initiatives as well.

This is, sadly, indicative of a wider trend in society today. If you can find a copy, I recommend that you read Diminished Democracy by Theda Skocpol. Unfortunately, I gave mine away; otherwise, I would have passed it on to you in Vancouver in May.

By Scott Abel on January 1, 2008 -- 11:13am

Thanks to both of your for your comments.

Deane, I am glad you continue to support CM Pros. The organization is currently holding an election for new board members, so, if you’re lucky, the membership will elect some folks with some experience who will quickly address the lack of benefits you correctly acknowledge in your post.

Scott, Diminished Democracy sounds like an interesting read—and a good way to use up those Amazon Gift Cards I received over the holidays. Thanks for the recommendation.

Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler

By RaB on January 2, 2008 -- 1:44am

As a former board member - of STC, as well as many other boards over the last thirty years - I must say that it’s a common phenomenon to step down from a board and for a while, want little to do with an organization. I’ve had that conversation with past board members of a number of organizations mentioned in the post.

But I would like to go through a little pilpul exercise (typical in my culture) called “on the one hand/on the other hand.”

On the one hand, I am also discouraged about the lack of resources on the CM Pros website. It’s been this way since I worked on it two years ago, and my efforts to improve it were overridden by a well-meaning but misguided board member. (This is not uncommon nor unique to CM Pros; a similar dynamic happened at STC, and I’m used to being the bad guy for being the user advocate.)

But on the other hand, if it hadn’t been for CM Pros, I wouldn’t have met some of the professionals in my life that I respect greatly and with whom I’ve done business, hope to do business, to whom I’ve referred business, or who have referred business to me. Some I’ve never met in person; others I’ve met at Summits and conferences.

On the one hand, the debate about technical issues on the listserv are relatively out of my scope of interest, and I hit the delete key after a line or two. There are days I figure what’s the point, I’d might as well unsubscribe.

But on the other hand, once in a while, I glean something that comes just at the right time, and it makes me hang about another year, waiting ... waiting for the interesting listservs to get set up, the ones that talk about the management of the content itself, and focus less on the technology behind it.

So on the one hand, I understand your frustration, Scott, because we worked hard on CM Pros and have seen little progress - a typical situation of a small board of a small organization when the volunteer base is small, and some board members aren’t particularly strategic thinkers.

But on the other hand, it’s a friendly community, and I don’t want to lose the contacts I’ve made there; I want to broaden that base and that community, and if it’s not at the international level, it might be at the local level.

By ScottAbel on January 3, 2008 -- 6:23am

Rahel:

Thanks for sharing your views. I agree that there is still value in the relationships we are able to develop with others through organizations like CM Pros. But, I question the ease with which all new members can find and develop similar relationships.

In the Web 2.0 world that we live in, it won’t be long until all membership associations are given a good run for their money by social networking tools. If you can use Facebook or MeetUp (free services) to set up a local discussion event about a topic you’re interested in—and you can—why on earth would you pay $100 for less than you get for free elsewhere?

My gripe is simple: Today, CM Pros does not deliver the benefits that say they offer nor do they provide the benefits most prospective members are seeking. That may change, especially if the new board focuses in on why the organization exists in the first place—to provide value to its members.

Scott Abel
The Content Wrangler

By Ann Rockley on January 3, 2008 -- 11:03am

As a founding member of CM Pros I am saddened to see Scott’s comments. I helped form the first board and lead the second. I have not been involved in the last year or so due to other responsibilities. CM Pros was founded because there was a strong need for a centralized resource for individuals involved in content management to go to find best practices, industry information and network with like -minded individuals. CM Pros has not realized its goals, but there is nothing to say that it won’t. It is young and still growing.

Volunteer organizations are very much a product of the volunteers; sometimes there is dynamic leadership and other times not, but if there is a strong need for an organization it will continue to exist.

I am also a member of STC, IAI, AIIM, AMWA, ASIS etc. CM Pros can’t really be compared to some of the large organizations such as AIIM and ASIS who have full-time staff. However, we can compare CM Pros to chapter level activity in these organizations. I joined STC when my local chapter had quite literally died. There were members but there had been no meetings or activity in years! I didn’t realize that when I joined, but another member who also recently joined thought maybe a meeting would be a good idea. We met and about half a dozen people got excited about restarting the chapter. We did so, the chapter grew from 35 to 110 in a year, then went on to top 600 members and won an award for innovation. Over the years the chapter has had good leadership and bad. But it has survived and has provided significant value to members. If we want to look at larger organizational change, we need only look at the organizational level of the STC. It went through a slump but has recently gone through a revitalization and is providing new and interesting membership benefits. 

I still believe in the goals of CM Pros and I will renew my membership. There are four positions open on the board and I intend to vote. I said it before and I will say it again, an organization is only as good as its volunteers. You are what you make your organization. And the more you put into an organization, the more you get out. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t gotten involved as a volunteer, learned new skills, met fantastic knowledgeable people, and helped form the knowledge of the industry.

By Russ Friend on January 10, 2008 -- 11:21am

The membership fee structure of the STC allows folks to choose a level that best fits their needs and budget. A “Classic Membership” is $175, which includes printed and electronic publications as well as a choice of 3 SIGs or 1 SIG and 1 Chapter. If you don’t like the printed documents, for $165 you get the same choices without the printed publications (10 Intercom magazines & 4 Journals). Student and Retired Memberships are $65 & $75 respectively. I don’t know the figure of “$265” came from, but a person could select the Super SIG Package for $300 to join all the SIGs, a Chapter, and receive all printed & electronic publications (perhaps for someone with a lot of time and money).

As for value, all of the staff positions (except 2), part-time teaching positions, and most of the independent contracts I’ve had over the past 30+ years were a direct result of my STC membership. The key is to be personally involved. Unless someone in one of the other organizations is also an STC member, I probably would not have any contact with them except via impersonal, online forums.

I also have a membership in the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). I know some of the names only and they appear to do very little outside publishing a quarterly journal. The journal has some value to me as a reference to where educators may be taking technical communication students.

My two cents…