I've been an STC member for 20 years, so my decision not to renew has been a difficult one. In the end, it came down to these factors:

1. I don't attend meetings. The chapter I'm affiliated with meets too far away to be practical, and to be honest, I haven't seen a topic that's interested me enough to drive an hour each way to attend.

2. Costs. It's not a one-time jump so much as steadily escalating renewal rates, complex tiers, and choices I don't want to have to make about chapters and SIGs.

3. My last few renewals were more out of habit than desire. Even though my employer would cover the membership, I can't honestly make the value proposition to justify it.

4. Networking opportunities like this site affords are more attractive to me that membership a large, faceless organization. In the Web 2.0 world, relationships with people are more valuable to me these days than memberships in organizations.

So, after lo these many years, I've decided to let my membership lapse. My relationship with STC has been interesting, productive on occasion, frustrating on others. But in the end, it's just not relevant to me anymore. I'm not making a judgment about the value of STC in the cosmic scheme of things, just on its value to me.

...Susan

Bottom line: membership fees. I simply cannot afford the STC anymore. With local chapter membership, and three SIGs (all work-related), plus the reinstatement fee because I knew I wouldn't have the money as of 12/31, I was looking at over $200.

I've found that I can be a member of the ATTW (Association of Teachers of Technical Writing) and belong to ACM SIGDOC as an associate member -- two memberships for 1/2 of my STC dues. That's the route I'm taking.

If have a burning need to read "Intercom" or "Technical Communication", I can wait until they are posted through EbscoHost or eServer.

Some people have commented that the STC's decision not to conduct a salary survey was a reason they didn't rejoin and/or a sign of the organization's decline.

I see it differently.

As a manager, I didn't put much stock in the old survey. Since participation was voluntary and no attempt was made to verify the information, it wasn't a reliable picture of compensation in our industry.

For the same reasons HR department where I work refused to consider the STC's data when employees argued for a pay raise.

I believe that's why the STC leadership stepped back from the survey. They wanted to take the time to come up with better data. That's a good thing.

I've been involved in the STC for about 12 years, which is more or less the amount of time I've been working in the Tech Comms field. I am a pretty active STC member - I am a past President of the UK Chapter, and currently Chapter Treasurer, and I am also Co-Manager of the brand-new Europe SIG.

There are lots of reasons why I am staying in the STC, and I realise that my reasons may not apply to other people at all. First of all, I am based in the UK, not in North America. Second, I am self-employed, which means my professional memberships are a business expense.

* Professional affiliation:
Despite falling membership, STC remains the the world's largest organisation for technical communicators, and I want to be part of that. It is certainly not the only professional organisation I belong to.

* Professional networking:
As a self-employed professional it's important for me to know and to be known by my peers in the technical communications business. Being an active member of STC is one of the ways in which I do this. networking means attending meetings and conferences when I can, and taking part in mailing lists and the STC Forum.

* Education:
The STC has very good educational opportunities. As well as the annual conference, there are chapter meetings and local and regional conferences, as well as STC publications.

* Making the STC better for its members:
Having been in the STC for a while I'm keen to make sure that it continues to become better for its members. The organisation is still going through a period of intense structural change and is reinventing itself for the 21st century. I believe it needs to have a much more international outlook, which is why I helped set up the Europe SIG.

Apart from all that, being involved in STC suits my personality. I enjoy being on committees and in groups, I get a kick out of "giving something back", and I'm happy to offer advice to others.

I have been paying close attention to what everyone who hasn't renewed has been saying. If people feel that what they need in terms of professional networking and education can be had outside the STC, and that the "added value" of STC membership isn't worth USD $200 a year, then it's clear that we - the STC - still have an enormous amount of work to do.

David Farbey

I was an STC member for two years. My input has a shorter focus than many long-timers.

There have been deep dues increases that appear to be the result of a large drop in membership. The drop in membership has caused a drop in service (i.e. the salary survey). In an effort to cover the administrative overhead they have raised dues and cut services. Most organizations would try to identify why there was an exodus and tailor their offerings to attract more members. By raising the dues on a yearly basis they are pricing members out of the rolls and creating an environment where only those who work for corporate sponsors are willing to continue to pay these rates.

Most of the offerings for webinars and conferences were overly expensive and therefore of little value.

I loved the Lone Writer SIG and appreciated the local chapter meetings that I attended occasionally. But, this was not worth the $180 investment out of my own pocket. The ROI just wasn't high enough for me to justify more time, talent and treasure to STC.

I can still attend the local chapter meetings for a few dollars more than the member rate. And it seems like I have found another list serve for the online SIG benefits.

I am also a member of my local ASTD chapter. ASTD has a chapter membership level with annual dues of $100. I'm sure some of this money is bound for the national organization. There is also an International dues structure for those who want to belong to the international organization. I think STC will have to evaluate a chapter centric approach to the organization and restructure accordingly if they want to continue to offer services.

Teresa Trujillo
Book Workshop, Inc
1501 E. Orangethorpe Ave., Suite 130
Fullerton, CA 92831
(714) 525-0882
www.MyBookWorkshop.com

As a long time STC member and Associate Fellow, I find that STC is a good organization and worth the <$200 membership fee. (And it's tax deductible for US taxpayers.) Is it a perfect organization? Of course not. Is it getting better? IMHO, yes, it is.

A professional society's value is determined largely by the return on your investment in it. Yes, you contribute some money toward the maintenance of the organization. But the real ROI comes from what you receive when you invest your time, knowledge, and energy. If you pat your dues and read the magazines, you probably won't feel that you get your money's worth. But if you go to meetings, volunteer to work on a committee, contribute to a newsletter, or make a presentation, you start to really see the benefit of the organization because you will get something back.

I've read comments in the TCP list that people feel the annual conference is too expensive. Having been in the conference business myself, I can say that it's a great value. It costs much less than the for-profit conferences out there. It serves a wider audience so that attendees are exposed to more than just people like themselves and get an appreciation of the breadth and depth of our profession.

John Garison

I put off joining for many years. Just as I was about to reconsider, an STC leader suggested that we use, for our own gain and to the detriment of a third party recruiter, some info the recruiter had posted in error on an STC email list. This did not sit well with me. Coming from a leader, it reflected poorly on STC.

In my professional capacity, I find everything I need on blogs, non-STC email lists, and other resources. Other technical writers, in particular, are most helpful. The looser, and less costly "organization" of the technical writing community at large is sufficient.

I've already renewed. STC may not be perfect, but if there are alternatives out there that serve the broad tech comm field, I don't know about them.

Will Sansbury
http://www.willsansbury.com