[AUUG-Talk]: AUUG Membership Lapse

[Greg Black]

On 2006-09-15, Joel Sing wrote:

> So, to the key reason for my email - what does AUUG membership provide 
> that meets or exceeds the $125 cost of membership?

I agree that this is a critical question and one that seems not
to be well-addressed by the current state of things.  Clearly,
the list on the website is no longer fully accurate and does not
present good value in 2006.

> AUUGN is another tragedy - in my opinion, it alone was enough to justify the 
> membership cost. As for AUUGN archives, it's not current and therefore it's 
> not pertinent to my professional needs (interesting yes, useful no).

Not sure I'd call it a tragedy, but it has been disappointing to
see its decline and disappearance -- for me, it was AUUGN and
the Conference that provided my value from AUUG.

> Compare this to membership with IEEE (or pick another organisation). IEEE 
> membership costs $170AUD and the base membership alone provides a huge 
> collection of benefits:

Speaking as an ex-member of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer
Society, I disagree.  (Disagreement is fine, of course, as we
all have different needs and perceptions.)  I never found much
value in either, and eventually let my memberships lapse.  (I am
still a member of the ACM and Usenix.)

> So to conclude, I don't mean to be a wet blanket or nit pick AUUG - it's 
> simply that I believe there are many areas that need to be changed and 
> improved if AUUG is going to remain relevant and around for the years to 
> come:

I've elided all the suggestions, but largely agree with them.

Greg