I recently had occasion to correspond via e-mail with staff members of the Idaho State Historical Society. I have been a member of the Society for a number of years and continue with the organization because I want to support their mission. Their basic mission is to preserve Idaho’s historical resources (physical as well as informational) and to help educate people about our history and those resources. The ISHS is an agency of the state, unlike the Academy, which simply has a charter on file with the state. The state provides about half their budget; the rest comes from memberships, donations, and grants. (As most IAS members know, the Academy receives no state funding.)
I stepped back from my “approval” of the Historical Society mission and asked a simple question: What exactly do I get for my membership in that organization?
As noted in my Profile, I produce the Academy’s newsletter, The Retort. I am also a member of the IAS Executive Committee. So I am objectively interested in the question both as a member of an organization and as one of its leaders. We on the Committee have been asking ourselves: What is it, exactly, that we offer our members? Why should they renew their enrollment? Why would new members sign up? Our answers, with the proliferation of online social networks, have frankly been somewhat depressing. It’s not clear that the Academy can continue to be financially viable.
So how does the ISHS stack up?
The first listed benefit is their Histor-e bi-monthly electronic newsletter, which I receive automatically. But the same information is available on the web site, and you do not need to become a member to sign up for the automatic transmission.
They also have a print newsletter, the Mountain Light, which describes various Society programs and upcoming events. Again, that information is available on their web site. Moreover, the events page and online calendar provide more detail, is more timely, and is always available. Still, there is some benefit to having the hardcopy arrive in our mail … and it only comes to members.
We get free admission to the Historical Museum and other historic sites around the state. We also receive a 10% discount at the Museum Store and at the ISHS Library. That looks promising. However, the closest places where we can take advantage of the freebies/discounts are two or three hours driving time away. Most are even farther away, in Boise. Not much of a benefit for us.
The next benefit is “invitations to special events,” including an annual membership meeting. Most of those are in Boise too, and many are publicized to the general public anyway. Not much of a return for my membership “investment.”
The final “benefit” is free online access to Idaho Yesterdays, the peer-reviewed historical journal produced jointly by the Society and Idaho State University. This is a fine publication, but, being Open Access, anyone in the Internet world can read it … and they don’t even have to register with the site. There’s no reason, aside from “general benevolence,” to become a member of the Society.
Fortunately, ISHS dues are not excessive, so our desire to support their mission is enough to keep us writing checks.
The mission of the Idaho Academy of Science is to “stimulate,” “disseminate,” “promote,” and “unify” science, and science education, in the state. How do the Academy’s benefits stack up?
Members receive the peer-reviewed Journal of the Idaho Academy of Science as their primary benefit. It is the only publication dedicated to publishing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) results that are specifically relevant to Idaho and Idahoans. The Journal is supported entirely by membership fees … and devours something like three-quarters of our overall budget. (I’ll return to this point in another blog.)
Members also receive The Retort … but that’s available at our web site to anyone with an Internet connection. About a third of our members still receive a printed copy, which adds another expense. (We’re working to reduce the number of hardcopies required.)
Members can also submit papers for our annual Technical Symposium. This provides another (generally low-stress) forum where people can present their work to a knowledgeable audience. The fact that the Academy welcomes all technical and science-education disciplines (the only one that does) provides a unique benefit in this day of inter-disciplinary research. This venue also provides a special reason for our academic colleagues to join. (See Dr. Janney’s added input below.)
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| Poster Session Discussions, 2011 Annual Symposium |
The Academy has other programs – many suspended due to budget constraints – but these are not benefits that specifically accrue to our members.
Are these benefits worth our relatively small dues? On the fiscal evidence, only enough to barely hold our own … not enough to grow the organization. I suspect that, like the objective look at the ISHS situation, many people sign up simply to support our mission, not for any specific tangible benefits.
Can the Academy survive, given this overall situation? The jury is still out, but it’s clear that some changes will be needed. Should the Academy – and other member-based associations – survive is a much stickier question.
Not surprisingly, some people say: No, the future belongs to the new online social-media environment.
These venues certainly have their place. However, even the best technology offers only a rather sterile, arms-length range of interactions. Granted, smart phones can transmit a speaker’s tone of voice and a (limited) view of his/her expression. But no technology can easily replace millennia of face-to-face social development, where body language and physical proximity choices convey as much meaning as what you say and how you say it.
So, to answer the question posed at the start: Person-to-person associations do still matter. The challenge is to adapt to the new environment and yet to also bend the new milieu to better meet real human needs.
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[Later add from Dawn Janney, IAS Secretary]:
The Idaho Academy of Science conferences are Student-friendly! Not only are there cash prizes for best oral and poster presentations, but the Judges are expected to discuss their scoring and their impressions of the presentations with student presenters, and to make suggestions about how the presentations might be improved. In my experience, no other conference does this.
Conference presenters – Students and full-time professionals – are also welcome to submit short papers based on their conference presentations. These papers are peer-reviewed and considered for publication in the Journal of the Idaho Academy of Science. Because the conference welcomes preliminary results, the proceedings papers can give students early experience with the peer-review process, even before their research is completed.
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