Why Bother?

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Why bother? Should I join the American Association of blah-dy-blah-blah of blahs? This is a question I asked myself while I was in graduate school, and it was the subject of a conversation I had with my other grad school friends.

I remember in particular a society that offered joint membership with another society. Purchasing joint membership in both societies was cheaper than purchasing individual memberships in both, but more expensive than purchasing a single membership in either. The conversation went like something like this:

Me: “The annual meeting for XYZ association is coming up and I’m thinking of going.”
Friend: “Oh, yeah? I considered becoming a member of XYZ when it came up as an option with my ABC membership to that other association I am a part of.”
Me: “Interesting, I wasn’t aware that ABC and XYZ had a joint membership. But you didn’t become a member?”
Friend: “No, since I am already a member of ABC, I just figured, ‘why bother’?”

So, at that point, I probably should have countered with the benefits of joining XYZ, but I didn’t, and so the conversation moved on to other things.

In retrospect, years later, I am offering my list of responses to the question of “why bother?”.

Opportunity to network (aka become friends) with other researchers
Gain a feeling of belonging-ness to your field of science by attending annual meetings
Become exposed to new resources (see my most recent blog post on a great article I just received from WICB, which is a Committee of ASCB)
Receive mentoring from peers or senior researchers
Get tangible benefits like reduced rates to meetings and other offers specific to each society
Meet people who will offer you jobs
And finally, even though I can’t guarantee that any of the benefits listed above are going to happen, the additional cost is so little and the potential benefits are so great that you should just do it!