Professional Organizations: What are they Good For?

Summery of responses to the following question:
"Is there any point to joining professional organizations?"
YES.....




Generally the responses suggested that many of the professional organizations can be used as great networking tools, many have society meeting/presentations which can be quite interesting. On a C/V they look good, but are not really worth much. What they show is involvement in the discipline and the profession. It's much like listing on your C/V that you served on a referee or review board, which shows service to the profession, but with professional organizations there is no way to verify your involvement so they carry little weight. As far as personally helpful, the societies range from being completely useless C/V padding, to engaging and interesting groups of dedicated professionals who are really taking the time to create opportunities for others.

I hope to later do a study on the ranking of professional organizations and societies. Which ones provide opportunities  ect...  If you have any information about an organization you belong to please do share the information in a comment, or if you want to keep it anonymous you can email me at williamparkhurst@gmail.com



The complete question and responses can be found here:
http://philosophysmoker.blogspot.com/2009/09/frederick-c-bumfizzle-society.html