To MLA or not to MLA, that is the question...

[Wahoo Redux]

To MLA or not the MLA: that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to pay $85 for a largely invisible organization
Suffering the slings and arrows of declining membership in a dissolving industry
Or to take up arms for the price of a sushi feast for two
And by giving-in pretending that the MLA still has something to offer?

[mamselle]

You left off an option:

[  ] MLA? What's the MLA?

(Actually, I know, but it has nothing to do with my work....I'm not in English)*

Or maybe the question needs to be broadened, to discuss professional associations in general.

In that case, there are some I do join and others I don't.

M.

* And I was in a department with a coterie of comp lit folks who HATED the MLA for its utter spinelessness before the lit-crit juggernaut, back in the day, and I think were trying to create an alternative, but I don't know what happened with that.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I'm not in English, but my field has its own professional associations. I am not a member of any, because my university won't pay for my membership. Instead, my university pays more to send me to the annual meetings as a nonmember. The benefits of membership are, as far as I can tell, nonexistent, since I get the journals for free through my university's library, and I'm giving them money whenever I attend their meetings, so I feel noble enough.

[Larimar]

I'm in English, and I've never joined MLA. Too expensive, and their conferences always seem to be in distant cities that it's too difficult and expensive to travel to, even if I had any idea what the conferences were like and were interested in something specific they were doing. Instead, I'm a member of a couple of more local organizations, and that is quite worth it.

Larimar

[kaysixteen]

Overpriced professional orgs like the MLA ought to do vastly more to set up graduate department accreditation policies (heck, even the ALA does this with MLS programs), and withhold such certification from those departments who regularly graduate excess PhDs who cannot get ft employment.

[AvidReader]

Humanities field here. I have been to exactly one MLA conference, and stayed a member for a few years.

I think there were 1200 attendees my year. I knew 4, and actually crossed paths with one of them in person. I went to a few interesting papers, but nothing even remotely worth the $$$ attendance fee. It was lonely and expensive. I would not go again.

I have gotten much more out of smaller conferences, including some of the regional MLA ones. While those also come with a membership fee and then a conference fee, attending the same small conference for multiple years allows me to make semi-local academic acquaintances and build relationships.

AR.

[sinenomine]

I was an MLA member in the 1990's while I was on the job market, but then stopped re-upping. I bought a membership for my department a couple years ago and we got no real benefit from it, so I decided not to rejoin.

[paddington_bear]

I much prefer the regional MLAs. I don't remember the last MLA I went to.

[jerseyjay]

I am a historian. I have had an on-again, off-again membership in the AHA since graduate school. It usually depends if my school will pay for the membership, if I am on the market, or if I am presenting a paper. I went to two AHA conferences in 20 years. It is useful, but not useful enough to justify the expense of membership and traveling across the continent if I am not presenting.

I don't know if the MLA is the same. I have actually thought of joining the MLA since some of my research focuses on literary themes, but since I can rarely get myself to go AHA conferences, I don't think it would be worth the expense to join the MLA.

[hmaria1609]

It's $150 for personal membership in American Library Assoc (ALA). Rates vary depending on what level of membership you join. If you join an ALA roundtable, your dues increase.
I joined ALA as a student member in library school and have been a member over the years.  I've had my fun attending ALA Annual as the conference rotated to various cities. In June 2014, Las Vegas was the host city for the 1st time since 1973!

[mamselle]

If the discussion of membership is broadened, as it now seems to be, I've joined groups when I either needed to in order to present or participate in something specific (K'zoo, for example, or the College Art Ass'n).

Twice, while a student, someone covered my membership so I could go and give a paper, for which I was grateful...even the lowered student amounts were beyond my budget at that time.

More recently, with online offerings, that hasn't been the case; I might have joined one or two others to give papers (IMS, once or twice, I think; a couple of regional historical societies, etc.) but unless it's required for my registration in order to present, I waive the option.

The only other consistent professional society I was in was the Musician's Union, both in Ohio and later, when I moved from there. But after awhile, it was also less necessary: I was playing fewer group gigs where the players were all in the union, and they didn't care about solo jobs. Now it's more often a requirement for things like opera and ballet, but not smaller-scale work.

Maybe my motto has become, "Neither a carpenter nor a joiner be..."

M.

[AmLitHist]

I've been a member of MLA, AHA, and OAH over the years, and have dropped each of them. I don't find CCCC or NCTE as useful as some of my colleagues do; I think their more hands-on tips and publications are probably OK for early-career college English teachers, but they don't do a lot for me. And we only get $1000 a year in professional development money, which doesn't go very far for travel/conferences.  (I use mine to buy books.)

My only ongoing memberships are in a couple of favorite authors' lit societies, and also my lifetime membership in the American Studies Association (and that mainly to keep up with/participate in some of its social justice/"take a position" work regarding contemporary issues--even though my own research interests are 19/20th C).

[euro_trash]

As soon as I got tenure, I stopped paying MLA forever.