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In response to my previous message, D. H. White whites:
> Well...In order to get value out of anything, you have to put some work into
> it. How can you derive any value from an organization if you don't
> participate?
I refer to and acknowledge this point at the beginning of my message. My
point is that I can take my considerable time and effort, and $400 a year,
and I can do a lot more with it outside the STC. It's cost vs. benefit, and
I'm simply saying that, for me in my situation, I gave it a try and I
decided for now that I could do better elsewhere. For a while I went to
meetings, participated in several SIGs, volunteered to judge a local
competition, and I found parts of it very valuable (particularly the
Ideawatch SIG, which I'll plug again for members and non-members alike) and
much of it mildly valuable or not valuable. So eventually I had to run the
numbers and for now I'm taking my time and resources elsewhere.
Research on communities of practice shows that different members will
always--by necessity--only be able to participate in different ways and at
different levels, but all participation has potential value. It's up to the
CoP to leverage everyone's participation effectively. BTW, I read all this
in a book I bought when I skipped an STC meeting on RoboHelp ;-), Etienne
Wenger et al. _Cultivating Communities of Practice_, see pp. 55-58 in
particular.
The community should make the best use of everyone's contribution and not,
for example, simply set one standard for commitment and expect everyone to
meet it. I would rather be a part of an STC chapter that takes pride in how
much value it can offer its members than one that takes pride in how much
its members can endure.
Some of the suggestions I offered in my last message address some of these
points, take the rest as just ideas, which I took the time to offer in case
anyone form the STC was interested.
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