Re: Proud Non-Member of STC

[Steve Fouts <stefou -at- ESKIMO -dot- COM>]

Barb Ostapina <Barb -dot- Ostapina -at- METROMAIL -dot- COM> wrote:

>This is to Bruce Byfield, and I was going to send it privately, but then I
>thought others may have valuable opinions that I'd like to hear.
>
>I noticed that you (Bruce) have been signing your emails with "Proud non
>-member of the STC" and that struck me as odd. I guess I'm a victim of the
>party line that says membership in a professional organization related to
>your field of endeavor is not only desirable, but important. I have great
>respect for your ideas (at least those I've seen put forth on this list),
>and I'd really like to hear your thoughts about membership in professional
>organizations.

This has all the ear-marks of a holy war, but here goes. I too am a
former STC member. I agree with you that professional organizations
are important. I, like Lisa Higgins had some specific reasons for
being dissatisfied with STC but I don't feel the need to vent today,
so I'll save them.

Suffice it to say that I evaluated my current professional position
and goals and felt that I was better served by the Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM) special interest groups (SIGs) on
Documentation (SIGDOC) and Computer/Human Interaction (SIGCHI).

Maybe if I was rich and famous or if my current employer popped for
professional memberships the way my previous did it would be different.
I just feel that ACM gives me more bang for the buck.




    _______________   _____
   /  ___  __/__\  \ /  / _\    Steve Fouts stefou -at- eskimo -dot- com
  /___ \|  |  ___\  |  /  __\   "You must not mind me, madam;
 /   /  \  |      \   /      \   I say strange things, but I
/_______/__|_______\_/________\  mean no harm." --Samuel Johnson