Inspiration Friday - joining organizations

Why I joined AIGA:

You may ask, why someone might invest a couple of hundred dollars toward joining a organization during a global recession?  The answers may surprise you.

This week I upgraded my "web only" membership at AIGA to a full fledged card carrying professional membership.  Now the AIGA web only membership was pretty fine...  It was free and I could visit the website, read some good articles, find resources; however as a freelance designer working mostly out of my office, I really wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself.  I debated the cost, the time, the need and when I finally decided to click the "upgrade your membership" button... It felt good.

I've been preaching to my clients (and just about anyone else that will listen) that now is not the time to pull back on marketing, networking and advertising.  During hard times it is especially important to regroup, reach out and get out there... You need to be razor sharp dedicated and you need to decide on what is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.  It was time to put my money where my mouth is.

AIGA was always a group I had wanted to join.  Being a designer of modest means, it took me some time to make the investment but I felt that now was exactly the time to do that.  After clicking "upgrade now", I almost immediately felt a part of a community and I felt that my fee was going toward an organization and a cause that I believe in.   I hold the conviction that if you want to be truly good at what you do, one should associate with people who are better, brighter, more talented and more experienced than youself.  In addition to the community minded benefits, memberships often provide certain tangible benefits...  providing discounts on health insurance, software, literature and conferences.This also makes me feel comfortable that the organization is supporting me in matters that count and that my dollars are providing me a return.

Joining a membership is not only exciting, it is inspiring.  For this reason, I submit this post for Inspiration Friday.

Comments

[Mark Randall Kilburn]

Lisa, That is cool. I like your reasoning about "now is not the time to pull back"

There is a very well known film that was shot at a motocross race, I think a European GP and Joel Robert was in some heavy mud and his rear wheel was end-swapping pretty bad, and in this situation many people would have let off the gas and slowed down,... he did what most would consider counter-intuitive...opened the throttle,.. added speed to his rear wheel and, following the natural laws of physics,
created a gyroscopic action and the motorcycle straightened out and he stayed upright.