Once upon a time, I plunked down $135 each year to be a part of the Music Educators National Conference (or MENC). Under some bizarre arrangement, each of MENC's state affiliates set the membership dues for its members. My state has had the highest dues in the nation until this year. Now this wouldn't be so bad if this so called "professional organization" actually provided any services to its membership. Guess what?
They don't.
Okay, that's not entirely fair. They provide two services. They run local band/orchestra/choir competitions every year. But these are
nearly totally impossible to get into. Twenty-four
seconds after registration is opened the damn things are full. Yes, we're talking about a school band festival not a Justin Beiber concert. So that's one real great service right there. The second service is an annual conference, held during the school year in the state's second least attractive city. I went a couple times, and well, not impressed. The workshops? No, not so great. For the majority, it would have been more cost effective (by a factor of 10) to stay home and read a book on the subject. The networking? Nope. Unless you are one of the good ol' boys or their fair-haired proteges, forget about it.
Now the MENC itself supposedly provides all sorts of services. Print publications written at the fifth grade level and full of puff pieces or really crappy research studies. An online database of random lesson plans submitted by teachers that are neither organized nor screened for quality. Online forums which were good, until MENC executed the worst website redesign I've ever seen. No one was told of the move and the old posts were archived in such away as to render them inaccessible.
That's what $135 per annum pays for. Not exactly what you'd call value for money.
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