If so, why? If not, why not?
It’s something that’s been on my mind swirling around and I think it might be time to give it its moment in the limelight.
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f you answered yes to the post’s initial question, answer these please:
- What association is it?
- What spurred you to sign up initially?
- What benefits do you see and receive yourself from membership of this association?
- Do you think you’d be in the same place professionally, if you weren’t a financial member of this association?
- If so, why? If not, why not?
- What spurs you to renew your membership every subsequent year?
If you answered no to the post’s initial question, answer these please:
- Why?
- Do you think you would if you had a professional coach or mentor? (not a supervisor/manager at your place of work)
Your thoughts please. Let’s open up some meaty discussion.
NB: Professional association in the context of this blog includes: LIANZA, SLANZA, ALIA, CILIP, ALA or IFLA. Or any others that you can think of.
I belong to LIANZA. I joined because I considered membership a vital part of my ongoing professional development. I also considered it a way to develop professional relationships, as well as socialise with others in the same industry at myself.
When the opportunity came up to apply to become RLIANZA, I felt it vital for my career development. I considered the professional registration scheme necessary to our industry, to raise and standardise professional standards in New Zealand and gain international recognition of our qualifications and training. Becoming a registered professional meant vital validation of my studies and workplace experience.
I think being a member of LIANZA and attaining professional registration assisted towards me gaining my current job.
My membership is supported and encouraged by my employer, and I continue to renew for the same reasons as I joined.
I also belong to the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG). Although not strictly speaking a professional organisation, as amateur family history / genealogy enthusiasts also belong; I consider membership to this organisation vital to my role as Family History Librarian.
Its essential for networking and relationship building, to raise the profile of Library and its collection and resources, and also to further my own knowledge and experience.
Although membership subscriptions aren’t reimbursed, my employer does support my attendance at the conference/AGM and industry exhibitions and fairs.
There is also a move afoot to standardise and raise professionalism within the genealogical community. Currently qualifications in the field have to be obtained from Australia, US / Canada or UK.
I’ve often said that the Open Polytechnic should offer papers in genealogical research and / or history within the Information and Library Studies programme – especially as this is a boom part of library research.
Maybe they will one day. I hope so.
Ooh, I want your job. I agree that it would be fantastic for the Open Polytech to offer library studies courses in researching historical sources, for family history, local history or New Zealand history. There are so many sources out there and massive efforts being made to index and digitise various sources, so it would be good to have specialised research techniques and guidelines on how to launch transcription or indexing projects integrated into library studies.
I’m a member of LIANZA. I joined because it is the professional organisation of my profession in NZ and because it is a way to network, benefit from professional development opportunities and find assistance from fellow librarians. When I was a sole charge librarian it was my only source of professional discourse.
I’m not sure if I would be where I am in my career with or without the membership but I’d like to think it is beneficial.
I think this is a very important question to ask.
I started out belonging, and being involved with, LIANZA.
As a new librarian, I joined up, was enthusiastic, and was a member for five years until I realised that I felt very much like I was putting in much more than I was getting out of it.
The deciding factor for me about not continuing my membership was the LIANZA website re-vamp (am tempted to use the word debacle …). I realised that I didn’t want to be part of a professional organisation anymore as it just didn’t meet my needs. It didn’t challenge me, inspire me or provide the professional networks I was looking for.
So I looked around for other professional organisations that might offer me something different, and have found that belonging to ALIA, ARANZ and TRW has given me a wider network of colleagues and has enabled me to have ‘bigger picture’ discussions and has broadened my professional knowledge immeasurably.
I do feel a sense of guilt about not belonging to LIANZA in that I want to support our national professional body, but it just doesn’t meet my needs for where I am at now.
Having said all that, it was really important in the beginning of my career to have a professional body to link into until I found my own professional feet.
Good questions! I belong to two – LIANZA and SLANZA – so I have feet in both camps I guess. These organizations have done much for me professionally, initially in giving me professional development opportunities and networking opportunities, as mentioned above, and more recently in building my professional competencies as I have begun to ‘give back’. I agree that there can be a point at which you might feel you have outgrown the ability of your organization to feed your own professional needs, and that you might see a need to widen your networks and affiliations. But I also think that this might be the point at which you could consider – is it now my turn to contribute to the organization in a different way i.e. in a leadership, mentoring role, or by finding ways to contribute to the professional development of others? I would love to hear what others think.