Interesting discussions have arisen from my rant about email, one of which discussed the next meeting of the IABC Adelaide non-chapter (all three of us).
Except that it is now all two of them, because I didn’t renew my subscription when it fell due, and here’s why.
The IABC is an international organisation that offers fabulous benefits if you are a communicator in a large city with lots of members: meetups, networking, information sharing, knowledge transfer.
But if you live in a city where only two other folks are IABC members, and in my case are a SOHO practitioner who needs to watch every penny, the $220+ a year membership dues become a point of discussion with one’s accountant.
About the same time that my membership dues were, well, due I started my doctoral research as a full-time student, thus eligible for becoming a Student member of the IABC, at a considerably reduced rate.
Three emails to the IABC membership department, one reply and a request to call them on the telephone in America and I still couldn’t have my membership details changed to Student. No simple online ‘update your details’ form, no simple process to change my status and renew my membership at the Student rate, not the Full Member rate. I was exhorted to call their landline in America and discuss any potential membership change with them.
If I rejoined now, even as a Student, I would have to pay an additional US$43 for them to dig my details out of their computer system and apply my student status to my old membership details. Ridiculous.
I know that BBQ King and Employee Comms Maestro Ron Shewchuk counts his IABC membership as fundamental* and as Ron is soon to be ‘Coming To Australia‘ (hopefully with the full retinue of gorgeous attendants) I hope to catch up with him and discover his BBQ secrets, introduce him to Coopers Pale or Sparkling, and gain insight into why the IABC seems to fail to connect with its further-flung members. I’d also love to catch up with him and ask him, off the record, for his views about why the Gold Quill section appears to be so anti social media (Shel waxed passionately about this during a recent FIR).
But in the interim, the two remaining IABC members and your disgruntled author will be gathering for lunch on Thursday 12 July at 12.30pm at Mesa Lungo, north-east corner of Gouger and Morphett Streets. They do tapas and exotic pizzas and a mighty fine mojito. If you fancy catching up with three very passionate communicators (myself, Catriona Byrne and Stuart Symons) then please let us know via the comment section of this post and join us. See you then!
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* “In attending conferences like this, I am reminded of how proud I am to be a member of IABC. It’s my extended family. And learning from my fellow communicators also reminded me of how much I love my work in employee communications.” Ron Shewchuk, 2007
