SND: Is it worth the dues?

[carmen dybdahl]

I hesitate as I write this, but I have to ask the question. Don't everyone jump on me, OK?

Are you renewing your membership in SND?

For the first time, I'm asking myself what I'm getting for my $110.

There is little activity on the Web site. I have no idea what is going on within the organization – budget problems, what the board, the executive members are working on, thinking about, etc. Why don't they post the minutes of their board meetings? And the reports that the regional reps are asked to do twice a year? And their budget, so everyone can see where/how our organization's money is being spent?

Let me make it clear, I don't suspect anything is wrong with the SND's spending, and I've seen enough of what the staff does to know that they work hard.

But I've gotten only a couple e-mails from my various regional reps in the past few years. There has never been a posting on the forum for my region. The book is great. But is it worth more than a hundred bucks?

Please don't tell me it's up to me to help make it better. I have supported the organization – both with my time and my money (and most likely will continue). I've been a dues-paying member since the start – my contest book collection starts with volume one. As a regional representative for four years, I sat through a couple board meetings each year, and organized several quick courses. I've attended multiple annual workshops, though not in the past few years.

Even as a write this, I know I'll feel guilty for even bringing it up, and go online to pay my dues.

What about you?

[jtelford]

I won't be renewing my membership this year for the first time since I started in the industry, but I also left the industry last year.

For me it just didn't make sense when I sat down to consider it. I can still participate in teaching quick courses if I'm asked to do so. and if I want to go to the annual conference/workshop I'll pay the extra money to attend as I can fly for free (with my frequent flyer miles) and if I teach at a quick course the registration fee is waved anyway.

If I were still in the industry, however, I would re-up.

[Desiree Perry]

The SND Website is saddly not that useful for online design. I find Visual Editors, Interactive Narratives, Multimedia Shooter, duckrabbit, NPPA Multimedia Contest, Multimedia Muse, etc... all to be more helpful to keep up with the best of online design and multimedia trends. The only reason I will renew my membership, is because my employer pays for it. If it was my $110, I would have think hard about renewing .

[Matt Mansfield]

I hope you all will consider renewing your membership to SND.

Our news site — http://update.snd.org — has been active recently and I am confident it will continue to be. Our new publications director, Tyson Evans at The New York Times, has been great at getting new contributors involved, as well as pushing for pieces that are helpful beyond print design.

We publish four issues of Design magazine each year that are great sources of research and information. Members get those by mail.

Members also get The Best of Newspaper Design annual, which Carmen mentioned, and we're folding in the NewsPageDesigner.com site this year to help members have another outlet for their work.

SND also launched a new chapter in China last year, to recognize the global influence that design has. And we have chapters in France, Germany, Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia and at dozens of universities and colleges around the world, where we help emerging talent get training.

Your membership dues also fund many outreach efforts to students, including travel grants and scholarships. SND has made that kind of stewardship of the next generation of visual journalists a priority since it started.

And we have a full slate of training for the next year that takes into account the giant change in skill sets that are needed. That revamping of the old Quick Course curriculum was a direct result of members asking for those things after the annual workshop in Boston. And we changed our Las Vegas workshop to be far reaching as it looked at the changes in news design.

SND has also begun moving into far more areas of news design, both for online and mobile. We expect to be rolling out some cool training sessions for those this year in addition to the multimedia, video, audio and online graphics training we do at the Quick Courses. SND wants to help with the tools for what's ahead.

But, like Carmen, I also know there's a need for more personal interaction.

As the president of SND this year, I am trying hard to get regional directors to organize networking events locally so we can all stay connected, especially in this uncertain time. We all need to help each other out as jobs change — and we know SND is a great source for that.

Here in DC, our regional director (Jon Wile of The Washington Post) got a group of us together in December, with more than 50 people showing up for a holiday meetup. He's planning another event in NYC on Feb. 28 that will serve the same purpose — namely, to hear what members want and need from SND.

So the SND leadership is trying to push regional directors to organize those kinds of events in their areas. If your rep is not, please send me a note so I can help try to get that going.

Our annual workshop this year is in Buenos Aires. We're hoping many of you can attend, but we also know it's a long way for those of you in the United States, so we are trying to get more regional events that you can attend, most for no cost if you're a member. (The NYC meetup, for instance, will have a great presentation on taking control of your career.)

We need to know what, beyond what we already do, would make an SND membership more valuable. Please let me know. I'll promise to listen and act on us much stuff as I can. Believe me, I know money is tight out there and I want to be sure that you can see the value in being a member of SND.

So ... Don't feel guilty, Carmen: You raise a good question. I know you're a longtime SND supporter. The organization has an obligation to be sure it's doing its best. We're all volunteers for SND, so please let us know how we can build better volunteer efforts on behalf of our craft. That's why SND was founded 30 years ago and it's why it exists today.

Thanks.

Matt
----------------------
Matt Mansfield
President, Society for News Design

Co-director, Associate Professor
Medill/Washington
Northwestern University

[e-mail]

[begum idrisoglu]

is there design website like this site.interested in newspaper design.Are you know?thanks

[Desiree Perry]

I have to make the same decision. I keep thinking the SND Web site is not user friendly, the training is the same as four years ago, but so much has changed from four years ago! Is SND keeping up up? I keep thinking — no! I'm rejoining SIGGRAPH (just $35 and they rock!) But renewing SND? Sadly, I'm thinking it's not worth $110.

[John Josey]

My answer is very short.

No.

[Ninian Carter]

I don't think I'll be renewing either. One has to get a bit selfish in a recession and consider themselves first. Paying a fee that is used to fund student scholarships isn't really a priority when one's own job is on the line, sad to say.

[Rob Mack]

I stopped my membership to SND many years ago when I saw that smaller papers didn't matter to them. They are more interested in expanding into other countries than in the U.S. (which is fair considering the current state). That said it is disingenuous to say to members that you have affordable quick courses when they cost $300 for members. http://www.snd.org/events/events.lasso?ID=330

[Richard Curtis]

My answer is very short: Yes. And (1) I'm no longer in the industry; and (2) I have to pay for it out of my own pocket.

[phil loubere]

I only joined SND last year, even though I had worked previously as a news artist for 12 years, simply because I'm now teaching and need to belong to professional organizations. When I worked for newspapers, I and my colleagues found SND not particularly useful or relevant to news graphics (although they finally did expand their contest categories for graphics a couple of years ago).

As an outsider looking in, the impression I've always had is that it's a fairly political organization — not particularly unusual for any professional org., of course — and I didn't see any personal gain from participating in that. But the website certainly has been a disincentive as well — clunky, slow and not a lot on it (sadly, a mirror of the industry). Matt's resignation hints at instability in its leadership, of which there is very little to be garnered from the website. As Carmen mentioned, the lack of discourse on the site and lack of public disclosures of meetings, minutes, budgets, etc doesn't help. Even though I'm now a member, I don't particularly feel like I belong to anything as the only information comes in the form of an occasional email and the updates section on the site. What's actually happening with the organization seems unclear.

I'd like to help, since these problems need volunteer effort to solve, but it seems a bit late in the game. Why were these problems not addressed during more vibrant times? But if we're going to solve them now, there needs to be a discussion of what the organization should be and a consensus reached on what needs to be done. I'd post this on the SND discussion board, but I fear I would be talking to an empty room. Am I missing some secretly active SND interchange or does this organization need resuscitation?

[Chris Clonts]

SND is essentially an oligarchy, despite past leaders' assertions that "we're more than just about one member."

If members were truly part of the picture for them, they'd practice what they preach in newsrooms, transparency, and share more information about the recent resignation of the president.

What was the internal dispute about? If it was about the future of SND, shouldn't members (and interested parties) know? Isn't that what we expect of government? Why is SND different? Members pay "taxes" to them and "elect" their representation?

Why shouldn't members expect more information other than "Maliofej was AWEsome!."

[John Josey]

I also have to pay for it out of my own pocket — I always did; no company I've ever worked for would pay for membership in a professional organization of any sort. I used to believe it was a valuable networking tool that would help my career. Not anymore. The design annual is nice, but it's not worth $110, especially when I have to choose between saving that money for a rainy day (or groceries) or membership in an organization that I feel never really cared about me since I don't work in New York, Norfolk or San Jose. There's definitely a bias toward big papers — at least that's my perception; I agree with Rob Mack. SND just isn't worth it to me. In this economic climate and in this business at present, SND is a luxury I can no longer afford. I'm finding that the sky isn't falling, and I'm getting along quite nicely without it.