My membership to the Boston chapter of the Business Marketing Association is coming up for renewal. As I look back over the year, the only thing I got out of my membership is the certificate that’s under a pile of stuff somewhere in the pile of stuff that builds up with the trade mags in a random corner. Of course that still puts them one step ahead of my membership to the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA), I don’t recall getting a certificate from them.

I realize that there’s no point in me joining these groups anymore, as a guy who works for startups there’s not a lot of budget for memberships that entitle me to better prices on everything else they sell. After getting the approval to join there’s not much chance of getting another grand to go to an event.

The fact is that I’d like it to be as easy as buying the membership, but you have to set aside the time to learn more about the resources that are available and to attend the events (you’d think I could make at least one). It would be nice if membership entitled me to some free stuff, but then again why serve me when there’s marketeers working at Fortune 1000 organizations that are looking for ways to burn budget (or is that just a myth).