The value of CILIP

In lieu of a proper post, I would like to point you in the direction of a post on Ian Snowley’s weblog from April about the Value of CILIP on which we had a short exchange of comments. Ian Snowley went to a meeting with other CILIP councillors at which Bob McKee suggested an exercise to assess the value of CILIP membership:

Bob started by asking us to list the five main benefits that members receive from CILIP:

  • Qualifications
  • Publications (Update & Gazette)
  • Networks
  • Community (Jobs Market/Info & Advice/Advocacy)
  • Discounted Products (Courses and Facet Books)

And then asked us to put a value on them, on a monthly basis – taking into account what we spend on other ‘comparable’ activities.

I disagreed with his conclusions: The main reason I have never been a member of CILIP is that I don’t think it is worth the money. I could quote the whole post, but probably best to read it there.