[bcrdukes]

From personal experience, a big emphasis on "it depends."

It's worth trying out to gauge the landscape, but that also boils down to luck and opportunity. If you can network, help grow a business or at least get some leads, then yes, it's worth it. But if there's an economic downturn, or you know that key influencers never show up, then there really is no value. Sometimes, it can be a complete circle jerk, but on the other hand, these things can be a complete gold mine. Your job is to sell.

For example, if you have a group of PMP-certified project managers who meet regularly and their desire is to network and get new leads to jobs opportunities, but you have no companies involved and everyone is out of a job, there may be no value in the membership, so you have to create the value to them. You'll have a lot of new graduates who are keeners and think it's prestigious to be part of an exclusive club, if you will, so you can target these clowns easily.

On a personal level, I'm at a point in my career and life where I don't feel I need to be a part of any professional associations anymore, so I stopped renewing my membership and became a recluse. I didn't feel I got any value out of it early on in my career, but that was the market in Vancouver, and attitudes have changed over the past decade or so.