0.5 Potential effects of online access on society membership  (Page 3/7)

Note that in both of the examples above, in the absence of any other market data, the analysis assumes that every institution subscribing to the print edition will opt to transition to online access (whether in combination with a print subscription or as online-only). As we discuss in Chapter Four, given the trends in academic library purchase behavior, this results in a conservative but reasonable assumption.

Some societies have membership levels—including patrons, sponsors, lifetime members, and the like—that reflect exceptional commitment to the society. Although they seldom constitute a significant proportion of a society’s membership, members at these levels may be considered impervious to the effects of online institutional access. If a society has a significant proportion of such members, it should exclude them from the exposed member category. Members at this level might also provide an opportunity for planned giving and other fund development programs. On establishing a planned giving program, see Jordan and Quynn (2002).

The analysis above reflects the situation for a society with a single journal provided as a benefit of membership. Some societies offer discounts off the price of a journal, and societies that publish more than one journal sometimes provide one journal without charge and offer discounts on additional member subscriptions. These and other variations on a society’s “cafeteria plan” of benefits add too many permutations to be covered comprehensively here. However, the logic of the above analysis will apply in most cases, and a society can adjust its estimation of exposed revenue accordingly.

Assessing countervailing member benefits

As noted above, the number of society members exposed to online site licenses does not itself determine a society’s risk. To refine this assessment, a society must adjust its total estimate of exposed members to take into account mitigating factors.

Fortunately, few individuals join a scholarly, scientific, or professional society solely to get a subscription to the journal. See “Motivations for Society Membership,” in Chapter Three. If a society has surveyed its members about the value they perceive in the society’s various benefits, it can then apply that insight to refine its estimate of members exposed to online site licenses. However, as relatively few societies will have access to reliable empirical data about its members’ preferences, we describe below an approach that may be applied by those societies without such data.

Motivations for society membership

In the absence of survey data from its own members on the perceived value of society membership, a society will need to rely in part on responses to multiple-discipline surveys regarding participation in learned societies. The table below lists the most frequently cited motivations for joining a society, in order of importance, according to studies commissioned by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) in 2001 Rudder (2003), 17, Table 24. and the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) in 2006. Dalton and Dignam (2007), 56, Exhibit 7.4.