President’s Corner Blog #2: Announcing the new UXPA Membership Model

Hello again, UXPA Community!  

This is the second President’s Corner blog post, and it is a special one.  Just in time for World Usability Day today, and the User Friendly 2013 conference in Shanghai next week, we are very proud to announce our new membership model.  This is the results of nearly 3 years of true UX research: we talked to members, did competitive assessment, looked at trends in professional organization membership, and collaborated with all of the stakeholders within UXPA to make this a reality.  What we are launching is a new tiered model of membership in UXPA, intended to provide our members a compelling, flexible set of benefits at various price levels.  

We have split our membership options into three categories:

  • a new category, Global Sustaining Member, which includes a full set of International benefits.  Key among these is international recognition as a UXPA member, so you can show your UXPA Membership Card (another new benefit!) at the door of any local, regional, or international event, and pay the discounted UXPA member price.  Next, you will have access to discounts on products, services, webinars, and other UXPA offerings.  Finally, you will be sustaining our efforts worldwide around the growth of the UX Profession.  While in some areas of the world UX has a strong foothold, there are others where UX is just starting out.  UXPA, as an inclusive, global organization, is working to advance our profession everywhere, and our Global Sustaining Members are a key component of that.
  • an Associate Membership, which provides access to privileged web content and publications, recognizes the member as part of the UXPA community, but is offered at a price point lower than our old membership dues.
  • a Student Membership, for those who are still pursuing degrees in UX-related fields, or have recently graduated.  This provides roughly the same level of benefit as the Associate Membership, but at a lower price point.

See our benefit comparison table!

It’s important to note that all three tiers of membership are priced based on a member’s country of residence, so the price you pay is based on the United Nations economic index list.  We hope that this, along with the contributions of our Global Sustaining Members, will make UXPA membership a reality no matter where you live.

A few other notes:

  • If you have recently renewed your UXPA membership, you are considered a “Legacy Member”: you will continue to get every benefit listed there until the end of your membership year, at which point you will have the option to renew as either a Global Sustaining or Associate Member.
  • Earlier this year we launched the online version of UX Magazine.  While your membership will give you early access to new issues of UX Online, a print subscription will now be sold as an add-on to any membership type.
  • One of the big parts about UXPA membership is the ability to collaborate with your colleagues on our new UXPA website.  You will receive an email shortly with login information for the website.  Upon initial login you’ll be asked to select a password. We encourage you to go online, fill out your member profile, and start commenting on the content we share or suggesting enhancements to the site.  I’ll be blogging more about the website next week.
  • We are having a membership drive through the end of 2013.  Please help us by communicating with your UX peers about the benefits of UXPA membership, and encourage them to join.  We’ll be communicating more about the membership drive through social media and our chapters in the coming weeks.

Finally, a call to action:  UXPA would not be what it is without the help of its volunteers.  The Board, the publications committee, the conference committee, and all other major efforts are the work of unpaid volunteers.  In order to make UXPA a success, we need your help.  A key part of our new membership model is discounted or free membership for those who volunteer.  To volunteer, please complete our Volunteer Interest Form.

And finally, here it is, the link to

Join The UXPA!

Best Regards,
Rich Gunther
President, UXPA
rich.gunther@uxpa.org

 

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