Doesn't AALL charge membership dues or do you know where your SIS dues go?

To join a Special Interest Section (SIS) of AALL you pay a fee in addition to your rather hefty membership dues.  That fee was $15.  At the recent AALL Business meeting it was announced that the fee was now going up to $20.  Thats a 33.33% increase.  In this economy?  Wih law librarians still losing their jobs? Really? 

To add insult to injury, where do you think your SIS dues go?  Directly to the SIS?  Well, not all.  The SIS only gets 50%.  Yes, you read that right.  Of the $15 dues we have been paying only $7.50 of that goes directly to the SIS.  The rest goes to AALL.  Don't they already charge us membership dues of $222 annually? 

Well, you can call me naive but I never knew this.  I thought my SIS fees were going directly to PLL so they could provide me with quality programming and provide grants and scholarships.  No wonder the PLL Summit had to charge a registration fee of $195 per person.  Look at the math.  The PLL SIS has 1445 members.  At $7.50 a head (half of $15) that means $10,837.50.  That's not a lot of money compared to the dues AALL takes in.  A pittance for sure. 

Now I can just hear the response from AALL.  I am sure they are going to tell you they use the money to support the Special Interest Sections.  Why is AALL controlling half of the SIS fees?  Why not give it to the SIS to let them do what they deem necessary in the best interests of their constituency.  If AALL thinks they know whats best for the Special Interest Sections, why have them?  Why?  Because they fill a need that AALL does not and because the different constituencies often have very different needs and its members know best what they need. 

So we get a pittance.  Really?  Shame on you AALL, give the Special Interest Sections the money paid in for fees to them in full and directly. 

Caren Biberman