Society for Socialist Studies
 Facebook YouTube
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • EXECUTIVE
    • CONSTITUTION
    • HISTORY
    • JOURNAL (1983-1997)
    • JOURNAL (1979-1981)
  • JOURNAL
    • SECTIONS
    • SPECIAL FEATURES
    • NEW SCHOLARS
  • SSS BOOKS
  • MEMBERSHIP AND DONATIONS
    • CHAPTERS AND AFFILIATE GROUPS
    • MEMBERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
  • CONGRESS AND GAMM
    • 2023 TORONTO
    • 2022 GAMM
    • 2021 SSS MEETINGS
    • 2020 LONDON (Cancelled due to COVID-19)
    • 2019 UBC
    • 2018 REGINA
    • 2017 TORONTO
    • 2016 CALGARY
    • 2015 OTTAWA
    • 2014 BROCK
    • 2013 VICTORIA
    • 2012 WATERLOO
    • 2011 FREDERICTON
    • 2010 CONCORDIA
    • 2009 CARLETON
    • 2008 UBC
  • MAILING LIST
  • CONTACT
    • ADDITIONAL LINKS

Shortly after the 2013 General Meeting in Victoria, the Executive began a discussion on the decline in annual memberships. It appears that memberships are very closely attached to participation in our annual conferences held at Congress, when people participate, they pay their membership fee, when they do not, they often allow it to laps for the year. In the past, when the Journal was printed and mailed to members as part of their membership fee, there was a compelling case to insist that people catch up on past dues; however, with the open-access, on-line journal, this demand has turned into a request.

We also discussed the purpose of membership, and what we want the membership fees to pay for. With the cost savings in producing an on-line journal, the membership fees have been largely used to subsidies the cost of participating in Congress. The executive would like to see our membership base go beyond the largely academic crowd that attends Congress, and reach out to both undergraduate students, and activists beyond the halls of academia. Social media gives us one important platform to extend our outreach beyond its current base of faculty, graduate students, and researchers. Our improved webpage, and new online membership registration offers us another. We felt that a new fee structure, with a much lower initial fee, would remove a potential barrier to our goal of broadening the membership base.

Accompanying this new fee structure will be a new Congress fee that will cover the cost of the conference on its own. Basically, membership fees will cover the day-to-day costs of running the organization and producing the journal, and the Congress fee will cover Congress expenses. Over-all, the cost of attending Congress (membership + conference fees) should not change, at least for those who are low-income. I am in the process of analyzing our Congress costs over the past few years and assessing what these new fees will need to be in order to break even each year.

Our new fee structure allows low-income folks to join for $10, and those who are employed to join for $20. Again, the rational for these low options is to build up the membership. We are also going to strongly encourage those who can – ahem, tenured faculty and union staff – to take out a “supporter” membership at $60, or a “sustainer” membership at $100. It is these two categories that are going to allow us to sustain the Ryerson Fund, and we will be far more aggressive at pushing this than in the past, as we no longer have external funding for travel grants.

So, I expect to see those of you who are currently full members (paying $60 per year) to be signing up as “supporters” and “sustainers!” Our new membership page also has a donation button, allowing members and non-members to make tax-deductible donations of any amount. So, visit our new page, renew your membership and, if you can, please make a donation. The Ryerson fund is dependent upon your generosity.

Share
Tweet
Share
Pin

GO TO JOURNAL

Socialist Studies/Études socialistes is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal with a focus on describing and analysing social, economic and/or political injustice, and practices of struggle, transformation, and liberation.

"...the content spans many subjects (and) much of the content will be of special interest to a Canadian scholarly audience. Libraries serving Canadian and socialist scholars should be knowledgeable about this title."

- Cheryl LaGuardia, Research Librarian, Widener Library, Harvard University (January 24, 2014).
Donation-Button-2020

Recent Posts

  • Call for Papers – 2023 Annual Conference – Re-Imagining the Left
    Call for Papers – 2023 Annual Conference – Re-Imagining the Left February 1, 2023
  • Todorova – Socialist/Postsocialist Studies and the Global Left
    Todorova – Socialist/Postsocialist Studies and the Global Left December 23, 2022
  • Holden – Frank Cunningham’s Pragmatic Perspective
    Holden – Frank Cunningham’s Pragmatic Perspective December 18, 2022
  • Eskelinen and Lakkala – Finntopia: Illusions and Incoherences
    Eskelinen and Lakkala – Finntopia: Illusions and Incoherences December 15, 2022
  • Himani Bannerji – A Tribute to Dorothy E. Smith
    Himani Bannerji – A Tribute to Dorothy E. Smith December 9, 2022
  • A Tribute to Dorothy E. Smith
    A Tribute to Dorothy E. Smith December 6, 2022
  • Aguiar, Marten and Noiseux – In Search of Penal Labour Citizenship
    Aguiar, Marten and Noiseux – In Search of Penal Labour Citizenship November 30, 2022
  • Call for Nominations for the 2023 Society for Socialist Studies’ Errol Sharpe Book Prize
    Call for Nominations for the 2023 Society for Socialist Studies’ Errol Sharpe Book Prize November 15, 2022
  • Collier – Class in Monopoly Finance Capital
    Collier – Class in Monopoly Finance Capital November 14, 2022

LIKE US

WHO WE ARE

JOURNAL: CALL FOR PAPERS

Socialist Studies/Études Socialistes: The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies welcomes submissions of strong, original manuscripts that describe and analyze social, economic and/or political injustice, and practices of struggle, transformation, and liberation. If you would like to discuss a submission or potential special issue, please contact the editor, Sandra Rein

MENU

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • JOURNAL
  • MEMBERSHIP AND DONATIONS
  • CONGRESS AND GAMM
  • MAILING LIST
  • ADDITIONAL LINKS
  • CONTACT

FOLLOW US

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on YouTube

CONTACT US

Jamie Lawson, Secretary, Society for Socialist Studies, Dept of Political Science

PO Box 1700, Stn CSC. University of Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2Y2

admin@socialiststudies.ca

JOURNAL

Copyright © 2011 - 2023 Society for Socialist Studies. All Rights Reserved. Website design by Sean Cain of Better World Communications.