Mother of GOD. $415 gets me WHAT, exactly? I essentially get to go to the conference. That's registration for the conference. Every English or rhetoric conference my wife attends has a $200 registeration fee. SVP has a $415 registration fee. Before August 28th. After that, the price skyrockets to $540. It's like buying another plane ticket.
So, here are my questions:
1) What the hell?
2) Does registration also make me a member of the society, and thus, do I get the journal?
3) If NOT, is that a completely separate ridiculous fee?
4) WHAT THE GODDAMN HELL?
I don't want to shell out this kind of moronic sum annually, especially when I don't plan on attending every meeting. Next year, for example, when the conference goes to Bristol, I will certainly not be attending (I hate traveling, especially long distances).
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2 comments:
No, the fee doesn't make you a member and doesn't get you the journal. Conference registration fees are intended to cover the costs the conference instigates -- rental of facilities, refreshments, supplies (computer, projectors, rables, etc.), and believe me, they are EXORBITANT. The smaller the conference attendance, the higher the registration fees have to be to cover the costs, and SVP conferences, for as much as they've been growing in attendance, have not grown so fast as to supercede inflation in the fees hotels and conference facilities impose.
Having said all that, I think there is probably also an impetus to get non-members to join in order to get the lower registration fee! Also, many people (particularly those that present at a conference) get money from their institutions to cover things like registration and travel, lessening the impact. Obviously, this is biased against amateurs and those not at affluent institutions, but it's still how things work...
Does not bode well. A plane ticket I can do.
SVP, unless I get very, very lucky with an art sale, is likely out of reach.
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