Scientific societies differ in how they set dues

Students have traditionally paid less than professors and other professional researchers for membership in scientific societies. Those with modest financial means, the thinking goes, should pay less than those with larger incomes. For 2020 the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has taken that idea further by switching to an income-based system. Before the change, the 2019 annual dues for the 12 000-member organization were $20 for students and $111 for full members. Students will continue to pay $20, but full members will now self-select for one of seven income ranges and pay $35–$210.

The move by AMS is one approach that societies are exploring to bring in more paying members. Other strategies under consideration, gleaned from interviews with representatives from several member societies of the American Institute of Physics (which publishes Physics Today), include making dues more affordable and offering membership to people with diverse job backgrounds.

An AMS task force spearheaded the switch to attract more early-career scientists, who found the previous dues too expensive, according to an announcement on the AMS website. Keith Seitter, AMS executive director, says that the recommendation originally came from a few people who are members of both AMS and the American Association of Geographers, which implemented a similar income-based dues system a few years ago. “They did find that they got a lot more early-career people involved,” Seitter says.

AMS had an early-career category that was priced about halfway between the student and full-member rate, but it was available only to previous student members. That benefit increased student enrollment, Seitter says, but didn’t help early-career scientists who were joining AMS for the first time.

The median annual pay of atmospheric scientists in 2018 was $94 000, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Graduate teaching assistants for all academic fields earn about one-third of that. Under the new system, those who earn more than $250 000 per year will pay $210. Members who earn above the median annual salary will pay at least $110; those who earn below the median will now be charged $35, $55, or $85, depending on their self-reported income. The financial data will remain confidential.

The AMS task force has heard from a few people who aren’t pleased about paying higher dues, but Seitter says most are supportive. “A lot of the senior members who were looking at their membership dues going significantly higher were very much in favor of this move,” he says.

At the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), full members will continue to pay the same dues. But deputy executive director Michael Woodward says “there’s a big internal battle” about whether to add a new member category for medical physics assistants (MPAs). Medical physicists are practitioners with a PhD or master’s degree who have passed board examinations and can oversee clinical services, such as nuclear or magnetic imaging. MPAs usually have less education, provide only support services, and earn less than medical physicists. Woodward says that less than 20% of the AAPM membership is estimated to be MPAs. Currently AAPM categorizes them as students, or sometimes as associate members. The latter pay the same fee as a full member—$474 in 2019—but don’t get the voting rights that come with full membership.

According to Woodward, some people in leadership say of MPAs, “If we don’t give them a place to come, then they’ll go form their own place.” Hospitals have already started hiring fewer medical physicists and more MPAs to save on costs, similar to an administrator choosing to hire physician assistants to support a medical doctor. Woodward says that some AAPM members question whether that move hinders patient safety.

The American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the American Physical Society (APS) are considering whether to rework their dues, though both have seen membership increase by a few percent over the past several years. “I’ve heard from early-career scientists and some postdocs that $197 can be kind of steep, especially when your membership dues were something like $70" as a student, says AAS director of membership services Diane Frendak. APS recently finished collecting data from a member survey, according to membership director Cortney Bougher, and plans to use the results to evaluate its dues structure.

Besides AMS, no other American Institute of Physics member society has announced plans to adopt an income-based system. Seitter says that about 75% of AMS members have already renewed for 2020, which is typical, and he expects the total membership numbers to increase: “There certainly are some indications that we have picked up new members for this year that may have come about from the tiered dues.”

Editor’s note, 9 April: This article was revised to remove a generalization of underrepresented minority groups. We regret the unintended generalization.