Welcome home, thought-leaders!
Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report July 2015
Academics and researchers find great value in STLE’s quality content and global reputation.
Association management research stresses that tangible benefits are the key to membership value for most professionals. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Robert Erck.)
STLE HAS ENJOYED THE SUPPORT and involvement of the research community throughout its 70-year history. For example, a professor from the institution now known as Carnegie Mellon University was the featured speaker at the STLE (then ASLE) organizational meeting held Sept. 27, 1944, in Pittsburgh, Pa. Today, nearly 20% of STLE’s members identify themselves as being in the thought-leader category—primarily people in academic or research positions.
A recent study by the publisher John Wiley & Sons identifies some of the reasons why the academic community supports groups such as STLE. The Wiley research project surveyed 14,000 researchers in 75 different disciplines seeking to understand the most valued benefits offered to members by scholarly societies. It offers some great insights into why STLE attracts individuals from the research community and what we might need to do to expand on those numbers in the future.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the No. 1 reason thought-leaders support a society is the quality of the organization’s research-based content, according to the Wiley study.
STLE stacks up well in this regard. One of four primary goals in our 2013-2016 Strategic Plan is to advance innovation in tribology and lubrication engineering. In addition to offering members free content access to two well-regarded tribology research journals (Tribology Transactions and Tribology Letters), we just concluded an annual meeting with more than 450 presentations by top people from the international tribology and lubricants research field.
On Oct. 25-27, the second annual STLE Tribology Frontiers Conference will be held in Denver, Colorado. This new event combines STLE’s tradition of conference excellence with a dynamic format that spotlights tribology research as the interface of physics, chemistry, material science and engineering.
Professional prestige was identified in the Wiley research as the second key reason why academics and researchers are drawn to an organization. STLE benefits in this category by being recognized as one of the foremost tribology societies in the world. There’s a sense among many in the field that being associated with STLE is a mark of distinction.
STLE’s connections to the academic and research community extend to and are enhanced by participation at the senior leadership level. Our board of directors includes three university professors as well as a Distinguished Fellow and Senior Scientist at one of the National Laboratories in the U.S.
The Wiley study also asked thought-leaders for reasons why they choose not to join an organization. In this case, the No. 1 factor was high cost of membership. STLE’s annual dues stand at $145 per year, with discounts for multiyear memberships. While the price-value perception varies from person to person, our research indicates that people feel STLE membership generally provides a good return on the annual dues investment.
Cost issues aside, there’s one final factor that determines whether or not individuals from the academic world choose to join a professional society. In many cases, the Wiley study found that professors and researchers were not members simply because no one had asked them to join!
That being the case, let me close this month’s column with an open invitation to the thought-leaders in tribology research to become a part of STLE. Join us and you will discover many ways that the STLE Connect, Learn, Achieve value proposition will fit your needs as members of the academic and research community for tribology and lubrication science.
You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.