Keeping your membership in the American Purchasing Society is a wise thing to do. It makes sense professionally and economically. Membership helps your career by indicating you are interested in your profession. Membership in APS provides information to improve your organization’s purchasing function.

Continuous membership through annual renewal makes economic sense because it is costly to allow your membership to lapse. You will need to pay a new membership processing fee in order to rejoin after your membership has been cancelled. To keep your certification status you will need to pay a higher fee than members do.

Every five years a Certified Purchasing Professional must submit a renewal application to maintain certification status. The fee for nonmembers is $49 higher than for members. In addition, any required course for certification renewal has a higher fee than for members.

Each year the Society has been offering one free course to members, whereas nonmembers need to pay $100 or more for the same course.

In most cases employers pay for membership, courses, and certification, but not always. Some former members who allowed their membership to lapse indicate that their employer has cut back on expenses and refuses to pay professional association fees. However, many longtime members retain their membership at their own expense because they realize the high value of membership.

Organizations usually reverse their policy when the buyer or purchasing manager explains the various benefits of membership. They make the employer understand how strongly they feel that their membership should be retained and they show the employer how they benefit by paying the small expense involved.

Compare your view of purchasing professionalism with accountants, lawyers, engineers, or doctors. What would you think of them if they didn’t belong to their professional associations? In fact, many professionals in those fields belong to two or more associations.