The inimitable Groucho Marx used to swear that he'd never
join a club that would have him for a member.
Neither would I.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll tell you that
I'm not a joiner - in anything.
During my formative years, my father made me enlist in
the Boy Scouts under the paternal assurance that it would "build
character." After participating in more miserable overnight hikes than I
want to remember, I threatened to hire an attorney to examine the legality of forced
sleeping with other foul-mouthed adolescents in a lean-to as the temperatures
hovered around the 20-degree mark.
I was later "encouraged" to join the school
band, an exercise whose singular fringe benefit consisted of being strong-armed
to play in the annual Memorial Day parade while my classmates basked in wonderful
late spring weather.
The only reason I played football was that I foolishly
thought it would jumpstart my social life. The truth was not only did I remain
dateless, but 98 percent of my body was black and blue as well. I foolishly overlooked
the part where it said in order to date the captain of the cheerleaders, you actually had to be a good player.
I just never saw any benefit to joining a group,
organization or even a softball team, despite all the oft-trumpeted clichés
thrown around such as "leveraged resources" and
"networking."
During the 1980s for example, I refused to buy any item
of the "Members Only" clothing line.
But I digress.
But if nothing else over the past 14 years, I have learned
the accounting profession is replete with people who are joiners.
The segment is sprinkled with professional associations
connected to some part of the CPA experience, such as marketing or
education. There are also domestic and global alliances and, of course, the 400,000-member
organization, the American Institute of CPAs.
Now people have their own reasons for joining -- or not
joining -- the AICPA, or any other similar group.
And it seems each week there’s news from various groups
announcing their newest members or strategic initiatives.
But don't follow my example.
If you think your firm can benefit from joining, or that
belonging to an association will help introduce best practices in your shop,
facilitate economies of scale, leverage resources or any other boilerplate
phrases thereof, then knock yourself out.
Just don’t drag me along.
That reminds me; now that the holidays are fast
approaching I’ll have to renew my discount club membership.
Hey, I'm not stupid.
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