We are proud to see how our Society has grown. ICON•S now has 21 national and regional chapters, an annual conference that brings together nearly 1,000 scholars from around the globe, and a wide variety of events throughout the year, such as writing schools, book talks, and events targeted at developing the capacities of junior scholars. Throughout this time, we have maintained the same comparatively low membership dues, which also include conference registration. Thus far, this has been possible because of substantial contributions from hosting institutions as well as the generous support of a small number of individuals involved in the society.
However, ICON•S cannot financially sustain itself maintaining the dues set ten years ago in 2013. The problem is not only the rising costs of the Society and the annual conference, but also the fact that the fees have been too low for a long time, preventing us from developing important scholarly initiatives that require additional funding. It is time to deepen our mission of supporting early career scholars and scholars from the global south with more resources. We have already started doing that, though in a limited way.
For these reasons, during the 2023 annual conference, the ICON•S Council discussed the possibility of updating the membership dues. Following up on that discussion, the Executive Committee has decided to update those dues. You can check the membership levels and their associated dues by clicking here. They are still lower than those of many scholarly organizations, but they are higher than our 2013 dues.
We would also note that the accessibility of the Society remains a top priority. For this reason, we have maintained reduced-cost memberships for students (including postdoctoral fellows) and for scholars from non-OECD countries. Further, in cases of justified significant hardship, we are prepared to waive the annual fee altogether.
We thank you for contributing to the Society and encourage you to continue participating in our activities. If you have any comments about our new membership dues, please feel free to reach out to us by email.