Join the ACM for the magazine, stay for the books

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has nearly 100,000 members, which makes it the world’s largest computing society – but you’ve probably never heard of it or forgotten all about it. I’m going to tell you to join it, and tell you why I think it’s such a good idea (the title kind of already gives it away though).

Let’s talk about the membership fee first, because ACM memberships aren’t free and some of you might see that as a dealbreaker. It costs $99 per year (side note: It’s slightly less if you’re already a member of IEEE or a national “sister” society, and significantly less if you’re a student.). That’s about €88 or about 23 Big Macs (which you most certainly don’t want to eat unless you’re depressed or hung-over).

So what do you get for that $99?

For starters, you get a print subscription (side note: If you live in Europe (as I do), Communications will take an entire month to reach your letter box though!) to Communications of the ACM, a monthly science magazine that covers topics in computer science and information systems. This magazine alone is worth the $99.

But there’s more! You also get a digital subscription to ACM Queue, a bi-monthly magazine for computing professionals like developers, architects, and engineers. And on top of all that, you also get discounts on tickets for ACM conferences, which should come in handy for those on an academic career track.

If you work in industry, you’re more likely to benefit from the optional Skills Bundle Add-On, which provides access to O’Reilly Online Learning, Skillsoft Percipio, and ACM’s Pluralsight platform. This add-on will set you back another $75 per year. However, keep in mind that this basically translates to a discount of over 90%!

For just $99 per year, you can get: