Time moves by and I was surprised to get a coffee mug in the mail from ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) announcing my fifth anniversary as a member, and also received an email with the same message. I joined ACM originally because it was part of a professional development plan posted on www.construx.com (don't see it there now, but they still have professional development plans for developers and project managers) and I've come to value it because it shows a world of computer science way beyond the kind of stuff I do every day! It's $100 a year to be a member so it's not the cheapest resource, but I think it's good value for the money. Does $100/year pay for a $5 coffee cup every 5 years? Sure, but how many organizations would bother?

Take a look at ACM and try it for a year, let me know what you think.