Join AORN?

[mol42]

Recently I've had a bunch of people tell me I should join AORN. Including managers. I recently had an yearly eval whereI scored very high on but was encouraged to Join AORN as "being a member of a professional organization" helps to illustrate self development. I have been a member of AORN in the past when our clin spec was a past president and bought us all memberships. Other than receiving a magazine and putting forth safety guidelines i didn't really feel like my $125 dollars did anything but pay for the board members to attend AORN congress. 25 Free CEUs available but you can get free CEUs anywhere these days surgically relevant or otherwise. The pat answer I always get is to"support the profession" but I have to say my vision is clouded and i don't really see their worth as far as working for the welfare of the OR nurse in their institutions just "guidelines" for OR nurses to work IN. They charge extravagant prices for their publications even with the AORN discount. I'm told you get discounts on cnor exam etc but doesnt really save me anything as my hospital won't reimburse me for my membership just the exam and a review course so I'd actually pay out more by joining I really tried hard to read the magazine every month but more often than not it sat on my coffee table because to tell you the truth that's THE LAST thing I want to be reading when I get home to work. Does anyone know the breakdown of where you're membership dollars are spent? If you can think of any other points that I have been missing about how they support us i'd be willing to hear them.