Now that I’m done with 4 years of university, one thing I’m toying with is joining an alumni association. The most obvious choice for most NUS graduates would be NUS Society (NUSS), since it’s the biggest one with more than 12,000 members. However, the question of need arises. Is there any necessity to joining an alumni association?

The single most useful benefit I can think of is networking at events. It might be useful to get to know fellow alumni working in different fields in case you might need their assistance some day. Of course, if one is interested to network, there are many other ways to do so than to join an alumni group. Further, it might be more useful for people to network within certain limited fields that they are likely to encounter in their work. An alumni association, being broad-based, would hardly be ideal for such networking purposes.

The next most useful benefit would be membership privileges. NUSS has 3 guild houses, including one in Suntec City. That’s quite an attractive benefit. The guild houses offer pretty nice services, such as gym, swimming pool, tennis courts etc. There’s also the DBS platinum credit card for members, which I think is a very good deal. I would also think that standard club privileges such as cheaper booking rates of facilities and lower prices for courses/workshops also apply.

The cost of joining is a one-time $2,000 fee (if you join within first 3 years of graduation), or $3,000 (set to rise eventually to $5,000 in 2009). The monthly subscription fee is now $47.25 a month. The question now for a soon-to-be graduate is whether it is worth taking up a membership, considering both the pros and cons.

The benefits are attractive, but what is NOT attractive is the $2,000 one-time fee. It’s almost a month’s salary for most fresh graduates. NUSS makes things easier by offering a 20 month interest-free installment scheme, but $2,000 is hardly spare change for a fresh graduate with study loans to pay, a wife to marry and a house to buy. And, miss the first 3 years, you’ll end up paying $5,000 (that’s the rate in 2009), which is a larger financial disincentive considering that by then, there’s a housing loan and car loan to pay for, and maybe milk powder and diapers too.

I guess that the implementation of a one-time fee is to give a sense of exclusivity, but it’s a barrier, especially for fresh graduates. I am not surprised if the take up rate among fresh graduates is very low. The monthly subscription fee is still reasonable, but the one-time entrance fee is not, even with an installment plan.

One feasible work-around would be to waive the fee if the graduate remains a member for X years. To me, it doesn’t make sense for an organization to lose potential members because of a high entry barrier. It makes more sense to lower the barrier to entry, get the members in first, and make them want to keep the membership. If the association doesn’t grab the graduate before they step into the working world, it’s going to be hard to get them later. Even if the graduate earns big bucks in future, I’m sure they would go for more prestigious country club memberships (at least I would).

All said, I’m undecided for now. The perks are good, but I can do without them. Besides, the NUSS brand doesn’t appear trendy to young graduates, and joining alumni associations is not a fad at all these days. I bet there are many current undergraduates who have not heard of NUSS, which doesn’t really help things either. They should really do something about the way they market themselves. Whatever method they are using now, it isn’t working. I only know of NUSS because I once held student office and had to work with them. The ordinary student would probably not even know of NUSS’s existence (or maybe just vaguely heard about it), much less bother about the perks and what-nots. If I’m not convinced to join now, it’s probably harder to convince me in future.