lol

Umm.... free magazine subscription and endless junkmail?

All joking aside, although I have difficulty justifying AIA membership based solely on what it offers to me personally, it is true that the AIA is the most powerful lobby for the interests of architects. Not that powerful, admittedly, and more responsive to commercial architectural interests rather than small practitioners, but groups like the AIA California Council's Legislative Affairs group (and its related PAC) have done a lot to set more reasonable limits on architects liability and counteract stronger contractor and homebuilder lobbies. I've never heard of anyone else doing this kind of work.

Just wanted to throw that out there... for young practitioners, I think its main benefit is limited to networking (if you want to network with those folks) and probably not much else. Also, because of the misconception that the AIA initials after your name is the same thing as being licensed, membership could also lend you some credibility with not so savvy clients.

Watch out for the second year dues - my first year was something like $75, which was offset by a $90 discount on my car insurance. My renewal came the next year and they wanted $300. Fat chance.

lol at #64



ok, does it help you get a job, perhaps? do employers care? do most clients care? would an architecture school hiring you to teach care?

I would say minimally. There is some benefit, but not much.

An architecture school hiring you to teach would never care.

An employer will not care when hiring you, but may care once you're hired because in order to be an AIA member firm they have to have all - or almost all - of their registered employees be members. But in that case it is likely that the firm will pay your membership dues, or at least part of them. Some firms have policies whereby they'll pay for employee's dues only if the employee serves on some active AIA committee.

Clients are a different story: many clients mistakenly believe that "AIA" means "registered architect." They often ask "are you AIA?" If you're not then you will spend a lot of time educating clients as to the registration process and what the AIA really is.

In our small firm we're not AIA members and there are occasionally times when this is inconvenient - though not enough that we've joined yet. Some issues we've had: most clients find their architect by referral/word of mouth, but those clients who more or less "cold call" an architect usually use the AIA's websites (local or national) to find the ones to call. If you're not a member then obviously you're not listed there.
Locally we can't use the AIA's website to post jobs or look for candidates. We also can't put our firm's binder at the AIA, read publications there, or look at their binder of resumes there. We can post jobs on the national AIA website, but at a higher fee. Similarly, we can enter projects into the annual AIA awards but the fees are double for non-members. Contract forms and other publications also cost more for non-members.
If one were using enough AIA contracts, entering enough projects into the awards, etc. then it's possible that the dues might pay for themselves in savings on these things - but for us this wouldn't be the case.

In some localities the AIA reportedly offers group health insurance plans to small firms, business insurance, etc. I do not believe that our local AIA offers any such plans.

Those are all of the issues I can think of. The one with the most impact by far has been the client perception that "AIA" after an architect's or firm's name is some assurance of competence and quality.