Do Not Be Confused

Question

Society membership, aka the touted networking benefit, is NOT about passing exams.  It is biased towards those who work in the "industry."  My local societies are not interested in how many exams I have passed or the return I earned my clients last year, but only how many CFA "references" I can muster up (for affiliate membership).  Well guess what, my clients are not charterholders and I do not require someone to "supervise" me.  Makes me wonder if some members are sipping martinis at society events patting themselves on the back on how they broke-even last year? Are all these breakeven-heros vouching for one another??  I cannot be the only one who sees a big gaping hole in this scheme.  There are a couple forum members whose input I value, I hope they are still around to tell me if I am missing something here.

artyeasel · Answer

I suppose it's not a perfect system, but a system that 80/20 works. How do you decide how to belong in a society? I suppose one way is that since it's a 'society', i.e. a group of people organized towards a common purpose, having fellow members recommend members makes simple sense. However, I can comment a bit (strictly in my own opinion) about perhaps why local society members can seem to 'not care' how many exams you've passed. I've volunteered in my local society for a bit, and two observations relevant to this:Local societies can sometimes be evolved from another financial society, e.g. the UK society originally is about the IMC exam, and still is heavily, and NYSSA (New York CFA Society) was set up way before the CFA exams. So the CFA exams themselves could only be a small part of what they're about.Lots of the committee members / heads of various areas of society etc aren't actually CFA qualified. This was a bit of a shocker to me when I first joined/volunteered. You don't necessarily have to be, I think.So it would make sense that members aren't necessarily keen to talk about the exam, especially if you haven't passed them! :)Lastly, I could be wrong, but I don't think the CFA touts their benefit as 'pass all 3 CFA exams and you get to network with us'. Networking is always a matter of putting yourself out there, and CFA-society-wise you can always be an affiliate member, volunteer or attend all their events and get your foot in whatever doors you may be eyeing.