The decline in professional society memberships

Credit: "Bowling Alone", Robert Putnam, 20th anniversary edition

As a part of the ACS Council agenda, the news that between 2015 and 2020, the ACS lost ~12000 industrial members. There's a lot of different explanations, but most folks see it as being a problem of the cost and the value of a membership in the American Chemical Society. 

I'm not particularly interested in rehashing the debate, but I do think it's worthwhile to note that the decline in professional society participation seems to have started in the 1960s, according to Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone." 

I haven't finished reading it (barely started, but I did think this was interesting.)