First revision in the history of the Society.

ISME has announced a completely revised structure of fees for membership which will see many members in less well-resourced countries paying less.

Since establishment, ISME has used the United Nations Human Development Index to determine a schedule of fees by country of residence of the individual member. Those resident in high HDI nations paid a higher fee than those in low or very low nations. At the world conference in Baku there were strong representations from some members that this was now growing inequitable. As some countries surged ahead economically they could skew the HDI for a region. One example was that the HDI structure doesn’t differentiate between Western Europe and Eastern Europe. There was just one category for Europe. This mean that Moldova is ranked the same as Germany, when Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with GDP of US$3,300 per capita whilst Germany has US$48,000 per capita.

The ISME Board commissioned an extensive review and the result is the new structure and schedule of fees.

The underlying model for the new structure will be Purchasing Power Parity, which more directly measures and compares prices in different countries.

The new structure will also have six levels, rather than the previous four. This allows for more differentiation at the lower levels of the model.

In practice, 74% of the membership, based in 70 countries, will see no change. The major change will be for those in the 118 lowest ranking countries, which is 25% of membership, where the fees will decrease.  For 0.75% of the membership, in 8 countries there will be a fee rise.

The new fee structure will be effective from 1 January 2020, but anyone joining or renewing now will also access these new fees.

For full information about the new ISME fee structure as well as specific fees for each country and membership type go to the Join page.