At CSTA, our mission is to empower and support K-12 educators in delivering high-quality, accessible, and inclusive computer science education. To continue providing the best resources, professional development, and community support, we will be transitioning from a two-tier membership model to a single CSTA membership offering.
What does this mean?
Starting in early March 2025, the free basic membership will be retired. Current basic members will have two options:
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Upgrade to a CSTA membership for just $50 annually and continue enjoying exclusive benefits.
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Take no action and their account will automatically transition to a free CSTA account with limited access.
Why the change?
As an independent organization run by teachers for teachers, this membership fee will enable us to sustain and enhance the value we provide to our community. Membership dues directly support our efforts to offer high-quality resources, professional development, and advocacy tailored specifically for CS educators.
What is changing for my chapter?
With the transition to a single membership type, individuals must be a member of CSTA to be a member of a chapter. This means that anyone who does not become a CSTA member will not be able to be a member of any CSTA chapter. Non-members who have accounts with CSTA will still be able to receive communication from your chapter but will not be formal members of the chapter.
Is my chapter going to lose members?
It is possible that your chapter will lose members during this transition period. Did you know that only 29% of Basic CSTA members who belong to a chapter have engaged with CSTA in the past year? To help maintain your active members, CSTA will provide information on scholarship opportunities through Amazon Future Engineer and the general CSTA scholarship fund. If your chapter is able, you also will be able to offer scholarships.
To help support you in retaining members during this time, CSTA will be providing you with the outreach materials to market to and inform your members. This will include a list of all chapter members, their membership type, and the date they last engaged with CSTA, along with email templates that can be customized for your chapter.
Will my chapter still receive funding from CSTA for its members?
Yes, CSTA will still send chapters that are a part of CSTA’s Group Exemption $10 per CSTA member that lists your chapter as their primary chapter. We anticipate that this new, singular membership model will increase the overall number of paid members per chapter, therefore increasing the amount of annual membership dues each chapter receives.
My chapter can’t receive funding from CSTA because we haven’t joined CSTA’s Group Exemption. Can we receive chapter funding another way?
In the spring of 2025, we will work with chapters that are not receiving funding to help ensure they can receive funds from CSTA.
This might mean your chapter will receive support and assistance from CSTA to set up a bank account or join the Group Exemption, but it might also mean your chapter could be eligible to receive funding in different ways, such as using the funds to pay for CSTA membership, using the funds to pay for CSTA conference registration fees, using the funds to purchase items from the CSTA store, etc.
Can non-members attend chapter events?
Chapter membership is a benefit of CSTA membership. The primary function of CSTA chapters is to serve their local members. CSTA is giving each chapter money from your local membership dues to serve the members, and that funding should be used to serve those members.
CSTA wants its chapters to do outreach to serve more teachers, so we encourage you to host outreach events! The function of these outreach events should be to recruit non-members to join both CSTA and the chapter. We encourage each chapter to host at least one outreach event per semester.
If a chapter hosts an event that does not focus on outreach or recruitment, non-members can attend for an additional fee. The chapter can set this fee, and the dues can go directly to the chapter, but it should cost the non-member more than the member to attend.
Anyone who attends a chapter event must have or create a CSTA account and join CSTA as a member. This allows CSTA to award professional development credits to those who participated in the event.
Can I still email non-members interested in my chapter?
Yes, individuals with a CSTA account can still receive chapter newsletters and communications.
Are Chapter Leaders allowed to share CSTA Member resources with non-members?
Chapter Leaders will be able to present any resources from the CSTA Resource Library at their chapter meetings, including outreach events open to non-members. When sending follow-up communications, Chapter Leaders can send the link to the resource in the library to their members and non-members.
Downloading a resource is only for your personal use or to be used at a chapter meeting.
What happens if my chapter does not buy into this change?
Chapters that are not in good standing with CSTA will not be eligible to receive funding from CSTA, including membership dues, chapter grants, or scholarship funding to attend the Chapter Leadership Summit and CSTA Annual Conference. Additionally, chapters that are not in good standing may also lose their access to their CSTA technology tools.
I have another question that is not answered on this page.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to your regional coordinator or CSTA’s Chapter and Volunteer Services Manager, @Ashley Love-Smith. You can also submit questions you would like us to address in the Chapter Leader Community discussion post, and Ashely, @Michelle Burton, or @Jen Manly will answer.
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Jake Baskin
Executive Director
CSTA
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