Receiving an email recently from CSI mentioning their ‘Spring Membership Drive’, I immediately thought of NPR.  How could you not?  Frequent NPR listeners know there are multiple times a year where your favorite program (mine are ‘Car Talk’ and ‘Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me’) is preempted for the push to collect money.  Without public funding, NPR runs wholly on it’s listeners and relies on contributions to keep things going.

I began to think about this more and how NPR and CSI correlate more than just two acronyms that I’m familiar with.  My fiance, Annika, is an avid NPR listener.  NPR is always on in the background when she works from home and we joke that almost all of her conversations start with ‘I was listening to NPR and….”  NPR is her source of information and news and her go-to source for such.

On the flip side of the coin, a majority of my conversations do start with “I was at a CSI meeting and” or “I was reading a post from CSI member on Twitter and”….CSI has turned into my source of news information for what I care most about.  Whether it is the latest construction industry standard or one of the more popular products to be used in the industry, my source revolves around the Construction Specifications Institute.  I’m not sure if Mitch Miller is my Carl Kasell or if Joy Davis is my Terry Gross, but I can tell you that they are both two resources that I rely on in CSI and I hold in very high regard.

Indeed, both CSI and NPR rely heavily on their members for ‘funding’. CSI is a national association of volunteers and their 140+ Chapters are much akin to NPR’s local community stations, like Vermont’s Public Radio (VPR).

Well, just like the time of year where NPR reaches out for help and funding, CSI is doing much the same.  After years of telling herself she was going to become a member of VPR,. Annika did just that last year.  Perhaps you’ve been doing the same thinking in regards to CSI.  ”I’ll do it next year” or “Maybe when they offer a ‘special’.  You may not get a mug or a nice Euro bumper sticker, but if you do take advantage of the special CSI Spring Membership Drive between now and March 31, 2013, you will save 20%.  Head over to  www.csinet.org/join by Sunday, March 31 and pay only $192 for national dues.  You don’t have to join a local Chapter, but I would heavily encourage you look into your “VPR”. To save your 20%:

1. Log onto www.csinet.org/join Select “Join Now”, and then click “Sign Up as a New Member”
2. Enter Promotion Code CSI1320 when prompted
3. Click the “Add Discount” button
4. Join a local CSI “Station” – I’m partial to Allentown and Vermont
5. Find and listen to incredible “‘hosts”
6. Befriend your “Carl Kasell” or “Terry Gross”