Webmaster Association? Webmaster Union?

Has anyone wondered why there's not a real webmaster's association that all webmaster's worldwide can belong to? I know there's an association for webmasters involved in gambling sites and even a US state one, I think.

why should there be a union?

Unions influence the companies their members work for. Wouldn't a webmaster's union/association have more influence on the search engines?

It'd also help set standards and provide the search engines with a member's dircetory of approved sites.

Another bonus is that it would show customers that the web designer they are hiring is legit and can design good websites.

I am also interested in this! I am a webmaster with over 10 years of experience and I try to network as much as possible. pm me also if you know of or are starting a webmaster union.

It seems to me like you'd have a bunch of people joining or trying to join who wouldn't really qualify. That or you'd define "webmaster," because right now everyone with a Geocities page can be considered one, and 9 year-olds who just discovered the internet wouldn't really have any idea what unions do. However if you put some restriction on it, like minimum website traffic or minimum amount of real experience, it might work. I don't really know much about unions, though, but I think joining one requires being able to sign a contract and to do that you must be at least 18 years-old (at least in the U.S.). That would disqualify a lot of talented teenagers, and in the developing technology industry they're quite important. It seems like it would be too complicated, at least in the short-term.

This post has been edited by beeseven: Jun 13 2006, 10:33 PM

The whole point of unions is to unite the weak to be strong. Yes, being a union of adults is alot better than say the boy scouts, but only american? Unions are simply to unite the weak (laborors) against the strong (corporations), so a minimum amount of traffic or "credentials" would be the perfect cancer to take a union of this sorts down! or maybe it would do well and all us "9 year-olds who just discovered the internet" would never have a chance that everyone before use did.

If you wanted to have a union of carpenters a simple requirement could be a hammer. You could filter out webmasters with out a top level domain or maybe even a paypal (or stormpay, egold, ect) account could prove age, and identity, as well as address.

I think the only way one is going to get started is if one of the top webmasters starts it i.e. mat cutts etc.

I think you'll find with just about every industry (apart from webmasters of course ) there are international associations, national associations and even state/regional/city associations!

And there are alot fo webmasters, so tis abit odd that they have nothing.

better get your act together! or google or bill gates will end up starting the unions for their own purposes!