ISTE VS NHSTE (Which is which?)

ISTE is the international, "mother" organization -  individuals, organizations, and vendors may join ISTE.  For their annual membership fee, individuals receive a number of benefits and services outlined on the ISTE Membership page of their website:  http://www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Membership

Organizations such as NHSTE can also be members of ISTE in the form of an organizational affiliate (OA), NHSTE is the New Hampshire Affiliate of ISTE.  As an OA, NHSTE garners ISTE benefits and services that we can offer to our NHSTE members who may or may not be ISTE members.  One such benefit is the webinar series that NHSTE is sponsoring this year using ISTE content. (more details on our NHSTE website - www.nhste.org)

Vendors can also be members of ISTE through the ISTE 100 group, again, more information is located on the bottom of the ISTE membership page

As stated above, NHSTE is the New Hampshire Affiliate of ISTE.  NHSTE has its own governing board, bylaws, membership fee, structure, benefits, and services.  Joining NHSTE does not mean that you are a member of ISTE, but you benefit from the services of both NHSTE and ISTE OA offerings.  The benefits of NHSTE membership are outlined on the NHSTE website as well:  http://www.nhste.org/join_nhste.cfm

NEISTE (New England ISTE Affilates) is a relatively new group that is still defining its role and purpose.  Currently the only "members" of NEISTE are the 7 ISTE OAs in our New England Region - NHSTE, MassCUE, VITA Learn (VT), ACTEM (ME), and the Rhode Island and Connecticut affiliates.  There is currently no structure in place for an individual to join NEISTE.   It is designed to be an "organization of organizations" working together when beneficial to meet mutual goals, such as group software purchasing and negotiations.

I hope this helps and I would encourage all NH educators to join NHSTE and/or ISTE if they are interested in expanding their horizons in the use of technology to engage, excite, and educate 21st century students.  NHSTE individual membership fee is $25 for one year, ISTE's individual membership fee is $89 per year.  Both garner a discount on registration for their annual conferences among other benefits.  NHSTE's annual conference is the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference (CMTC) held the week after Thanksgiving in Nashua at the Radisson (www.nhcmtc.org).  ISTE's annual conference, the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) is being held in Washington, DC this year the last week of June (http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/).

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