While TeX and all of the supporting ideas are free (both in monetary terms and intellectually), supporting that is a lot of effort from a range of volunteers and hard cash for parts of the infrastructure behind it. A key component of making all of that work is TUG: the worldwide TeX user group. TUG is the central point for co-ordinating a range of activities: running the TUG conference series, supporting TeX development, producing TeX Live and hosting mailing lists, to name a few.
Those of us in TUG have recently had a mail from the President pointing to a slightly concerning trend: a slow but perceptible drop in membership. That doesn’t mean there are fewer TeX users about: the accessibility of modern TeX systems means that there are a lot of TeX users (see for example the popularity of the TeX StackExchange site). That accessibility means that users don’t need to join a user group to use TeX, so there is something of a challenge.
To encourage people to take up membership, and of course take advantage of the benefits, TUG have launched a membership campaign. The aim is to encourage existing members to look out for new recruits, and of course to remind us that TUG is only as strong as its membership. So if you are a member, remind your fellow TeX users to join TUG, and if you are not in TUG: why not?