Why Join?
This is the only organization that you join and attend because you want to. You expect no professional advancements from it; you have no political axe to grind. You are not pressured to become a member or read a paper. You belong because you want to. That is the very nature of the Society, one thing that distinguishes it from any other. –J. Frank Dobie, ca. 1925, Editor 1923-1943
We have been in operation since 1909, and in as many years, we have had a wonderful variety of folks who have been members--and with as many different members as we have had, there are as many different reasons folks have joined--and stayed!
One of the many lovely things about the Society is that when you attend an annual meeting, you might not know you're sitting right next to an author, a professor, a scholar, or a goat herder. We're a blend of folks from all backgrounds and all points on the maps. We appreciate our differences and our similarities and feel a connection to one another because of our love for the people of Texas, past and present. It's impossible to name all of our notable members, but here are a few who watch over us from the Great Meeting in the Sky: John A. Lomax, Leonidas Payne, Dorothy Scarborough, J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb, John Henry Faulk, Mody Boatright, Jovita González, Alan Lomax, Martha Emmons, Hermes Nye, Americo Paredes, F. E. "Ab" Abernethy, J. Mason Brewer, Elmer Kelton, Paul Patterson, Lou Rodenberger, Kenneth Davis, John O. West, and Sid Cox, just to name a few.
Members receive:
- Our annual publication or some other folklore book selected for distribution in the years when a book is not brought out by the Society.
- 20% discount on purchases of most books from Texas A&M University Press.
- The opportunity to share folklore with other members through presentations and conversations at meetings.
- The opportunity to present papers at our annual meetings.
- The opportunity to submit folklore papers for possible publication in the annual volume.
- The opportunity to present papers by representing TFS at other conferences to which we are invited, such as Texas State Historical Association or East Texas Historical Association.
- The opportunity to participate in and see new webinars before they are open to the public.
- The opportunity to hear first any new audio recordings of papers, folk songs, whatever we come up with, before anybody else.
Membership Levels:
- Student - $15.00
- Individual - $25.00
- Organization - $25.00
- Family - $30.00
- Paisano Grande - $50.00
- Individual Lifetime - $500.00
- Family Lifetime - $750.00