Spending Other People's Money

Really more of a bribe than an internal research grant, the money, whatever you call it, has come through and has made its way into the departmental budget, earmarked for me to spend.

This means that I will not be paying out of pocket for my whirlwind trip to San Diego. This also means that I'll need to officially register for the meeting so that I can prove that I wasn't just visiting the new panda at the San Diego Zoo.

I could spend the department's money on the non-member rate for the meeting.

I could spend $120 of my own money so that I can join the AMS and save the department $118 on the cost of registering for the meeting.

Do I really want to spend any of my own money? Do I really want to join the AMS?