Valid points, all of them. I volunteered for many years (up to reasonably high levels of responsibility) for a major technical society. The issue that became

Valid points, all of them. I volunteered for many years (up to reasonably high levels of responsibility) for a major technical society. The issue that became apparent though, is that your day job still consumes most of your time, and it takes a LOT of satisfaction elsewhere to make up for lack of motivation/passion/interest/recognition in it (especially if your employer has less than no interest in/support for your volunteer work. If you're in a position where you can apply your skills to help others in your work environment (or at least with their blessing outside that environment), that is gold! Sadly, such opportunities do tend to be few and far between, from what I've seen :-/