The professional community

A reader chooses here by the kind of collective setting the question is about: the professional association as a body a writer joins, uses and helps run, the local group writers meet in near where they work, whether an association's chapter or a group of their own, the conferences, webinars and other meetings the profession gathers at, or the other communities a writer can join between conferences. What a credential is worth to the writer holding it is left to education and credentials, teaching a course or a workshop to teaching and training medical writers, mentoring and its schemes to mentoring, and giving a talk of your own to practising public speaking.

• Professional associations — the body itself: which association to join, what a membership supplies and the discussion lists, volunteering, the special interest groups, and writing for its journal and entering its competitions
• Local groups of writers — the groups writers meet in locally, whether an association's chapter or a group no association runs: what taking part gives, starting one, its programme in person and online, its volunteers, officers, money and paperwork, and restarting a dormant one
• Conferences and learning events — the events the profession gathers at: finding a conference or a call for papers, attending an association conference, running professional learning events from the organiser's side, and the meetings beyond your own association
• Which communities a writer can join between conferences — what an institution or an employer already offers, a project's own channels, the membership associations and the paid communities, and the online groups for writers with none nearby