Disclosure of Commercial Affiliations.
At Society meetings, members frequently discuss products that are available for purchase online.
And although the Society hopes to publish a future issue of Proceedings on “the best place to shop online”, we realize many listeners and readers will (continue to) use Amazon, regardless of whatever we end up recommending.
So, the Society joined Amazon’s affiliate program, and whenever we discuss a product that is available on Amazon, the secretary includes a “buy on Amazon” link in the minutes. As an Amazon Associate, the Society earns a commission from qualifying purchases made using those links.
Our inclusion of these links is not an endorsement of Amazon.
The Society’s involvement in this affiliate program has no influence on our comments—as evidenced by the fact that we frequently recommend and link to products that are not on Amazon, frequently recommend against products that are on Amazon, etc. We often do not even know whether a product is available on Amazon before discussing it. After the meeting, while writing the minutes, the secretary simply inserts links wherever members had discussed a product that he finds is available on Amazon.
Indeed, the Society possesses too much pride in its commentary to be swayed in the least by any outside corporation or potential fiduciary incentives. (Although, the secretary notes he would be willing to bow to select interests of the Dunkin’ Donuts corporation, should they appropriately heed our repeated calls for sponsorship.)
What Amazon does with your personal data (whether you arrived there via one of our links or otherwise) is governed by Amazon’s privacy policies.