Druid Orders and Such

I have studied the Druid path for many years and I have even been a member of local groups and have attended ceremonies. However I am curious to know how peoples experiences have been with joining and being a member of national Orders and Associations such as AODA, The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids; the ADF etc.

Is the membership fees respectively worth the benefits, materials, and such that you get for being a member. Has anyone partipated in ceremonies or meetings with any of these national organizations and if so how were your experiences and what are your thoughts on them.

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So I am a member of OBOD, ADF, and Black Mountain Druid order and have experience with their materials and teaching. I have the course material for AODA as well so I know a bit on their style.

I'll break down my thoughts on those below.

OBOD - The have some great quality material, but if you live outside of the United Kingdom, specifically in the US, it is pretty expensive. I did monthly payments around $35 which isn't so bad if you go that route. You get an intro package followed by your first few Gwersi lessons. You also get a number of publications about high days, ritual, etc which I found to be really useful and interesting information. Sometimes you even get companion CDs that have snippets of stories, word pronunciation (a lot of it is Welsh) and various topics. They have an excellent mix of stuff with a lot focusing on the arts and literature along with nature as their first grade is Bard.

AODA - Also great quality, but focuses more on a ceremonial/high magick type of practice with lots of ritual. The two main books used by dedicants are The Druidry Handbook and The Druid Magic Handbook by John Michael Greer. You can get a pretty good idea of what the order is all about and the structure from those books.

BMDO (Black Mountain Druid Order) - The still have a free dedicant year long course available on their new website, but it has turned more into a kind of Druid university with sign ups and tuition fees, so I'm not all that active with them anymore. I personally just don't care for that approach and all of the fees, but the material is good for their style of Druidry.

ADF - This is what I'd consider my main Order and my honest favorite. The annual membership fee is pretty cheap and once you're a member, you can access a plethora of information including their dedicant course which can take 1-2 years, however you wish to pace yourself. Inside the Order you also have around 7 or so hearth culture groups that you can join and focus your Druidry within a particular Indo-European culture. They have a lot of great book recommendations and encourage a lot of scholarly research along with the spiritual. You also can access and read older digital copies of their monthly publication which you can also sign up to receive monthly when you sign up for membership.

Overall I've gotten some great experience and knowledge from each of them, but my top two would definitely be ADF followed closely by OBOD. I haven't gone to any public meets or rituals, however ADF does have a lot of smaller associated seed groups around the US that offer public ritual and events.