The community and counselors have also been great for me. It's so interesting to hear from you all that those are the greatest benefits, too. My 2 YSs and I are very anxious to get to a gathering (it'll be 2009 for us) to meet others because we do not live in a big city with lots of YSs. DS9 enjoys reading the profiles of other YSs around the country (especially those his age), their favorite things, activities. He likes the monthly challenges on the bulletin board. Sometimes he "chats" but not much. He has only taken one colloquium but wasn't driven to do the readings and then his participation in the discussions slacked off (I think it needs to be a topic he's passionate about rather than mildly interested in). I've taken several colloquia and have thoroughly enjoyed "meeting" and "discussing" things with experts like Miraca Gross, Jim Delisle, etc. Very neat opportunity to have questions answered or suggestions made from the big names. The counselors have helped me a LOT as both sounding board and with real recommendations (that's how our class subscribed to ALEKS). There's more, but I have to go now.
