Professional Associations

I was wondering what are good programs/memberships to get into?  Such as AIAS and International Code Council.  Are there other ones out there that approach being LEED certified?  Besides internships what are other affordable ways to gain knowledge and experiences?  Would it be wise to participate in online competitions?  Could the competitions be damaging at all to my career?

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There are way too many professional associations/organizations to list, but rather search on Google keywords that you are interested - for example

http://www.architect.org/links/architecture_organizations.html

http://www.usgbc.org/ - US Green Building Council

While internships are certainly the best way to gain experience, you can certainly enter competitions (online or not) as well research with faculty (Are you in school?). 

Best.