U.S. Judo organizations

What advantage is there to joining one U.S. Judo organization over another ?
Why are there still three ( four if you count AAU) judo organizations governing judo in the U.S. ?

History lesson here: http://judoinfo.com/usja/

Briefly AFAIK: USJF split due to internal strife. When the IOC came knocking and wanted a single org per country the AAU stepped in to act as umbrella for USJF and USJA.
The AAU eventually wanted out of the arrangement and USA Judo Inc. was created to handle the Olympics while USJA and USJF continued with grass roots as they were still unable to reconcile their differences.

Phil Porter eventually left the USJA under a cloud and formed yet another org and got into the belt swapping game with multiple martial arts.

In most countries, once an org get's the Olympic nod, the others wither and die. Certainly that's what happened in Canada where the "English" org won out over the "French" one. Of course today the Quebecois have their revenge as they dominate Canadian judo to a ridiculous degree and can pretty much dictate the direction Judo Canada takes.

France is the same with one strong central org, while the UK as I understand it is still split.

Thanks for the response.

Was told that USJF has closer ties to universities in Japan and maintains a closer tie to Kodokan than the other organizations. That alone would make it preferable, at least to me.

one of my friend (mentor really) is something of a judo (and martial art in general) historian. has done lots of research on judo in the US. Basically, what I have learned from him is that JA was once the Armed Forces Judo yudanshakai (in the JF). They split in late 60s. (He gots theories about that, but I'll stick to what I can remember as fact) AAU was already "in power" because of the way sports organization in the US was run at the time (they ran all the amateur sports). Congress passed some act in the late 70s which established the USOC. What came from that was that each sport had to have 1 governing group that reported to the USOC, which led to the formation of US Judo Inc (now USA Judo).

why are there still 3? basically, because the powers in each have different ideas/methods on how things should be done (again, just trying to stick to facts, not paint anny swaying opinions), but today, they are working together more than they were way back when they split (apparently, there was a lot of disagreement. so much to the point that years later, they don't know why they don't like the other guy, but just that they're supposed to).

Which should you join? I asked this very same question. The (surprising) response that came back made great sense. All 3 have their pluses and minuses, but in the end, the job of the organization is to serve the membership, so whatever organization is providing the most service in your area is almost always the best bet (why do you want to join an organization when your the orphan member in your area? (yes, you might have a good reason, but I did say "almost" always)). The caveat there is that if you start competing nationally, most tournaments require membership in USA Judo, so if you're with one of hte others, you might have to pay for a second membership.