The first night of every month is straight key night for skcc members. The idea is to encourage more cw activity and especially cw with a straight key, sideswiper or bug. Anyone calling cw skcc will likely be a member and will be using one of the above keys and will be happy to talk to anyone, member or not. This is not a contest.
The first full weekend after the 6th of the month is the skcc weekend sprintathon and is a very informal contest. Listen for CQ WES de----.
The exchange is signal report, qth (state, province, dx entity), first name and skcc number or the word none if you are not a member. There are no logs to submit, just an online report accessed from the skcc website. They send a very nice certificate to first time participants. I got mine last month.
Lifetime membership is free ( another nice piece of wallpaper ), there are cw mentors and many other benefits and activities.
73, de John, WI4P, skcc # 7796