2006 Membership Committee Report

In Attendance: Lisa M. Harrison-Bernard (Chair), Jeff M. Sands (Council Liaison), Robert B. Robey, Kirk L. Hamilton, John B. Buckwalter, Sue Sabur, Linda Allen.

New Student Dues

  Structure

The Chair reviewed the current student dues structure: Students members now pay $10 for the first year and $20 for each additional year up to five years. Their first year of regular membership is free if they transition from student membership.

Membership Statistics

The Chair reviewed the membership statistics.  Total number of members is currently 10,216.  There were 325 new Regular members and 161 new Student members, however, there were 441 dropped Regular members and 358 dropped Student members.  Thirty percent of the dropped Regular members were members for less than five years.  Seventy-six percent of new Student members are age 20-30, while 75% of dropped Student members are age 30-39.  Interesting, only 1% of dropped Student members are age 25-29.  The membership committee will closely monitor the student membership.  Eighteen percent of all members and 22% of Regular members are not affiliated with a section. The fact that the majority of members dropped are not affiliated with sections was addressed.  Thirty-three percent of dropped Regular members and 73% of dropped Student members had no sectional affiliation.  It was noted that new members are now required to select a primary section affiliation. Therefore, there is no component of the new regular and student members that are not affiliated with a section. The dues renewal forms ask members to select section affiliation, but it is not mandatory.  The membership committee hopes that affiliation and active participation with a section will aid in retention of members. Questions arose regarding the ability to police renewals without affiliation. Linda Allen stated that it is possible; however, policing would require additional staff time currently not allocated or budgeted.  

Tracking Postdoctoral Members

The committee discussed a need to track our postdoctoral members.  Do they pay dues after the first year of free membership dues?  An IT task force may need to be created to handle this issue.  The committee suggested that new trainees be automatically channeled through the Trainee Advisory Committee.

Strategic Plan

The Chair queried if we are addressing the needs of the diversity of the membership. This was a major point of discussion at the strategic planning meeting. A list of issues that are most related to the charge of the Membership Committee was pulled from the approved strategic planning document. One important question was how to make the web or future technologies more interactive to meet the goals of membership.

Discussion arose regarding APS's global impact, how to partner with other national societies not only western countries but eastern (Asian) countries. Exhibiting at international meetings and having members attending international meetings bring membership materials for distribution were discussed.

Member Retention

The committee will continue to monitor the trends in dropped members by sectional affiliation.  It is anticipated that the numbers of student and regular members in the non-sectional affiliated group will decrease now that selection of sectional affiliation is mandatory for new regular and student members. Hopefully engaging the sections will help with member retention. Sue Sabur stated that she is identifying new sources for marketing membership to potential members.

APS staff has placed APS logo stickers around the EB meeting and many members are wearing them on the badge. This is an outcome of a request from the Membership Committee last year. Members have been quite enthusiastic about wearing their APS logo stickers.

Meeting with APS Section Chairs

The Chair was invited to present at the Friday, March 31 APS Section Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting. The Chair provided statistical information on section affiliation of current, dropped and new members. The SAC was very interested in the dropped regular members by section and their role in welcoming and retaining members to their sections.

Section Listservs and APS Global Emails

The Chair would like new members to be added into the listserv of the primary affiliation automatically. Linda Allen explained that this is under discussion also with the Section Advisory Committee. There are some technical issues and past bad experiences when APS has automatically added names to listservs.  Discussion arose regarding the use of listservs and Martin Frank�s APS Update emails. Are they read?  Are they serving their intended purpose? It was agreed that at the very least members need to be educated about how to join listservs and what the benefits are of being on listservs. Sue Sabur suggested mailing a postcard with the information. It was suggested that Martin Frank's APS Update emails include a link directly to the section listservs. It was suggested that the URL for joining the listserv be printed on the APS member calendar.

Testimonials

Each member of the Membership Committee is charged with providing a testimonial-either their own or a colleague's-that states how being a member of APS is important. Committee members should email their testimonials with picture, if possible, to Linda Allen: lallen@the-aps.org.

Emeritus Membership

It was noted that the retirement requirement for emeritus is not policed, but is an honor system. The guidelines state the following:  Emeritus membership is open to individuals who have reached the age of 65 and are retired from regular employment or have retired due to illness or disability. Members in this category receive all privileges and benefits of membership, except they may not vote or hold elected office. Emeritus members pay no membership fees.

Membership Dues Block Grants

Jeff Sands stated that the American Society of Nephrology solicits block grants from pharmaceutical companies to cover membership dues for students and postdoctoral fellows. Discussion arose regarding the probability of APS being able to secure similar funds.

Publications and Membership Benefits

It was suggested that APS increase the manuscript submission fee for non APS members and keep the APS member submission fee the current amount ($50). Membership ID number would be required at the time of manuscript submission.  This would increase member benefits and membership plus increase revenue for the Publications Department.  It was noted that 50% of the submission to APS journals are from outside of the US.