May 2001

Chair: Miriam Alexander                                                          Staff: Jennifer Edwards

The Board asked the Membership Committee to review options for establishing new membership categories. To help the Board understand what the "industry standards" are, staff have collected data on membership policies from six medical societies (AMA, ACOEM, AsMA, AAFP, AAP, and ACP-ASIM) and from APHA. This report summarizes the results of our data collection efforts to date.

Although associations structure their lifetime membership programs in a variety of ways, an important purpose of creating a lifetime membership category would be to "lock in" future memberships and to enable the College to earn income on membership dues paid in advance. The associations surveyed by the College had a wide range of policies concerning lifetime memberships. Five had a lifetime membership category while two did not.

Of the five:

• AsMA offers lifetime memberships for $2,625, or 15 years’ worth of dues.
• The AMA offers lifetime memberships, with the cost varying by age (more for younger physicians, less for older physicians).
• The dues for lifetime membership in AAFP vary chapter to chapter.
• APHA grants lifetime membership to those who have been members for at least thirty years. Lifetime members pay no dues and have full benefits.
• ACOEM awards lifetime memberships to past presidents, who pay no dues and receive full benefits.

Clearly, the College could structure a lifetime membership in a variety of ways. For example, using the AsMA model, the College might allow lifetime membership for a one-time payment of $3,600 (15 times current dues of $240). Alternatively, lifetime membership dues could vary depending on the age of the member, perhaps $3,600 for members under 45 and $2,400 for members over 45. The full Membership Committee will meet soon to discuss this issue in greater depth. Listed below are other questions the Committee will need to consider:

• What level of membership must be attained in the College before an individual can apply for lifetime membership?
• Should lifetime memberships be awarded for other, honorary reasons (e.g., ACOEM’s awarding of lifetime membership to past presidents)?
• Should lifetime members be considered a different category of member (thereby requiring an amendment to the ACPM Constitution) or should this be viewed as primarily an administrative and accounting issue?
• What are the implications of establishing a lifetime membership category for the College’s accounting procedures?

A second category of membership to consider is Honorary Fellow. Interestingly, the ACPM Constitution specifically allows for this membership category. There are two primary reasons for using this category. First, awarding honorary fellowships is a way to bring prominent persons into the membership of the College who would otherwise not join the College. A second reason would be to elevate prominent College members to the Fellowship level even though they may not meet the existing requirements for Fellowship, e.g., they may not be Board-certified. In this instance, these individuals would not be called Honorary Fellows, but, rather, just Fellows.

Five of the seven associations we surveyed offer honorary fellowship or honorary membership categories. At APHA, this category is reserved for those who have been members for at least thirty years. The other associations award honorary status to prominent individuals. For example, ACP-ASIM awards honorary fellowships to presidents of foreign medical associations. At AsMA, the President nominates honorary members, who are then voted on by the Board. AAP chapters can nominate honorary fellows, but they must be approved by the Board. In all cases, dues are waived for honorary members. Benefits are generally not provided, although this is not always the case. Only the AMA and AAFP do not have honorary membership categories.

The Development Committee has recommended that ACPM establish an honorary fellowship category to bring prominent leaders in preventive medicine into the College. Issues to decide include:

• Who within the College can bestow this honor – the Board of Regents, Executive Committee, etc.?
• Should honorary fellows be allowed to use FACPM?
• Should they receive benefits with their honorary fellowship?

For the second category of "honorary" fellow discussed above (i.e., current College members who may not meet the Fellowship criteria), the question is whether the Board needs to take any action. In at least one case, the Executive Committee has upgraded a member’s status to Fellow. The Membership Committee will discuss this issue at its next meeting to determine how best to address the issue. Input from the Constitution and Bylaws Committee will also be solicited.

Investigating whether non-physicians can become College members raises many issues, but it is potentially an important way to increase the size of the College. Of the six medical societies surveyed, three allow non-physician members (ACOEM, AsMA and AAP), and three do not (AMA, ACP-ASIM, AAFP).

ACOEM allows non-physicians who have received doctoral level degrees to become Associate Members. Associate Members’ dues are the same as for physicians. AsMA permits nurses, technicians, engineers and others working in aerospace medicine to become members. These non-physician members are entitled to all of the benefits of physician members, e.g., they may hold office and vote in elections. AAP offers Affiliate status for allied health professionals and nurses. This level allows for reduced benefits and reduced dues.

The Membership Committee has not discussed this issue extensively but hopes to do so soon. The Committee recognizes that this issue was discussed at length within the College about a decade ago and was quite controversial.

The Committee has previously discussed the issue of reinstating Fellows whose membership has lapsed because of non-payment of dues. In its discussions, the Committee felt that any Fellow who had been deleted from the membership rolls for non-payment must rejoin as a Member and work back towards Fellowship or must make back payment for all missed dues payments. Recently, a prominent physician who used to be a Fellow of the College indicated his desire to rejoin the College. It was felt that requiring back payment of dues or requiring him to rejoin as a Member would have resulted in the individual not joining. Thus, we elected to charge a reinstatement fee ($150) to allow the individual to rejoin as a Fellow. The Membership Committee may wish to revisit this issue to provide appropriate guidance.