Associate Membership

Regular members who are no longer actively training or involved with the club may put their membership on hold by switching to Associate status. Associates will have continued access to the Members-only areas of the website and other members-only channels of communication, but are not eligible for any other privileges of Regular membership (including voting and holding office). 

Dues:

• Associate Individual: $17.50
• Associate Family: $7.50 for each additional Associate member

Inactive Members Are Encouraged to Switch to Associate Status

If you are a Regular member but do not anticipate being active in the club in the coming year, please consider helping us by switching to Associate membership when you renew.

Why would we ask this?

To conduct business at our meetings, we need a quorum – 10 percent of our Regular (i.e. voting) members for a General Membership meeting, 20 percent for a Special meeting. The more Regular members we have on the rolls, the more people we need at a meeting to make a quorum. We sometimes have trouble getting those attendance numbers, meaning that it's a wasted meeting: we can't vote or conduct any other business.

To address the problem, the AKC recommends that we ask our inactive Regular members (those who have not attended a GM meeting in some time) to consider switching to Associate membership. Associates are non-voting members and so are not counted for purposes of determining a quorum.

How do you switch to Associate status?

Changes from Regular to Associate status can be made only during the annual membership renewal period.  Contact the Membership Manager for assistance before you renew.

How do you become a Regular Member Again?  

Associate members may switch back to Regular status at any time in the year.  To do so, they must:

• Have met the volunteer requirements for Regular membership as stipulated for new applicants  in Bylaws Art. 1 section 1(c)
• Fill out part 1b of the application form
• Submit the form to the Membership Chair along with the difference between Regular dues and any Associate dues they have already paid for the year
• Attend one General Membership meeting, at which the application will be read and voted on.  You do NOT need to go through the 5-meeting process again! 

Is Associate membership right for you?

Associate membership is a way of putting your membership, and its benefits, on hold. In terms of benefits, Associates are essentially non-members. They may not do anything that someone from the general public wouldn’t be allowed to do, like have a key, open-train, teach, use points, or receive priority admission and discounted fees for classes and seminars. If you wish to use these benefits, then Associate membership is not for you!

We understand that meeting attendance is not the only measure of “being active in the club.” Some members cannot attend meetings at night but still teach, work trials, or take classes/open-train during the day. But if you have moved out of the area, are not currently training a dog, or are simply not using the benefits of Regular membership, please think about switching to Associate status – at least for now. You can easily switch back later.

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Honorary Membership

Honorary membership is available to any individual who has given outstanding service to the club. Honorary members pay no dues and have all the privileges of Regular membership except voting and holding office.  

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