We are currently looking into putting our membership policies and procedures in a written format. We would like to address several issues in doing this. Does anyone have membership policies they would be willing to share? Especially in reference to the following:

Do you allow memberships based on pledges, or do you require payment first?

Do you consider all gifts as updates to a membership for a full year or do you allow early renewals? and is there a time limit? (ie, 2 months is early renewal)

Do you extend membership expirations for upgrades?

Do you send benefits with pledges/payments/cash? or once/twice a year?

Thanks for your assistance.

We do not allow memberships based on pledges. We do allow early renewals. We don't often get any more then a month early, though. We do not extend membership expirations for upgrades, but that's a great idea. The only benefit that we send is a membership card, so we send that when we receive the cash. I hope that helps. Katie Kupiecki Membership Services & Development Support Air Zoo Portage, MI

We have different policies for different organizations. Being a university, our alumni memberships work on the fiscal year, as do members of our athletic booster club. But our foundation memberships work on one-year anniversary dates; whatever date a member joins extends for 12 months out from that date. We are in the process of developing written data entry policies for memberships as well as general RE use since this year we likely will be adding input responsibilities to one or two additional people and we all need to be consistent with data entry. On another note, thanks for the great tip I got from this forum. Previously, I would use the Ctrl+Print Screen keys to capture an image and paste it into Word. This week, someone offered that ALT+Print Screen captured only the active window. I don't remember who posted that tip, but a big THANK YOU!!! It works as promised, like a charm! Rick - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Richard A. Reso Associate Director of Development Nicholls State University P.O. Box 2068 Thibodaux, LA 70310 (985) 493-2517 office (985) 448-4119 fax (985) 859-4202 cell [Email Removed]

Thanks so much for your help, both of you. These really give me some ideas as we put together our policy. I continue to appreciate all info related to this.