Local Membership

Do you have members that have gone missing? Yes, that is what I said. Does you locals treasurer list of your membership match with the BPW/USA list of your local?

This is a very important for you local. You need to track if your members have paid their dues or have they been dropped from membership. OK, so how do you get a copy of your local’s membership according to BPW/USA. Go to the national website, sign in as a member, and then you can access your locals membership roster. You will need your BPW membership number to do so. Now you have the information necessary to do a comparison and start to track down who believes they have paid but are not listed.

Another way that members may not show on your locals membership, if transferred from another local, but the correct paperwork which includes the locals membership number as well as the individual members number mailed to the correct BPW/USA address. You do not have that address? You can find all the necessary information and forms with addresses included on the national website, www.bpwusa.org in members section that you can download. New members and renewing members’ dues are sent to two separate addresses, one is for new members only, and the second one is only for renewals. If you are sending all dues from your local to national at once, it must be separate checks for each individual member along with their renewal notice.

Remember, if a member has gone unrecognized as a member for over 18 months, that member will need to be resubmitted as a new member and they will be issued a new membership number and card.

If you feel that you have fallen off the communication line from either the state of national, make sure that your BPW/USA member profile has been completed on-line. Processing has changed a great deal in recent years and the main way that members are contacted comes from the member profile, which includes e-mail contact.

So, take a few minutes as a member and make sure you have done all that you can do to insure your membership is in place as you think it is, and local officers please do the same for your locals. Make this a top priority before the year comes to an end. The year has a way of getting away from us all, so do not delay. Your continued communications depend on it.

Penny Modlin

Past State President, BPW MI 2006-2007