We’re unified! At the 4 September Governing Board, USPS members voted to unify the Active and Family membership types into one – members. Now, former Family Members can vote, hold office, become Senior and Life Members, and fly the Ensign. New incoming members are all “Active” members (OK, except Apprentice and Sea Scout members).
Starting on 1 November, Headquarters will start entering all attached family unit members under the dues category “Additional Active.” But, there’s no reason to wait. Now, when a new member joins and brings his family along as a family unit, they should become Additional Actives. After 1 November, all new members will receive “E” certificate numbers.
It’s a good time for squadrons to consider adopting “Family Unit Dues”. On the national level, we have a single rate, $39, for single actives and a single rate, $58.50, for entire families or what we call Family Units. So, new members are encouraged to sign up their entire family as members for just 150% of the price of a single membership.
With unified membership, all members will be active members. Headquarters will be able to maintain the legacy dues status indicators for current Family Members until 31 May 2012. After that, we’ll lose traceability of the old dues status codes, so squadrons should address their dues structures before that.
Look for more information to come.
It good to be unified!
By V/C Robert A. Baldridge, SN
