Making Dollars and Sense of Membership Fees

You've probably heard the scenario before. Alpha Chapter members pay $55 for membership, while Beta Chapter members pay $75. Better still members of the Chi Chapter are only paying $40. Why so many variations? Is there really a need for all these fees?

To understand this situation, start with the breakdown of membership fees. The fees paid by students at the time of induction can include up to three types - international, regional and local. While Phi Theta Kappa's Board of Directors establishes the international membership fee, currently $35, regions and chapters have the authority to set their respective fees. Thus, the total membership fee a student pays can vary from chapter to chapter and region to region.

How important are these fees to chapters and regions? Extremely! For many, membership fees are often the primary source of revenue. Revenue upon which Phi Theta Kappa depends to fund membership benefits.

Footing the bill for formal induction ceremonies, chapter newsletters, incentives for enhanced membership programs, and travel to Society meetings becomes easier with the help of chapter fees.

Regional fees are equally vital to the operation of each region. Regional fees are essential to support regional conventions, leadership conferences, and honors institutes. Such fees also fund regional publications, scholarships and awards programs.

How often should fees be collected? Both international and regional fees are collected only once. As for local fees, the 1998-99 Chapter Annual Report indicates that nearly 70 percent of chapters collect local fees only once, just as regional and international fees are collected. In fact, this is the method Headquarters recommends.

When designing your chapter's fee strategy, remember that a chapter can only require members to pay local fees at the time of induction. Chapters may ask that students pay local fees in the terms following their induction, but cannot revoke membership or abridge any membership benefits guaranteed by Phi Theta Kappa's International Constitution for failure to pay local fees in the terms following induction. Please note: If the semester/annual fees help cover expenses for the mailing of a chapter newsletter, it is acceptable for a chapter to remove members who do not continue to pay membership fees from the chapter's mailing list.

How much is enough? Fees for Phi Theta Kappa's regions range from $1 to $10 per member and should be submitted to the Regional Coordinator. Chapter fees currently range from $1 to $50. The 1998-99 Chapter Annual Report reveals that an overwhelming 81 percent of chapters collect $15 or less in local fees with $5 being the most popular amount collected.

Together the Society's international, regional, and local levels work to keep the cost of membership as low as possible while continuing to provide the quality of benefits that members expect.

Is there help for financially challenged students? At many chapters the answer is yes. To help students cover the cost of membership, many chapters have created programs which lend students a helping hand.

The chapter at St. Phillips College in San Antonio, Texas, worked directly with the college's Director of Student Activities to establish a system whereby any student meeting the chapter's membership eligibility requirements has his or her $40 membership fee paid by the college. The funding for the program comes from a portion of the college's student activity fees.

Chapter advisor Gregory Hudspeth says, "In semesters that we have had the funding to offer the program, our number of initiates into the chapter has increased." Hudspeth adds that having more members inducted into the chapter results in greater chapter participation which contributes to growth in chapter programming.

In 1998, Sacramento City College in Sacramento, California, established a committee to explore the possibility of chartering a Phi Theta Kappa chapter. One of the committee's primary concerns was the cost to students. Chapter advisor Dr. Anna Joy recalls, "The most impressive thing to me is that the entire committee, administrators, teachers, and counselors alike, as well as the foundation, was dedicated to the idea that our students should not be shut out of Phi Theta Kappa simply because they could not afford the fees."

After exhausting several leads on funding, the college president met with the college's foundation director explaining the benefits of membership and the committee's desire to assist financially needy students. The foundation director suggested that the foundation pay the membership fees for any student who provided documentation that he or she received financial aid. In the end the foundation funded the membership for about half of the chapter's inductees.

Chapter member Jaime Samuels knows first-hand the benefits of the chapter's financial assistance. "Without the aid of the Sacramento City College Foundation, I would have had a difficult time coming up with the fees to join Phi Theta Kappa. I would have found some way to pay my fee, since joining was so important to me, but I know that it was just as important to a vast majority of our members who simply would not have been able to join unless their fees were waived by our chapter," says Samuels.

Samuels served as the chapter's first president and in April was recognized as a First Team Member of Phi Theta Kappa's All-USA Academic Team. Clearly these are opportunities that would have been difficult to attain without the forethought of chapter organizers and the generosity of the college foundation. Other chapters throughout the Society offer programs which include faculty sponsorship of potential members, partial scholarships, and payment programs. Chapters that are able to balance the need for chapter funding with assistance for financially needy students create a win-win situation for the chapter and its members.