MOVING THE HONORARY FORWARD
At the NACURH 2017 Semi-Annual Business Meeting, the NRHH National Board met and discussed several elements of the NRHH Strategic Plan. Specifically, the NNB focused on the NRHH membership statuses and centered the conversation around the NRHH Census data we gathered from every NRHH Chapter in NACURH. After analyzing the data and utilizing a strengths and weaknesses analysis of the membership statuses, the NNB felt like the statuses could be updated to better suit the Honorary's needs. These updated statuses were refined after the 2017 Semi-Annual Business Meeting, and the official change was passed at the Corporate NRHH Business Meeting at NACURH 2017.
After the change was passed the incoming NNB declared that the 2017-2018 affiliation year would be a year of transition for chapters to start the process of changing their chapters membership statuses. This past year the NACURH New Membership Statuses Taskforce developed different strategies to help chapters transition which can be found here. Below is a thorough description of the Membership Statuses and the changes made.
UPDATED MEMBERSHIP STATUSES
Candiate Member
This brand new membership status is designed for incoming members as a sort of pre-membership. It is a membership status that allows for chapters to educate incoming members about NRHH before they are inducted into the honorary. Education sessions include NRHH History, OTMs, Membership Qualifications, and the Membership Selection Process. Once the sessions are completed to the chapters standards, Candidate Members can be officially inducted into the honorary as On-Campus Members.
On-Campus Member
On-Campus Members are the majority of the membership that makes up a chapter. This change was merely a name change from the original Active Member. This membership status includes those members who live on campus and maintain voting rights. They also are the primary membership status that counts towards to membership cap for the chapter.
Off-Campus Member
At the 2016 NACURH Corporate NRHH Business Meeting there was a dissonance shown that lead to the creation of the Off-Campus Member. It is a status that was created to fill a gap and to create more opportunities for members who wanted to stay involved in NRHH, but campus housing was limited. Off-Campus Members must first be inducted as an On-Campus Member. When they move off-campus they can sign the Off-Campus Membership Pledge and be re-inducted as an Off-Campus Member. The chapter has the discretion of who can come back as Off-Campus Members, but only 15% of the total membership cap can consist of Off-Campus Members. Off-Campus Members maintain voting rights and the same privileges as On-Campus Members. If chapters do not want to induct Off-Campus Members, they do not have to, but still must have the status outlined in their Chapter's Constitution.
Lifelong Member
Lifelong Members are the alumni members of NRHH. They consist of NRHH members, both On and Off-Campus, who encouraged the growth and development of their overall chapter. They participated in chapter meetings, events, and programs, while displaying the two values of recognition and service. The chapter has autonomy over which members have achieved the lifelong membership status and which members have not.
If you have any questions about the Updated Membership Statuses and how to implement them, please reach out to Becky VanWychen the NACURH Associate for NRHH at nan@nacurh.org or your regional Associate Director for NRHH.