SPECIAL MEMBERSHIPs: TWO THINGS
As a result of the 2016 Council on Legislation resolutions, Rotary clubs have much greater latitude to define special membership types – such as Corporate, Family and Associate memberships. Keep in mind that these are club-defined categories. Rotary International doesn’t recognize or define the criteria for these categories. RI simply recognizes Active and Honorary members. If your club would like to create a special category of membership, like “Corporate Member” there are two important things to keep in mind:
Thing 1: Your club is free to offer alternative membership types of any kind, as long as new members are counted as individuals — corporate members for example — rather than the corporations that sponsor their membership. Only people are members, not organizations. If the members pay RI & district dues, they will be included in your club's official membership count and receive all the benefits that other active, dues-paying members enjoy. Only those individuals for whom RI & district dues are paid will be considered as active members of your club by RI. So, we recommend that the dues paid for individuals joining through a group membership cover the RI and district dues. Currently, the combined RI and district dues are less than US$115 per person per year. It is less for members who join after January 1 since those members pay only half of the RI dues until the next Rotary year.
Thing 2: Your club can have different policies for these members, e.g., club dues, meal costs, attendance requirements, or service expectations, as long as these policies are reflected in the club bylaws.