Chapter contacts: please share this message with your Chapter officer who processes membership dues. This applies primarily to Chapters that assist with the collection of NCSBA dues, but it also contains some general information of interest. More details will be sent to you ~ October 15 along with the updated 2018 NCSBA membership application form.
Effective Oct 11, we will have a new Membership Coordinator following the resignation of Laurie Shaw. She gave her notice in July, and we have been planning for this. We will also have a new telephone number and mailing address.
Normally by now we would have finalized the 2018 NCSBA membership application form, but we are waiting until Oct. 15 to avoid confusion. In the meantime, please be aware of the following major change: the membership letter/card that is usually printed and returned to the member (or to the Chapter for distribution to the member) will be emailed to the member unless the hard-copy option is checked on the application form. So, if you are in the process of updating your Chapter membership form to include all information requested on the NCSBA form, please include that option as well as all the other preferences listed on the 2017 form. Again, THE DEFAULT FOR RECEIPT OF THE MEMBERSHIP LETTER/CARD WILL BE BY EMAIL UNLESS THE HARD-COPY OPTION IS CHECKED ON THE FORM. This change will save time for the Chapters in that they won’t have these sheets to return to their members. But success hinges on whether or not we have a valid, current, email address for the member in the NCSBA database. Please take extra care to verify the email address provided on the application form before you submit it.
It is also important to include the NCSBA membership number on the application form. This number does not change after it is assigned — even if the person does not pay NCSBA dues for many years. We now have a new lookup feature by which a Chapter or member can retrieve a membership number if the email address that we have for the member in the database is used and it is unique (i.e., not shared with another person). Go to https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/member-number-recovery to try this. If unsuccessful, you or the member should submit an updated email address to membership@ncbeekeepers.org and then retry.
NCSBA renewals will be processed starting November 1 (in the past, Oct 15 was the starting date). If renewals are submitted by mail before Nov. 1, they will be held until then for processing. Any new-member dues received through Oct. 31 will be applied to the 2017 membership year. Any received after that date will be applied to 2018.
If this is confusing and you still have questions, please email me in a separate message with the name of your chapter included in the subject line (do not reply to this email as it will be automatically discarded). Thanks.
Suzy Spencer
NCSBA Membership Secretary
membershipsecretary@ncbeekeepers.org
sent to Chapters September 29th 2017