Section A: Membership – Membership Categories and Dues: Subsection 1a – Membership Categories

SECTION A: Membership

SUBSECTION 1 a): Membership Categories

POLICY:

CONSTITUTION AND BYLAWS REFERENCE (If Any):

Article III-Membership

Section 2–Classes of Members

The Membership shall consist of six classes:

1. Participating Members*
2. Registered Members*
3. Student Members
4. Honorary Members*
5. Associate Members
6. Retired Lifetime Members*

Section 3–Participating Members

Any person who is skilled and primarily engaged in the verbatim stenographic reporting of proceedings by the use of symbols, manually or by stenographic machine, as an official court or legislative reporter, freelance reporter, CART provider, or captioner shall be eligible to become a Participating Member.

Section 4–Registered Members

Any Participating Member who passes the Registered Professional Reporter examination, the Certified Broadcast Captioner examination, or the Certified CART Provider examination, or who was a Professional Member in good standing on July 21, 1993, shall be eligible to become a Registered Member.

Section 5–Student Members

1. Any student confirmed to be enrolled in a verbatim stenographic reporting program or a scoping program shall be eligible to become a Student Member.
2. Student Members shall not vote.

Section 6–Honorary Members

1. Any person who has attained high rank in the reporting profession as a practitioner of the art of verbatim stenographic reporting, as an author of verbatim stenographic reporting literature, or as a benefactor of the profession, but who is not in the active practice of verbatim stenographic reporting, upon recommendation of the Board of Directors, may be elected an Honorary Member, by two-thirds (2/3) of the Voting Members at the annual business meeting (as defined herein).
2. Honorary Members who have not been verbatim stenographic reporters shall not vote.
3. Honorary Members shall not pay dues.

Section 7–Associate Members

1. Any Participating or Registered Member in good standing, on retiring from the active practice of verbatim stenographic reporting, shall be eligible to become an Associate Member.
2. A teacher of verbatim stenographic reporting, or anyone connected in an official capacity with a school or college conducting a verbatim stenographic reporting course, shall be eligible to become an Associate Member. Such persons need not meet the requirements for skill in the art of reporting of proceedings.
3. Any person seeking to become or who has been certified by the Association as a legal video specialist (CLVS) shall be eligible to become an Associate Member.
4. Any person interested in the preservation, support, and advancement of the field of verbatim stenographic reporting, but not in any way actively engaged in the verbatim stenographic reporting of proceedings, who is not otherwise eligible for membership, shall be eligible to become an Associate Member.
5. All Associate Member applicants who have met the requirements for Membership shall also be required to be endorsed in writing, in due form, by a Voting Member.
6. Associate Members shall not vote.

Section 8–Retired Lifetime Members

1. Any Participating or Registered Member in good standing who has paid Participating or Registered Member dues for a period of thirty (30) consecutive years [twenty (20) consecutive years for those Retired Lifetime Memberships approved prior to July 21, 1993] and is no longer engaged in verbatim stenographic reporting shall be eligible to become a Retired Lifetime Member.
2. Retired Lifetime Members shall not pay dues.

*Section 9–Privileges

1. Only Participating Members who are verbatim stenographic reporters and Registered Members who are verbatim stenographic reporters, as well as Retired Lifetime Members and Honorary Members who have been verbatim stenographic reporters, shall be eligible to vote and/or make or second motions at such meetings or to vote by electronic mail or other means of electronic transmission as specifically authorized under Article IX (“Voting Members”).