Membership Policy Proposal

The amendments aim to:

• Establish SAIR membership as distinct from conference attendance.
• Set a membership year for November 1 through October 31.
• Clarify that membership follows the member (in the event of an employment change) but that an employer who paid for the membership may request to transfer that membership to another individual.

The SAIR Board has been working for several years to modernize SAIR’s membership experience, including benchmarking against peer regional IR organizations. The recent redevelopment of the SAIR website and its new members area have laid the foundation for a continued expansion of the benefits of SAIR membership. Over the course of the Board’s discussions on the benefits of membership, it has become clear that conference attendance is not the only benefit of SAIR membership, and this proposal seeks to establish SAIR membership as its own distinct experience from participation in the annual conference.

SAIR membership comes with a variety of benefits, and this proposal will allow those benefits to expand in the coming years. Benefits include:

• Posting to the SAIR job board
• Access to the membership database and discussion board
• Discounts for SAIR webinars (OWLS)
• Discounted registration for the annual conference
• Eligibility for service and best practice awards
• Eligibility for travel grants
• Eligibility to vote or stand for a board position

If this proposal is adopted at the 2025 Business Meeting, these provisions would go into full effect beginning with the 2026-27 Membership Year, which would begin on November 1, 2026. The 2025-26 Membership Year will serve as a transition point. All 2025 conference registrants will receive membership for 2025-26, and individuals not attending the 2025 conference can continue to pay the alternate membership fee to join SAIR for 2025-26. Following the 2025 conference, individuals wishing to maintain membership in SAIR will need to join renew their membership via the SAIR website.

Yes! In fact, the proposal codifies a conference registration discount for SAIR members into the bylaws.  These member registration discounts would begin with the 2026 annual conference and would be available to members who either (1) attended the 2025 conference or (2) paid the alternate membership fee during the 2025-26 year. Beginning with the 2026-27 Membership Year and the 2027 conference, the member registration discount will only be available to those who join or renew their memberships through the SAIR website.

Both Emeritus and Distinguished Members receive complimentary membership under the current membership policy, and those members would continue to receive complimentary membership under this new membership policy.

The proposal will be presented for a vote at the 2025 Business Meeting at the conference in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday, September 30. As outlined in the Articles of Incorporation, amendments to the Articles brought for a vote at a Business Meeting require a 2/3 vote of the eligible voting members present. Amendments to the Bylaws require a simple majority vote.

Under this proposal, membership would, by default, remain with the individual, assuming that individual continues to be eligible for their specific membership type. However, in the event that an employer has proof of payment for the membership, that employer would be able to request that the SAIR Treasurer transfer that membership to another individual for the duration of the membership year.

At this time the current proposal is focused solely on individual and not institutional/organizational memberships. In the future, the Board may consider organizational memberships as an alternative option to individual memberships.