Club changes student intern, reinstatement policies

The National Press Club board of governors on Aug. 15 approved two important Club policy changes.

The first creates term memberships for interns who want to join for a short period of time while in Washington. While we hope their intern member stints will be the beginning of a long relationship with the Club, it will be easier for the interns, their employers and Club staff to offer them term memberships.

The second new policy sets a $100 reinstatement fee for members who are suspended due to nonpayment of dues. Those applicants would also have to pay any overdue house account charges. The fee for reinstating a membership does not apply to members who resign and later decide to rejoin.

Student/Intern Policy

Intern memberships in the National Press Club are listed as Student 2.

There is a separate break out of these memberships similar to spouse memberships.

Intern membership must be paid in full before the internship begins and students would only receive a paper card.

If students want to join the Club on their own at the end of their internship, they have to reapply as a full student member.

Intern memberships are only available for the following terms and price points:

o Fall : September - December $100
o Spring: January - May $100
o Summer: June - August $75

The Club does not allow for monthly payments or for interns to be members for one month unless there are extreme circumstances.

To give interns more for their money, we ask for more coordination between the Club committees and college intern coordinators. We can consider asking the Young Members Committee to devote one event a semester to our interns and asking coordinators to assist and require attendance.

Reinstatement Policy

The Club's Membership Department will charge a fee for suspended/resigned members with the following stipulations.

$100 will be charged to all members who were “suspended” for more than one year. (Non-dues paying suspension means they did not formally resign from the Club.)

If there are any pending house account charges, the member will have to bring his or her house account up to date before membership can begin.

This fee will be charged either at the time of the application or when approved for reinstatement along with one month of dues.

Members who have been suspended and want to reinstate within a 12 month period must pay back dues and house account charges from the time of non-payment.

Members who formally resign membership and return their membership card as outlined in house rules will not have to pay a reinstatement fee but may still have to bring their house account up to date to begin membership.

House rules already stipulate that a member is responsible for dues until he or she formally resigns and turns in a membership card.