Membership - Navigate the Changes 

In addition to the structural changes that are taking place within the WEA as part of the Strategic Plan, your Membership with the WEA is also getting a facelift. Individual Memberships, as you recall, were assigned using criteria based on whether the member was a student, professional, associate, or received their memberships as part of their course fees.

The new changes will make memberships more functional to perspective and renewing members, meaningful to those who wish to use their membership features to advance their professional development, and more affordable to those who wish to support the organization and take advantage of the Member Benefits Program. The new membership levels are as follows:

IROL Membership

Introductory Membership

Premium Membership

Accreditation Membership

Organizational Memberships

Attached is a document that maps out the differences between memberships and helps you determine the membership type that would be most beneficial to you/ your organization to transition to in 2010. 

The transition into the new system is set to begin on March 1^st 2010. On that day, Membership Renewals under the current (Professional, Student, Associate….) system will not be available through the website, and new members will select one of the aforementioned levels in purchasing their membership. As memberships expire, renewing members will be directed to use the new system so that by March 2011 all current WEA memberships will be using the new membership structure.

Accredited Members are provided ten ‘Introductory Memberships’ complimentary with their Accreditation Fees. If you are a student, employee, or associated with an organization that will be accredited with the WEA you may also be able to ‘jump onboard’ and receive these benefits starting March 1^st 2009. Check with one of our Current Affiliates to determine if this may be an option for you.

The staff at the National Office are working diligently to make this transition as efficient and painless as possible and to anticipate roadblocks before they have the opportunity to materialize.   We would welcome your questions at the National Office as we make this transition. We value your feedback and your questions often help us to think outside the box and make changes that benefit the association.