MEMBERSHIP Q&A
Why should I join NHWC?
The decision to join obviously comes down to is it worth me paying for this. We recognize this and are trying to evolve the NHWC as quickly as our volunteers time currently allows. The idea of generating revenues is needed to move forward with our hope to grow the organization into one that eventually has a part-time staff. This would allow for many of the time-consuming facets of running an organization to be taken off of the plates of the volunteers and to continue to expand the services of the organization. This however requires funding, hence the need for memberships. We want to hear your feedback with regards to the direction that the organization is taking. Please email the Board of Directors at directors@hydrologicwarning.org.
There are economic reasons to join as well. Members receive discounted rates to attend conferences and this rate extends to others in an organization that is a NHWC group member. For organizations that want to increase their exposure in the hydrologic warning community, as members they get a reduced rate for advertising in the NHWC Transmission and website. Conference exhibitors will also receive membership discounts.
Finally, as the educational functions of NHWC grow, members will get priority access to trainings, webinars, and other specialized training.
I thought my membership went from conference to conference. Why are you telling me that membership expired December 31?
With the success that NHWC is having as an organization come the increased needs and higher expectations that are more common with more mature organizations such as Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) or International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM). As our organization has continued to evolve, these higher expectations have made the NHWC Board of Directors realize that there is a need to start looking at ways to develop a support staff to assist the Board with day-to-day management details. This support staff requires monies for salaries. One thing the Board felt strongly about was to not increase the conference fees to cover these expenses. We in no way want to make it harder folks to attend our very useful conferences. In order to prevent that, a separate revenue stream of memberships and advertising is being implemented to help cover these efforts. If you look at practically every mature organization, this is common practice. In fact, many have estimates of where 1/3 of their budgets come from conferences, 1/3 from memberships, and 1/3 from advertising and grants.
We realize that you should receive a benefit for the money you are spending on membership and our folks are working as hard as they can to provide that. One critical element of that is the implementing of the ClubExpress database and web interface. This will not only be able to help us better manage the organization, but provides us a means to expand our services to the membership.
Why do we have to renew now when your letter says we have until June 30 to renew?
The NHWC Board agreed that the membership cycle must coincide with the NHWC fiscal year, which is calendar year, so that we can accurately develop budgets. Because it was unveiled shortly before the January 1st start of the next cycle, we decided to give a 6-month grace period for the Savannah attendees in case they did not have the budgets to handle the membership costs. So, you do have until June 30th until the membership benefits will be stopped, but we strongly encourage you to join now to align with the membership cycle and also provide us with an early idea of what we can expect from membership revenues.
What is the best way for me to determine what membership level to choose?
The 2008 membership policy has some recommended guidelines to follow for the type of organization you have. Please check it out on the NHWC webpage www.hydrologicwarning.org under the “Membership” link for this policy document.
We strongly recommend that you consider a group membership for your office. There are three reasons for this:
- You get a discounted rate per person with a group membership,
- Folks from your office that are not members are still able to receive the member rate for conference registrations, which saves you more money,
- Group memberships cost NHWC less with the ClubExpress, because “primary” contacts get charged a certain rate, and the “secondary” contacts associated with the group get charged a lesser rate.
The group membership is intended for a local office situation, not a national-level organization. For example, a NWS Weather Field Office or a USGS Water Science Center is the appropriate level for a group membership.
What's the difference between a group membership and an individual membership?
The group memberships are specifically designed for a larger office or unit within an organization that is involved in hydrologic warning. It provides a cost break for membership fees for multiple members, and provides the ability for even folks that are not listed as the members to attend at the member rate. For vendors, the group rate provides additional cost savings on advertising and booth space.
One key point--it is NHWC's policy that the group membership is owned by the organization or agency and not the individual. The membership cannot be transferred if a person retires or relocates to a different office.
An individual membership is designed for one person, either within an organization or independent. This choice is selected when there is no cost advantage to choose a group membership.
If enrolling for a group membership, how do I enter the other point-of-contact information?
The first person from an organization that is initially enrolling as a group member must enter their own contact information, select the desired group membership level, and secure the payment through the online membership process. This person will be designated the primary point-of-contact (POC) for the group membership. To enter the contact information for the other persons listed as POCs for the organization, the primary POC uses their login and password to access the member-only area of the NHWC webpage, and immediately to the right of the login prompt is the link for "Profile". Click here, and there will be an option for "secondary/family members", where the contact information for the remaining persons can be entered.
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