Student Membership         View/Print Ballot

Our Membership Committee has been monitoring our Student Memberships and we currently have several members in this category. The original purpose of a Student Membership was to encourage business students to go into the Supply Management profession and after two years, he or she become a regular member.

The Student Member is entitled to use the NAPM National Website “Members Only” section, receives the Purchasing Today magazine and is entitled to discounts on workshops and seminars. The Student Member is not entitled to a vote and must pay for dinner meetings.

In December, the Board of Directors of NAPM-OC voted to eliminate the Student Membership from NAPM-OC. To do so requires the approval of the membership as a change to the Bylaws. We will take a vote in April and are hoping all of you will support the Board on this issue.

Some of the reason are:

1. Student Membership requires confirmation of attendance and involvement in “Purchasing classes.” We are struggling to agree on what is a “Purchasing” class as compared to a regular business class. We have had “Student Members” that are working on their MBA, Economics Majors and Business Majors. If taken literally, not one actually qualifies as a Student Member. One of the “Student Members” was already a purchasing manager, which totally defeats the purpose of a Student Membership.
   
   
2. Processing and verifying status of the Student Member takes an inordinate amount of volunteer or Executive Secretary time.
   
   
3. We have “goofed” and allowed students to attend the dinner meeting for free, as it is difficult for us to distinguish a Student Member from a regular member at the time of dinner sign ups.

We need your support. Please vote with the Board of Directors this April to remove Student Memberships from our Bylaws. If you would like to discuss this issue or have any questions, please feel free to contact DiAnna Cowles, C.P.M.(dianna_cowles@liebert.com), our Membership Chair, or our President, Jill Alvarez, C.P.M. (jalvarez@acltech.com) by email or at one of our meetings. National still maintains student memberships with various privileges.

Thank you for your support.

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