Membership Change Highlights:
NSPA has not raised membership dues since 2006. The Board of NSPA has concluded that a small increase is need to help cover our increasing overhead costs and allow us to continue to provide quality service to our members.
NSPA will be moving to a common membership period and membership rate for all members, effective July 1, 2019.
Differences in membership levels will be discontinued All memberships (with the exception of broadcast) will be $129 per year with the option to add on a critique for $89. Junior high/middle school memberships will increase to $69 per year in 2019 ($79 in 2020) with the option to add on a critique for $50.
Since NSPA is now offering more services for broadcast members, broadcast membership fees will increase to $99 in 2019 and then $129 (the same fee as all other publication types) in 2020. These services include more broadcast individual award categories and an option to add a broadcast critique.
All memberships will become annual for the school year. They will begin July 1 and end June 30. You can renew your membership early or late without penalty. The first school year membership that will be offered is the 2019-20 school year. All current members will need to renew again for the 2019-20 school year on or after July 1. Those members who renew after the NSPA spring convention (after April 1) will have their membership extended through the end of the 2019-20 school year (June 30, 2020). Any membership started during a school year will be good for that school year only. This will ensure that memberships align to the fiscal year and will align NSPA’s membership policies with best practices for nonprofit financial management.
In order to enter a Pacemaker contest, you must have a membership for that school year (i.e., you must have a 2019-20 membership to enter the 2020 Newspaper Pacemaker). You must still have an active NSPA membership at the time of deadline for all 2019 contests (your membership must be active as of June 22 to be eligible for individual awards, Newspaper and Broadcast Pacemakers).
We hope that by making all membership periods coincide, we can simplify the member renewal process. All NSPA memberships for all publication types will end on June 30.
Thank you for your continued support of NSPA. The NSPA staff and Board are committed to supporting scholastic journalism; we consider these membership changes as critical to prudent financial stewardship and to improving your membership renewal experience.
Please reach out if you have any questions on how your individual memberships will be affected. We want to ensure a smooth transition for all members.