ChapterSpot Updates

New Membership Model - How it Will Affect Our League

At the end of this year, LWVUS’ will be rolling out a new membership system, called ChapterSpot. 

All Leagues across the country at the local and State levels will make this transition together, and instead of dues collection at the local level, dues will be collected at the National level. LWVUS will retain 33% of dues, State will receive 47%, and the local League will receive 20%. New members will be able to join, and existing members will renew online through a link on our website, or mail in your paperwork. Both credit cards and checks will be accepted.

Why is the League changing its membership structure?

1. To implement a multi-stage, multi-year inclusive process that increases and diversifies League membership and strengthens League operations across the nation to deliver on our mission work and build league power.
2. To provide a consistent and aligned membership system across all levels of the League that will eliminate financial barriers to participation, create an equitable division of dues between levels of the League, and overall, simplify the mechanics of joining the League.

Donations:

For LWV-GCV to retain 100% of your donations, we will ask our members to donate directly to our League via our website “Donate” button. This means that donations would be managed separately from when you join or renew your membership. 

Summary:

• What will change? 
• Joining or renewing a LWV-GCV Membership
• Donations to LWV-GCV during joining or renewing
• When will it change? The ChapterSpot system will be implemented late 2024 or early 2025
• How does it affect me? Nothing changes right now, and we will continue our current process
• LWV-GCV website changes? No change and we will keep our current website

New Membership Model - How it Will Affect Our League

In 2025, LWVUS will implement significant changes to League membership and dues structure. LWV is switching to a new member portal for all Leagues across the country. There is no action that our members need to take right now, but we want to provide you with an overview of what these changes mean for you. The new member portal will launch January/February 2025, using the ChapterSpot platform. 

Pay-What-You-Can Membership Dues Model:

 • Instead of a fixed dues rate, members will choose their dues amount – pay-what-you-can

 • The recommended rate will be $75 per individual member

 • Minimum of $20

Member Types:

 • Individual members

 • There will no longer be a distinct student membership

 • No more “household membership” designation

 • Lifetime members – still exempt from dues

Dues Flow:

Dues will come into LWVUS and be distributed to state and local Leagues

Donations:

For LWV-GCV to retain 100% of your donations, we will ask our members to donate directly to our League via our website “Donate” button. This means that donations would be managed separately from when you join or renew your membership. 

Estimated timeline for implementation:

New Membership Model - How it Will Affect Our League

In 2025, LWVUS will implement significant changes to League membership and dues structure. LWV is switching to a new member portal for all Leagues across the country. There is no action that our members need to take right now, but we want to provide you with an overview of what these changes mean for you. The new member portal will launch January/February 2025, using the ChapterSpot platform. 

Donations:

For LWV-GCV to retain 100% of your donations, we will ask our members to donate directly to our League via our website “Donate” button. This means that donations would be managed separately from when you join or renew your membership. 

A few notes from the LWVUS Update as of April 26, 2024:

• Launch will be in January 2025 for everyone.
• No update yet on how checks will be processed.
• LWV-GCV Membership will continue to receive updates as members join or renew.
• A new system for using credit card payments will be implemented. This system is called Stripe, which is a broadly used and well-respected payment processor. Currently, we do not know how this will impact your use of PayPal for credit card payment of your donations directly to LWW-GCV.
• Your membership payment will no longer be fully tax deductible. The portion of your membership dues amount that goes to LWV-GCV is 20%, and that portion of your membership is tax deductible and the rest is not.
• Our Fiscal year will remain the same: July - June.
• New members will l see a Join button on our website, but the link will take them to the ChapterSpot site to process their membership.
• Each League member will be required to have a unique email address.

Summary of why we are changing:

In 2025, LWVUS will implement significant changes to League membership and dues structure. LWV is switching to a new member portal for all Leagues across the country. There is no action that our members need to take right now, but we want to provide you with an overview of what these changes mean for you. The new member portal will launch January/February 2025, using the ChapterSpot platform. 

Donations:

For LWV-GCV to retain 100% of your donations, we ask our members to donate directly to our League via our website “Donate” button. This means that donations would be managed separately from when you join or renew your membership. 

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A few notes from the LWVUS Update as of July 17, 2024:

• Launch is still on track for January/February 2025 for everyone.
• No update yet on how checks will be processed, if using a paper form to join or renew.
• Our LWV-GCV Membership committee will continue to receive updates as members join, renew, or expire.
• A new system for using credit card payments will be implemented. This system is called Stripe, which is a broadly used and well-respected payment processor. We do not know how this will impact our use of PayPal for credit card payment of any donations directly to LWW-GCV. 
• The new ChapterSpot system will require that you create a user id and password, that will not be the same as your user name and password on our website.
• There will not be a membership directory on the ChapterSpot website, due to privacy concerns about sharing personal data.
• Our Fiscal year will remain the same: July - June.
• New members will see a Join button on our website, but the link will take them to the ChapterSpot site to process their membership.
• Each League member will be required to have a unique email address. Dummy email addresses will possibly be available to use.