Members may be designated for Affiliate status if they have not responded to council engagement efforts for the most recent 18 months or longer.

The Affiliate Member Initiative (AMI) prevents an accumulation of members in arrears, results in a more manageable number of delinquencies to deal with and minimizes the financial impact nonpaying Brothers have on council operations. Reference the Affiliate Member Initiative page for details on eligibility requirements and the process for designating members with the Affiliate status.

Keep in mind that you can reclaim Knights whose situation has changed to your council.

Before you transfer members to Affiliate status, there are several things you can do to retain them.

Immediately follow-up with members who do not respond to a second notice to pay their annual dues. This may require multiple phone calls, emails, postal mailings, and having the member’s sponsor (or someone from the council’s Retention Committee) go to their house if it is in the local area. Address a dues notice to his wife and she will probably remind him about it! Realize though if a member has not responded to your initial attempts, continuing to barrage him with notices to pay dues may not be the answer. Despite this tech-happy age, personal contact is vital for retaining a member so talk with him in a Brotherly manner, and find out what the issue is and why he is not answering: he may be recovering from an illness, there may have been a
death in the family or family issues have arisen, school-aged children are keeping him busy, he may have been laid-off, the council may have done something to alienate him or did not do enough to keep his interest, he may be on a fixed-income and money is tight right now, he may have a new address, etc. If applicable, tell him you will relay his concern(s) to the appropriate council officer(s) and try to get resolution.

A member may feel they are no longer a Knight and should not pay dues because they have not attended a meeting or event in eons. Mention that Supreme lists him on the membership rolls, indicating he is still a Knight of the council. See if his work or family schedule is preventing him from participating more. If so, mention that even if your schedule does not permit you to get as involved with the council as much as you
would like to, paying dues keeps you in Good Standing with the Order (which includes continued access to fraternal benefits for you and your family), and helps fund your Brothers’ on-going good works in support of charitable causes. If he has not been active due to another reason, see if the issue can be resolved. After an earnest attempt to “win him over,” if a member is adamant about no longer wanting to be a Knight, he must submit a letter/email to the council with his signature block stating his desire to withdraw from the Order. It does not have to be lengthy: I no longer want to be a Knight, so please withdraw my membership from the Order. When the request is received, forward it to Supreme along with his membership number and the
council number. Assist a Brother outside the local area in transferring his membership to a council near him. Go to Supreme’s website kofc.org. At the landing page, move your cursor over the column “Get Involved,” and click on “Find a Council.” Input the zip code where he now resides to see if any councils are identified and relay that information. Encourage him to transfer his membership to one of the councils nearby so he can
remain active. You could also contact the council(s) close to him and make them aware of a transfer-in opportunity! Forward his new postal address/phone number/email address to your Financial Secretary (FS), and if applicable, to your assembly’s Comptroller.

If unable to contact someone because their information is not current, try these options to locate them: superpages.com, thepublicrecords.com, peoplelookup.com, switchboard.com, anywho.com, intelius.com, thatsthem.com, searchbug.com, and linkedin.com. Also coordinate with the member’s sponsor or the parents of a recent college graduate.

See if a member who already paid dues would cover someone who has not paid or add a “50:50” raffle to an event and use the council’s portion to defray what’s owed, or the Grand Knight (GK) may waive the arrearage if the member has a special hardship.

Extend a ‘hand-up’ to members in special cases and consider waiving their dues. Look kindly upon those who all but qualify for Honorary Member and Honorary Life Member status. Suspending a Brother who has served nearly 25 years and is close to age eligibility does not seem to be the right thing to do. Also afford some fraternity to those in their golden years, members with less than two years in the Order, and those in arrears for the current calendar year only.

We are a fraternal organization, yet we feel it is necessary to transfer members to affiliate status if their dues are in arrears. Supreme’s processes are cut-and-dry, but that does not mean we cannot incorporate some degree of compassion into our actions. How many of you joined the Order just to pay dues? The council survived without the money up to now, so why not forgive the past and try to get them to make the current year’s payment – not a sermon, just a thought!

Your council should follow Supreme’s processes documented in the Temporary Procedure for Member Billing document for billing members for dues and retaining members before designating with Affiliate status.

Important: Keep accurate records of inactive, withdrawn, and affiliate members.