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Support for Chapters & Affiliates

Local chapters and affiliates are run by the volunteer efforts of SSPI members, and we are fortunate to have dedicated and enthusiastic people making things happen on the local level. To support their work, SSPI provides a mix of online and personal services, and we encourage all chapters and affiliates to make use of them.  

Online Support

SSPI provides each chapter or affiliate with a mini-site that is integrated into the Society's Web platform.  The mini-site provides:

  • Chapter/affiliate home page
  • Pages for listing the leadership and other content
  • Event calendar system for listing events, registering attendees and accepting payment by credit card, with direct deposit into the bank account of your choosing
  • Email list management of both members and non-members, with email broadcasting from the system or export of addresses for use with another email broadcast platform

All of this functionality can be maintained by chapter leaders from their own computers or tablets, and SSPI provides training materials and technical assistance.  

Online and Personal

Contributed by Tamara Bond, Membership Director

Chapter Revenue Share

SSPI provides an annual share of membership dues to accredited chapters of the Society to support their operations. The revenue share is based on the number of active, paid members in the chapter, including both individual ("Professional") members and those who belong through their employer's Corporate Sponsorship.  Chapters can elect to have funds paid to their accounts, retained by SSPI in a holding account for their use, or contributed to the Educational Projects Fund.  Some international chapters have instead asked the rebate to subsidize membership, reducing paying members' dues by the rebate amount. 

In addition to dues-based revenue sharing, SSPI provides an incentive papyment of US $500 for each new corporate sponsor that the chapter recruits for SSPI during the year.  A "new" sponsor is defined as an organization that has not been a sponsor in the preceding three years.

Assistance with Incorporation, By-Laws...and Anything Else

For chapters in the United States, we are typically able to provide the pro bono services of SSPI-member attorneys to file incorporation papers on behalf of the chapter. This is an important step, because incorporation allows the chapter to own a bank account rather than relying on the personal accounts of chapter executives. As part of this process, we also provide a template of corporate by-laws, which are typically required for incorporation. The law firms that volunteer their time also have international offices in many cities around the world. In many cases, they are also able to assist chapters outside the USA with incorporation and other legal questions.

Chapter and affiliate leaders should contact SSPI any time they have a question on chapter issues, need additinoal support or want to suggest an improvement in how we do things.  Our Membership Director is your first point of contact but feel free to connect with others listed on our Contacts page.