Membership Information Dear Prospective Member, We want to thank you for your interest in our professional association. Along with this letter you will find a letter of introduction which provides a brief description of our association, information regarding our correspondence course on basic leather technology, and a membership application. Please read the types of membership and choose one that fits your needs. A check or credit card information should be returned with the application for payment of dues. Shortly thereafter you should start receiving the Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association. There is also a form for the ALCA directory. Please provide the information as you would want it to appear in the directory. Please print clearly to avoid mistakes. If you have any questions, please let us know. Contact information is here. Sincerely, Carol Adcock, Executive Secretary LETTER OF INTRODUCTION Membership in the American Leather Chemists Association offers an opportunity to know others with common goals. An annual meeting is held every June where members gather to discuss the latest research findings and meet the authors of the papers presented. Abstracts of the papers presented at the annual meeting can be found on the website , www.leatherchemists.org . The complete papers are published over a two year period in the Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association (JALCA), which members receive as part of their membership. Also, members receive an annual membership directory. This handy directory is helpful in contacting others in the industry. It contains the member’s addresses, company affiliations, telephone and fax numbers. This directory is now available for members to view online. This Association is a member of the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemists (IULTCS) and represents its members in this international group. Technical committees have been organized by members in order to deal with specific issues important to the industry. More can be accomplished as a group then individually. MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS FROM ARTICLE III OF BYLAWS A candidate for election to ACTIVE membership shall have or shall have had professional experience in fields of science and engineering related to leather, hides, or an allied trade technology or in animal sciences related to hides, hide structures, or leather manufacture and technology. This professional and scientific experience may include: 1) Research in any field of natural science, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry or engineering having a direct or indirect bearing on the manufacture, properties, structure, chemistry, physics or use of leather or hides. 2) The analysis or testing of leather or leather products or hides or of any material of major importance in their manufacture and processing. 3) The direct technical supervision, in a responsible capacity, of any operation involved in the manufacture of leather or leather products or the processing of hides. 4) Direct technical supervision in a responsible capacity for the design or manufacture of any material or item of equipment or machinery used in the leather industry or hide industry or in fabrication of leather goods. MUTUAL members shall be members in good standing of any foreign association of professional leather scientists, who shall have applied for MUTUAL membership by virtue of a special agreement for reciprocal MUTUAL membership entered into by this Association and the foreign association, as provided in Article IV. STUDENT members shall be full time students majoring in leather or tanning chemistry or technology and pursuing a course of study of not less than twelve semester hours or its equivalent, registered in any accredited college, university, or other institution of learning above the level of high school or secondary school. The Council shall be the sole judge whether any institution learning is accredited within the meaning of this section. ___________________________________________________________________________________ All memberships shall date from January 1. A new member shall pay dues for the full year in which he or she is elected, and shall receive all issues of the Journal for that year. The membership of a candidate elected after September 30, may at his option, begin on the following January 1. If you select to be a member as of January 1, you will start receiving the journals and directory beginning January 1 of the following year. (c) No person shall be entitled to the privileges of membership whose dues are unpaid. Any member whose dues are unpaid on March 1 of any year shall be so notified by the Secretary. Any member whose dues are unpaid on April 1 shall be dropped from membership. (d) Any member who has been dropped for non-payment of dues may apply for reinstatement. If the application is approved by Council, he or she may be reinstated upon payment of a reinstatement fee in addition to the dues for the current year. The reinstatement fee shall be twenty-five percent (25%) of the past due balance.