Memberships

Memberships in social or civic organizations may not be purchased with university funds.  Membership requests for such organizations should be made to the Indiana-Purdue Foundation.

Examples of social and civic organizations include:

Institutional memberships in professional organizations may be purchased with university funds. Request for membership costing no more than $250 need only department head and dean / administrative officer approval. Requests for new memberships costing more than $250 dollars must also be approved by the Chancellor.  Memberships costing more than $2500 or more per year must also be forwarded to the University President for approval.

Approvals

All memberships must receive approval before they are purchased.  Departments desiring to purchase a membership must submit a memo to the Chancellor, in the format shown below:

TO:     Chancellor

FROM:   (department)
RE:     Request for Membership


Name of Requesting Department: (your department's name)

Name of Organization: (name of the organization you want to join)

Organization Mission: (provide a general description of 
the organization and its mission.)

Benefit of Membership to the University: (describe how membership
in the organization benefits your department)

Institutional Representative: (the name of the individual in your
department who will serve as the representative for the univer-
sity)

Account Number to Charge (the account number the membership will
be charged to. Sponsored programs {funds 500-699} must meet OMB
Circular A-21 restrictions on memberships.)

REQUESTED:

________________________________________        ______________
Head of Department, Office, or Program               Date

APPROVAL RECOMMENDED/APPROVED:

________________________________________        ______________
Dean, Director or Administrative Officer             Date
for the Department
(Deans, Directors and Administrative Officers may approve
memberships up to $250)

APPROVAL RECOMMENDED:

________________________________________        ______________
Manager of Accounting Services                       Date
(Manager of Accounting Services reviews all requests for 
compliance with university policy on memberships on behalf of 
the Vice Chancellor for Financial Affairs)


APPROVED:

________________________________________        ______________
IPFW Chancellor                                      Date
(The Chancellor may approve memberships costing between
$250 and $2500)


________________________________________        ______________
Purdue University President                          Date
(Memberships costing in excess of $2,500 must have the 
approval of the University President)

Personal /Individual Memberships

A personal membership is defined as a membership that is in intended for the benefit of a single individual rather than for the institution (e.g. a department, division, office or program. The university does not purchase memberships for the benefit of individuals.

If an organization does not offer institutional memberships, then the University will not purchase it except under the following cirucmstances:

1. Membership is required for the purchase of a journal;
2. Membership allows a periodical or journal to be purchased at a discounted rate, and the expected savings from the discount exceeds the cost of membership.
3. Membership included in a conference registration fee allows for a reduced rate to attend the conference and the savings over the the non-member registration fee rate is greater than the cost of individual membership in the organization .

Restrictions for Sponsored Program Funds (500-699)

Generally, the purchase of memberships on sponsored program funds (500-699), is prohibited by OMB Circular A-21, Exceptions may only be granted under the following circumstances:

Additionally, both of the following circumstances must apply:

Sources:

Purdue University Business Procedures Manual

Purdue University President's Memorandum "Re: University Memberships", July 20, 1992

Purdue University Office of the Comptroller Memorandum "Personal Memberships", January 28, 1994

Purdue University Accounting, Costing & ECCO Memorandum, March 6, 2008