MSSNY BYLAWS
DUES
The annual dues for all membership categories shall be determined by the House of Delegates.
Annual dues are due and payable on the first day of January each year. The dues year shall coincide with the calendar year, January 1 to December 31.
Any member, except a member who is eligible and has applied for life membership, whose component county medical society and Medical Society of the State of New York dues are unpaid after February 1 of any current year or whose assessments are unpaid by the specified time is not in good standing and shall be deemed to be in arrears.
A member whose dues are unpaid after March 1 of any current year or whose assessments are unpaid one month after the specified date may be dropped from the roles of membership of his component county medical society and the Medical Society of the State of New York upon reasonable notice to such member by his component county medical society or the State Society. In the case of nonpayment of dues, the reasonable notice to be provided shall commence on February 1, or as soon as possible thereafter, upon the determination that such member is in arrears.
Dues and State Society assessments of a member elected or reinstated after October 1 shall be credited to the succeeding year, but no member dropped for nonpayment of assessments shall be reinstated until he has, in addition, paid his assessments for the year in which he was dropped.
Upon reinstatement to membership, the period of time in which membership had been dropped shall be considered a lapse in consecutive years of membership for the purpose of determining eligibility for life membership in accordance with Article II, Section A, paragraph 9 of these Bylaws unless the reinstated member in addition pays the dues and assessments that accrued during the period in which membership had been dropped, in which case it shall be deemed that there was no lapse in consecutive years of membership for the purpose of determining eligibility for life membership.
The dues of any member of the State Society may be waived for the current year by action of the Council for any one of the following reasons:
(1) illness
(2) financial hardship
(3) temporary active service in the armed forces of the United States
(4) temporary active service in the United States Public Health Service
The request for such remission may be made to the member’s component county medical society or directly to the State Society. A brief summary explanation shall accompany the request. Remission of dues due to illness or financial hardship shall be reviewed annually.
The dues and assessments of all active members entering the practice of medicine for the first time, shall be one-half the amount levied on all other active members for the first two years of work; full dues shall be paid after the first two years of work. Once an active member pays full dues, he shall no longer qualify for half-dues status.
Student Members may be offered multiple year dues options as established by the House of Delegates or Council notwithstanding the terms of Article II of these Bylaws.
Life and honorary members shall not be required to pay dues or assessments to the Medical Society of the State of New York.
Affiliate members shall pay dues and assessments that are one half the amount levied on full dues paying active members.
Part-time membership dues shall be determined by the House of Delegates.
The dues structure for members who are enrolled through group or institutional membership agreements shall be subject to the approval of the Council, Board of Trustees and participating county medical society(ies).
Assessments can be levied by the House of Delegates or the Council and shall be payable within a period of time specified by them.
The Council, with the approval of the Board of Trustees and the participating county medical society, is authorized to waive, for a period not to exceed three years, the requirements regarding the payment of dues as provided in this article in the performance of any pilot membership projects. At the conclusion of the three year pilot project, the Council and Board of Trustees shall determine if a pilot project should terminate or continue as an approved alternative membership option for the participating county medical societies, and shall report in its action to the House of Delegates.
Notwithstanding the terms of Articles II and III of these Bylaws, the House of Delegates or the Council may establish schedules for the prorated payment of dues for new members who have never previously been members of the Medical Society of the State of New York. Such prorated dues payments established by the House of Delegates or the Council may only be exercised by the new members in the year that they apply for membership.
