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 ("part of my frustration is that we have a lot of members who are retired (merit) members").........Since becoming a member of our organization, I have always felt proud of our merited members and their interest, love, and concern for our chapter and it felt good to be able to say I am now a merited member...........this is something that our members devoted to our Chapter have earned.  We have not lost our interest in the administrative field just because we are no longer as actively involved in it........we still maintain our interest and concern for the administrative field.  We still attend educational opportunities and keep our skills and knowledge of the field current.  We still attend and participate actively in events planned to help encourage and enlist new members for the organization. For the most part, our merited members are as active, if not more so, than some of the Professional Members and often step up to the plate when others won't.  "Yet they receive the same benefits."  Why should we not receive these benefits to which we are entitled????  "If this is a professional organization, then why do we even encourage membership that allows for retired folks to stay forever. This is part of what takes away from the professionalism"  Do you think we are not "professional" anymore even though we have worked many, many years as a professional but have reached the time when we can (and are entitled to) retire?  Would you really like to see all of our merited members "kicked out" of our organization?  I, for one, feel that a lot of valuable knowledge and experience would be lost and our chapters would be seriously lacking in these aspects.  Looking at our merited members and their participation in our chapter, I cannot see where we have been a detriment to the success of our chapter..........If merited members still have an active interest in the Chapter and the organization, why shouldn't we be allowed to "stay forever.".... "I also joined to work on my leadership skills".....You have been a great contributor to the success of our Chapter and have wonderful ideas, a sense of excitement, and have served as one of our great Chapter leaders........but......how would you have learned some of the things which have made you a good leader if there had been no experienced and knowledgeable leaders in the Chapter to help with your advancement in the organization???  Also, our merited members in no way have inhibited your opportunity to work on your leadership skills.....in fact, they have aided you in that aspect. "I did not join this professional organization to build my friendship data base.  I have a Facebook account for that purpose."..........Yes, we merited members enjoy the friendship benefits of belonging to our chapter,  but we also enjoy staying involved in the field in which we have spent our careers.......we cannot get this from Facebook!!  This comes from staying involved as an active member in the organization which has been our source of involvement, learning, leading, etc. for these many years.  I, for one, look forward to many more years of active participation in the organization but feel badly that this type of feelings toward merited members exists.........

So sorry to go on and on in my response to your blog (to which you are certainly entitled) but I was very concerned about the negative feelings toward merited members.