Revision as of 22:31, 5 December 2024

This page describes the various different kinds of membership we offer in our association, how to apply for them, and what their benefits are.

Membership is a prerequisite for obtaining certification as a director, obtaining sanction for a club, serving on a NASPA committee, or playing in a tournament.

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Benefits of Membership

The main current benefits of membership are:

• Eligibility to play in NASPA tournaments. These are rated, sanctioned Scrabble tournaments. These events are played with an accepted tournament word list with rules for both play and comportment and a system in place to ensure that these rules are adhered to.
• Eligibility to play in rated events overseas with additional privileges offered under the auspices of International agreements, including:
  • Member discounts on tournament entry fees at events sanctioned by the Association of British Scrabble Players (ABSP).
• Eligibility to run and vote for elected positions on some committees, including the Advisory Board and Canadian Committee.
• Eligibility to volunteer within the organization on some committees, including the Tournament Committee and Rules Committee
• Eligibility to apply for director certification and then run a sanctioned club.
• An official membership card that you can print through Member Services.
• Access to member-only services including the NASPA Store.
• Sanctioned recognition of individual achievements and records in tournament and club play.
• Coverage under NASPA's Liability Insurance Policy while participating in NASPA sanctioned activities.

More benefits will be added as the NASPA Membership Committee prepares them.

Please note: Members are required to comply with a Code of Conduct, which took effect on July 1, 2009. Also effective July 1, 2009, NSA membership is no longer accepted for tournament eligibility.

How to Join

We currently offer several different kinds of membership, as listed below. Our current rates took effect on 2010-09-01. All prices are given in U.S. dollars, though there is a way for Canadian residents to pay in Canadian funds.

To apply for membership, please complete our online application. You will be given a choice at the end of then paying online by Visa or MasterCard, or saving your information and mailing us a check. See also our page of general information on how to make payments to NASPA.

If you are a NASPA director with an upcoming tournament, we will extend you temporary credit so that you can activate your players’ memberships as required before your tournament; you then pay for the memberships together with your tournament participation fee.

Reciprocal Overseas Memberships

If you are an overseas resident and member of your own national association, please check our list of International agreements granting free reciprocal membership.

Regular Memberships

A regular membership lasts one year from the time of purchase and costs $30. (i.e. If you buy a membership on June 10, it lasts until June 10 of the following year.) If you pay for additional years of membership at the same time, up to a total of five years, the subsequent years cost $25 each. So, for example, a five-year regular membership costs $130. Membership begins at the time of purchase.

If you are joining NASPA for the first time (even if you were an NSA member), you can name the NASPA member who referred you to the association. He/she will get a free month’s membership and receive other referral bonuses.

One-Week Memberships

If you play in only one tournament per year and are not interested in the other benefits of NASPA membership, you may prefer to pay $19 for a one-week membership. This should be enough to play in a weekend tournament, including early bird and late bird events. You may not extend this membership to any other sort of membership. Please note: If you buy this type of membership, the week begins at the time of purchase. You cannot "save" the membership and use it at a future time.

Trial Memberships

First-time tournament players (those who do not have an NSA or NASPA tournament rating) are eligible to pay $15 for a trial six-month membership. If you buy a trial membership, you have the option to extend it to a full membership by sending in an additional $15 at any time during the six-month trial period. You may only buy a trial membership once. Membership begins at the time of purchase.

Youth Memberships

Members who are not yet eighteen years old on the first day of their membership pay only $15 for a one-year membership. You may buy additional years of membership, up to a total of five, at this rate, as long as you will not yet be eighteen years old on the first day of each new membership year. Membership begins at the time of purchase.

Vanity Memberships

Membership numbers are assigned consecutively. If you want to choose a specific as yet unassigned number, you can pay $50 for a one-year vanity membership.

Life Memberships

Please consult the Life membership page for more information about this category of membership.

How to Renew

The easiest way to renew a membership is using our online renewal tool. You’ll need the NASPA ID of the member whose membership you want to renew. As usual, you can pay using any of several payment methods. In particular, if you sign onto your NASPA account as a director, you can charge several renewals to your account before paying for them in one credit card transaction, saving yourself the effort of entering your billing information more than once.

If you have not renewed your NSA membership since 2009, please note that NASPA inherited the NSA’s licence and rating system but not its membership records, so you’ll have to join as a new member.

If you were previously a NASPA member but allowed the membership to lapse, you should still renew rather than join as a new member.

Renewal Price Options for Adult Memberships

• The standard cost of an adult membership renewal is $30 US.
• If you renew your membership at least one month in advance, you save $5 as the price drops to $25 US.
• If you renew your membership for multiple years less than a month before it expires, the cost is $30 US + $25 US for each additional year.
• If you renew your membership for multiple years at least a month before it expires, the cost is $25 US + $20 US for each additional year.

Note: If you allow your membership to expire, and then renew it, your new membership will begin from the time of purchase and last for a year. If you renew before your membership expires, another year will be added to the expiration date.

Youth members pay only $15 per year until they turn 18, and are not eligible for further discounts. For example, if a member pays for an early two-year renewal on his 17th birthday, he pays $15 + $20 = $35. Eligibility for the youth rate is based on the member’s age at the start of each membership year.

If you do not have access to the Internet but want to renew your membership, please ask your nearest club or tournament director to process your renewal through the director section of our Member Services page.

Grouper Partnership - Earn Free Membership

In partnership with Grouper, we are excited to offer qualified members a FREE NASPA membership. If you have a qualifying Medicare Advantage or Supplement Plan, you may be eligible to have your NASPA dues covered by the Grouper benefit.

Click here for more information.

Impact of COVID-19 Moratorium on NASPA Membership

When the current moratorium on club and tournament play is lifted, NASPA will extend your membership for as many days as you were a member during the moratorium.

Hypothetical Examples (6 Month Moratorium)

• If you are a member throughout, your membership will be extended by 6 months when we resume play.
• If you let your membership lapse 1 month into the moratorium, you will receive 1 month of membership when the moratorium is lifted.
• If you let your membership lapse 1 month into the moratorium and then renew 2 months before the resumption, your renewed membership will be extended 3 months when the moratorium is lifted.
• If you join for the 1st time 4 months before the resumption of play, your new membership will be extended by 4 months when the moratorium is lifted.
• If you're a Lifetime Member, you're still a Lifetime Member.

Thanks to those of you who are keeping their memberships current during this period.

We appreciate your support of our activities such as publishing the NASPA News, building business relationships, supporting developers, enhancing online play through the addition of the NASPA Word List (NWL) to Scrabble GO, producing printed versions of the NWL, and planning events like the NASPA Tournament of Champions.

Current Members

The NASPA membership database has been online since April 6, 2009 - directors can use it to verify a person’s membership status.

Membership Numbers

NASPA membership numbers consist of AA followed by six digits, and are normally assigned in sequential order. Members may request larger numbers out of sequence by paying $50 rather than $30 for their membership.

Committee members pay the same fees as regular members, but are recognized with special membership numbers beginning with “CM”; regular members have numbers beginning with “AA”. Membership numbers CM000001–CM000016 are reserved for Steering Committee members.

Life members are assigned special membership numbers beginning with "LM" (unless they have requested to retain their previous membership numbers).

Refund and Privacy Policies

There are no refunds.

In order to keep track of your membership, we need to record information about you. How we handle this information is described in our Privacy Policy.