As far as I know, the Associate membership was for spouses and family members living under the same roof, only. For example if you, or Heather, had a General membership, the other person would be able to join the club as an Associate member for half the price.

Unfortunately there was a lot of abuse of this membership by people who did not have a spouse or family member with a General membership, so there was discussion of either finding a way to make sure this rule was followed, or the Associate membership gotten rid of. There would have to be a way to verify each person as a spouse or family member of a General member.

I’m not on the Board currently, so I don’t know all the details, but that’s what I suspect happened with it. Maybe it’s just temporary until they figure out a better way to implement it on the website. 🤷‍♀️

A lot of people bought the Associate membership without having a spouse or family member who was already a General member. So, instead of paying the $100-$125 yearly General membership like they were supposed to, they’d pay $50 and call it good. It got to the point where we had around 30 Associate members, of whom only like 5 were legitimate.

I don’t know exactly when it was removed from the website. It’s possible that it might still be available, but you have to prove you live in the same household as a General member.

Being able to buy membership quickly via a website is a relatively new perk, so there are still a few wrinkles to work out. Having a monitor was discussed many times, but I can’t remember the exact reason  why we don’t have one. Maybe someone else who knows better can chime in.

I’ll put it out there that if anyone is willing to volunteer to be a monitor on busy weekends, especially in summer, I don’t think there will be much opposition to it.