Membership Has Its Privileges

The ball drops in Times Square, and next thing you know, Chez Seville is lousy with membership cards. Over the course of about six weeks, I received member/partner/supporter cards from 18 different organizations.

Huh, I thought, looks like an opportunity for a completely unscientific, limited study of what's going on in the world of membership cards.

Of the 18 packages, 14 were mailed in white No. 10 envelopes, eight of which had a large second window with the card showing through. One used a pistol window to show the card, and two others had a peekaboo window showing only part of the card. Two of the three No. 10s with a single addressing window said nothing about the card at all while the third teased: "2012 Partnership Card Enclosed."

Breaking away from the No. 10 pack, the USO mailed my card in a teaserless, closed-face, white 6-inch-by-9-inch, Native American Rights Fund (NARF) sent a four-color double window 6-inch-by-9-inch, the International Fund for Animal Welfare mailed a double window 6-inch-by-9.25-inch, and Disabled American Veterans (DAV) used a 4.5-inch-by-9-inch white envelope with an oversized addressing window but no teaser about the card.

Tally that all up, and 14 of the 18 mailers showed some or all of the card or teased about it. No surprising finding there. DAV's package included not only a membership card but also gold foil seals, a notepad, a four-color certificate with gold foil and a thank-you card, so it's understandable why DAV didn't plug the membership card.

The National Wildlife Federation, NARF and USO sent the most expensive cards, plastic and embossed with my name like a credit card, and DAV's was plastic but not embossed. The split between tipped-on cards and paper perf-outs was even at seven each. All but four of the cards were four-color. Ten cards were on the reply device, three attached to the letter, and five on forms that included both letter and reply.