Major Changes to GSA Membership System:

The GSA membership data base is now online. Members have complete control over their addresses and important data for GSA membership and subscription purposes. This system will eliminate typos, double listing, cross listing, missed mailings, double mailings, and such. Members should access their individual profile record and update it, making certain that all information is current and applicable, and ensuring that the spelling of the name is correct. It will also be possible to enter the correct credit card for annual membership dues to be collected through our secure server.

Important: Do not create a second profile for yourself. Data can be lost. Data bases crash when you do that. Your info could be lost. If you have trouble accessing your profile, write our Help Desk at techsupport@thegsa.org, and do not write or call the Main Office. The Help Desk can help you. Our office has received a few letters that say something like "I could not successfully renew my membership, so I joined again. Now I cannot find my name on the conference program, and I may have been charged twice. I also have no hotel room reservation any more. This is why I am writing you, the GSA President, to find out what is wrong." The President cannot help you. The Executive Director cannot help you. The Help Desk can. But, you need first to write them, and do not first create a new record. Please.

GSA Fees and Charges

You may have seen the recent article in Business Week that fees charged by banks have now exceded credit cards as a source of income for them. There are fees involved with checks that have no funds, with credit cards, and with credit card refunds. These are very high, and a major source of income for banks. In some cases, the fees can exceed the amount of the charge, or can be almost equal to the amount of the charge. Therefore, if you make a mistake in ordering GSA dues or conference charges, GSA cannot refund your mistake without levying a charge to offset the fees you have brought. If you have directed the web site to charge you twice for dues or fees, you must know that the bank charge for refunding your mistake may be equal to the amount of the mistake. GSA cannot absorb such charges and urges you to be careful when making a purchase and to hit the charge button only once.

GSA MAILING POLICY:
GSA membership is on a calendar year basis. Renewals are in December for the following year. There has never been a change in the calendar year membership basis. Members who renew late, after an issue of GSR has been mailed in bulk mail at reduced cost, will still receive all copies of the journal, the German Studies Review, even though the extra postage cost of sending the copies individually must be borne by the rest of the membership. This will NOT be the case with the Newsletter. Members who renew after the Newsletter has been bulk mailed in April will not receive a copy. The cost of individual mailing outside of the bulk process is too high, and most of the GSA information contained in the Newsletter is on the web site. Generally, only non-GSA information will be missed. A certain number of copies will be available at the Annual Conference for late-payers to pick up, but none will be mailed.

It is hoped that most GSA members will renew prior to April.

GSA MAIN OFFICE ADDRESS:

German Studies Association

David E. Barclay, Exec Dir

Kalamazoo College

1200 Academy Street

Kalamazoo, MI 49006-3295

Telephone: 269-337-7364
Telefax: 269-337-7251
E-Mail: director@thegsa.org

Please do not call about membership or registration issues. It is best to e-mail. We do not return long-distance calls.

GSA Secretary-Treasurer's Office for Membership Information. Send membership forms to this address:

Prof. Gerald A. Fetz,
GSA Secretary-Treasurer
Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
University of Montana

Missoula, MT 59812

E-Mail: FetzGA@mso.umt.edu