{"id":15903,"date":"2025-11-19T10:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/?p=15903"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T15:34:15","slug":"membership-categories-and-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/news\/membership-categories-and-eligibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Membership Categories and Eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The live question-and-answer session during the recent Diplomates\u2019 town hall session at the Surgery Summit raised several important questions about the proposed new governance session, including how membership categories and eligibility would be defined.<\/p>\n<p>Defining certification independent from membership<\/p>\n<p>With the separation of certification functions from membership activities, ACVS must define certification criteria independent from membership criteria. Here is an example of how ACVS could approach this in the Constitution and Bylaws.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h4><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Current language<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Membership<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">: The members of the College shall be known as \u201cDiplomates of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons\u2026\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b><span data-contrast=\"none\">Future language example<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Certification<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">: Individuals who meet the requirements for board certification by the College shall be known as \u201cDiplomates of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons\u2026\u201d<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Membership<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">: Individuals who meet the requirements for Diplomate certification status are eligible for Diplomate membership.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In ACVS\u2019s current structure, the terms \u201cDiplomate\u201d and \u201cmember\u201d have been used interchangeably. In the proposed structure, \u201cDiplomate\u201d will exclusively be used to designate individuals who meet ACVS board certification requirements. \u201cMember\u201d will be used to signify those who choose to be a member of ACVS. As noted above, Diplomate members must be Diplomates of the College.<\/p>\n<h4>Financial separation<\/h4>\n<p>Along with defining certification independent from membership, ACVS must also separate certification-related fees from membership dues. ACVS is currently determining how this process will work and how it will affect Diplomates when the proposed governance structure goes into effect in 2027. ACVS\u2019s goal is to make the annual renewal process simple and straightforward for Diplomates. More information on the renewal process will be shared with Diplomates in subsequent communications.\u00a0ACVS will continue to provide regular updates as the College moves through the governance change process. Questions and comments are encouraged and should be sent to ACVS Membership Director Adam Seery at aseery@acvs.org or posted in the new Governance Updates and Questions discussion group in ACVS Connect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The live question-and-answer session during the recent Diplomates\u2019 town hall session at the Surgery Summit raised several important questions about the proposed new governance session, including how membership categories and eligibility would be defined. Defining certification independent from membership With the separation of certification functions from membership activities, ACVS must define certification criteria independent from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diplomate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15903"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15917,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15903\/revisions\/15917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acvs.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}