Classes of Membership and Membership Requirements:

The Association shall consist of five (5) classes of membership:

(A) SUPPLIER MEMBERS:

A supplier is a company within the United States or its possessions, Canada or Mexico, that manufactures, converts, warehouses or decorates promotional products for sale to promotional products distributors or to a firm maintaining a division or affiliate devoted to reselling promotional products.

To qualify for membership in the Association as a Supplier Member, an applicant must meet each of the following criteria:

(1) Be engaged in the manufacturing, importing, converting, imprinting or other processing of Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products for sale through the Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products Distributor as its principal business, or maintain a division or department devoted exclusively to this work.

(2) Have been engaged in the Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products industry for at least one year.  The personal experience of the employees and/or representatives of the applicant as an employee or representative of another firm in this industry is acceptable;

(3) Have a minimum annual sales volume of Specialty Advertising/ Promotional Products of $100,000.

(4) List at least five current Distributor Members of SAAGNY or the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) from whom the applicant has received orders, other than sample orders, in the past six months.

(B) DISTRIBUTOR MEMBERS:

A Distributor is a company (or a company that maintains a division, department or affiliate) located within the United States or its possessions, Canada or Mexico, whose primary business includes developing ideas for the use of promotional products, buying such products from suppliers and reselling them to end buyers

To qualify for membership in the Association as a Distributor Member, an applicant must meet each of the following criteria:

(1) Develop ideas for the use of Specialty Advertising/ Promotional Products as an advertising medium, buy such products from suppliers, and sell them to advertisers;

(2) Maintain its own accounts receivables, sell on the open market in competition with other distributors, and invoice in its own name;

(3) Have been engaged in the Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products industry for at least one year as a Distributor. The personal experience of the employees and/or representatives of the applicant as an employee or representative of another firm in this industry is acceptable;

(4) Have a minimum annual sales volume of Specialty Advertising/ Promotional Products as a Distributor of $50,000;

(5) List at least five current Supplier Members of SAAGNY or PPAI from whom the applicant has purchased Specialty Advertising/ Promotional Products other than sample orders in the past six months.

Organizations and other businesses normally customers of Distributors or which are primarily end users of Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products are not eligible for Distributor membership in the Association.

An applicant whose primary sale of Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products is to as few as two companies shall not be eligible for Distributor membership if one of the companies to which it sells is in any way connected with the applicant through stock ownership, common ownership, common officers, or directors, or any other means.

(C) SUPPLIER REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS:

An independent company contracted by one or more suppliers to market their products and services to distributors.

To qualify for membership in the Association as a Supplier Representative Member, an applicant must meet each of the following criteria:

(1) Be in the business of providing sales representation to distributors for one or more member Supplier Member firms of SAAGNY or PPAI;

(2) List at least five current Distributor or Supplier members who know the Applicant;

(3) Have been engaged in the Specialty Advertising/Promotional Products industry for at least one year. The personal experience of the employees and/or representatives of the applicant as an employee or representative of another firm in this industry is acceptable;

(D) BUSINESS SERVICES MEMBERS:

A company primarily engaged in the promotional products industry that sells services, information or products (other than promotional products), to Suppliers, Distributors and/or Supplier Representatives, that support the normal conduct of business.

To qualify for membership in the Association as a Business Services Member, an applicant must meet each of the following criteria:

(1) Provide products (other than promotional products) or services that are used in or support the normal conduct of business.

(2) Have been engaged in the promotional products industry for at least one year.  The personal experience of the employees and/or representatives of the applicant as an employee or representative of another firm in this industry is acceptable;

(3) Provide references from five (5) promotional products industry companies that are members of PPAI, or a PPAI-recognized regional or international association, who verify that the applying  company provides products or services to companies in the promotional products industry. This can be done in one of the following two ways:

a. Submit a purchase order from each of the five (5) references for products or services sold by the applicant company within the last year, or

b. Secure and submit a letter from each of the five (5) references, on their letterhead, verifying that the applicant company provides products or services to companies in the promotional products industry.

(E) GROUP PURCHASING MEMBERS:

A company who is NOT primarily engaged in the promotional products industry that sells services, information or products (other than promotional products), to Suppliers, Distributors and/or Supplier Representatives, that support the purchaser’s normal conduct of business or personal matters.

To qualify for membership in the Association as a Group Purchasing Member, an applicant must meet each of the following criteria:

(1) Provide products (other than promotional products) or services that are used in or support the normal conduct of business or personal matters.

(2) Offer clearly defined preferred pricing, discounts or other benefits to Distributors, Suppliers and/or Supplier Representatives or their employees/representatives or to the Association.

Group Purchasing Members shall not be eligible to vote on any Association matters and shall not be eligible to serve on the Board of Directors.