Member News

December 31, 2006

USA Judo Announces Start of New Membership Program

As the 2007 New Year arrives, USA Judo is pleased to announce a new membership program. Beginning January 1, USA Judo will no longer offer secondary membership as the two-tiered structure is replaced with a single level of membership.

All USA Judo members who have registered by midnight, December 31, 2006 will be referred to as of January 1, 2007 as "USA Judo member" regardless of whether they registered as a “primary” or “secondary” member.  Memberships previously known as “secondary” will be honored as “USA Judo members” through their individual expiration dates in 2007.   

"Over the last year or so we at the USA Judo National Office have been studying how to improve the membership services. We have introduced as part of these membership improvements a family membership plan in order to encourage and save money for our members,” said USA Judo CEO Jose H. Rodriguez.  “We have also introduced a youth membership program which is now being implemented with our new Police Athletic League, and Boys Scouts/Girl Scouts programs. We will soon make this eight-week youth membership program available to all USA Judo member clubs to encourage more young people to try out judo. The secondary membership program we used to offer hinged on the fact that we were sharing insurance policies with U.S. Judo Federation; however once that changed this year it was a matter of business decision to discontinue the secondary membership."

Rodriguez continued: "We have been discussing this change in our membership structure with the USJF leadership since last October and at the meeting we had in Dallas a few weeks ago we created a working committee where we will begin to look at the possibility of a mutually beneficial membership program that would include USA Judo, USJA and USJF". 

USA Judo would like to encourage as many of our members as possible to please use our ONLINE membership registration by going to www.usjudo.org. When you register online you will get your membership card and number on the spot.

This will save USA Judo members a tremendous amount of time. Further, if you happen to lose our card, you can go back and reprint it completely free of charge. As part of USA Judo’s new online systems, our members will be able to register for all of our events online later this year which also will save you both money and time.   

Very soon, USA Judo members will be able to complete coaching background screens online as well as apply for ranks and promotions.  All of this is part of USA Judo’s continued effort to provide our members with quick and timely services.

"We want to assure all of our members who have signed up as secondary members by Dec. 31 that you will lose no benefits and your membership to USA Judo is valid through the expiration date of your membership,” added USA Judo President Dr. Ron Tripp.  “We are striving to find better ways to serve our members and we do hope that more of them look into registering online – it is the way of the future for our sport!"

All State Organizations already have received the new USA Judo membership forms and clubs will be receiving them soon.  The online registration program at www.usjudo.org already has the new membership structure and the family membership information.