I agree that if you are a member of a local chapter that you must be a member of National, but there are many wives that do not belong to National and yet would want to come to local chapter functions and such. This is why in the Bylaws of the Floridian Chapter we allow associate members; these are non-members of national with only local chapter rights.

The fact that National has the local chapters to pay dues to remail a chapter in good standing, it forces the local chapters to collect dues from its members (even if it is a small amount per member). So in a way non-members Nation that belong to local chapters are in fact supporting National.

and that's my 1/2 cents worth