The Membership Services Committee reviewed several significant member benefits and issues this year, including recommendations to establish a new member benefits with OfficeMax providing significant financial discounts to members on office supplies, copying and furniture. The Commissioners Committee on Programs and Services and the Board of Commissioners unanimously approved of the OfficeMax program at their meeting on November 22, 2002.

The committee drafted a Privacy Policy for the State Bar of Michigan that will, with the appropriate revisions, will be included on the 2003 dues statement informing members of what information is collected by the Bar, what information is shared with others, and in what way. The Privacy Policy will be expanded to include appropriate opt-in and opt-out sections for members to choose when completing their statement.

The committee also spent extensive time working on revisions to the Bar's label policy, which will include new provisions for sections to obtain labels at a fair market price and increases in label fees to for-profit entities. The revised label policy will come before the Board of Commissioners on June 13, 2003.

The committee also investigated and reviewed proposals from Dell and Gateway regarding an affinity relationship with the Bar. After careful review, it was determined that Dell and Gateway did not meet the qualifications of "endorsed partner."

In February, the committee reviewed request for proposals from Thompson-West, Casemaker and Loislaw. After much consideration and review of each proposal, the committee motioned to continue the Bar's relationship with Loislaw for another year. The committee negotiated significant addendums to the Loislaw contract this year, such as the inclusion of 10% royalty on new subscribers, providing additional revenues to the Bar.

The committee reviewed the National Center for State Courts recommendations for e-filing standards and referred the standards to the Electronic Filing Task Force (please see e-Filing Task Force Report).