Membership Selection Procedure: A Summary
Life Membership
Term Membership
Application Requirements
Rules and Regulations to Keep in Mind
Nominating Letters
Seconding Letters
Application Deadlines
Notification
Application Eligibility
Contact for All Membership Matters and Correspondence
The Council on Foreign Relations is a national membership organization. There are two groups of members, life and term members. Term members must be between the ages of 30 and 36 at the time of their application, and term memberships are limited to five years. Here is a summary of the membership process:
Members of the Council’s Board of Directors and Membership Committee are precluded from nominating, seconding, and writing supporting letters on any candidate’s behalf.
Quality, diversity, and balance are the key objectives sought by the Council in the composition of its membership. New members are named twice a year by the Board of Directors, which invites individuals to join based on recommendations by the Membership Committee. To be considered by the Membership Committee, candidates must be nominated for membership by a Council member. Please contact the Membership Office for a roster of current members.
In each round of membership selection, the Membership Committee considers significantly more candidates than there are vacancies; therefore, it is inevitable that the names of some candidates will appear before the committee on several occasions. Given the high level of the competition, some candidates may never be elected even though they may exemplify the individual qualifications outlined below.
For further information about applying for life membership, please contact Scott Bradbury, Program Coordinator, Membership Affairs, +1-212-434-9484 or sbradbury@cfr.org.
The Stephen M. Kellen Term Member Program encourages promising young leaders to engage in a sustained conversation on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. The program allows younger members to interact with seasoned foreign-policy experts and participate in a wide variety of events designed especially for them. Each year a new class of term members, between the ages of 30 and 36, is elected to a five-year membership term. Committees of term members in New York and Washington, DC, advise the Council leadership on the programs that are of particular interest to younger members.
The term members enjoy a full range of activities, including events with high-profile speakers, an annual Term Member Conference, roundtables, trips to financial and governmental institutions around the country, and one week-long study trip abroad every two years.
For further information about applying for term membership, please contact M. Kristy Clark, Program Associate, Membership Affairs, +1-212-434-9491 or mclark@cfr.org.
A candidate’s nominator bears the chief responsibility for seeing to it that filing deadlines for a candidacy are met and that all required documents are submitted to the Council’s Membership Office in a timely manner. Candidates and/or their nominators are responsible for securing seconding letters within the content guidelines below. Council members are advised to commit themselves to supporting a candidacy only when they can fairly meet the requirements of the process and the expectations of the candidates who depend on them for assistance. Please also note:
Letters nominating a candidate for consideration by the Membership Committee should be no more than 500 words in length. Please address the following criteria, which have always been central to the committee’s consideration of membership candidates:
Seconding letters need not be so comprehensive (no more than 300 words), but should amplify why, in the opinion of the writer, a candidate should be considered for Council membership. Thoughtful, candid, and succinct comments are far more important in seconding and proposing letters than formal endorsements of candidates. In seconding letters particularly, writers should express why a given candidate should be considered for Council membership for reasons beyond the basic criteria above.
Strict observance of deadlines is essential to staff support of the Membership Committee’s work and we request your continuing cooperation. The preparation of individual membership files for submission to the Membership Committee is an ongoing process. Candidates whose files are not completed in time for any given meeting of the committee have their files carried forward, without prejudice, to the subsequent meeting. Only candidates with completed files will be considered.
The deadlines for receipt of all materials for the two yearly meetings of the committee to consider life membership candidates are March 1 and October 1.
The deadline for receipt of all materials for the annual meeting of the committee to consider term membership candidates is November 1.
All membership candidates and their nominators will receive notification of the committee's decisions according to the schedule below. Seconders of elected candidates will also be notified.
Application Deadline | Notification |
| Life Membership, October 1 | February |
| Term Membership, November 1 | June |
| Life Membership, March 1 | June |
Can I reapply if not elected?
Candidates who are unsuccessful at any given meeting remain eligible for consideration at a subsequent meeting of the committee. If a candidate is not elected after two consecutive meetings, the application will be placed on hold for a period of three years for life membership candidates and one year for term membership candidates. (For term membership applicants, the hold period does not apply if a candidate would be ineligible to reapply due to age.)
When reapplying, what should I submit?
An application is reactivated when new materials are received. It is strongly recommended that candidates submit at least one new letter of support, an updated curriculum vitae, and a new nominee information form.
The application process is entirely one of affirmative selection from the large and evolving pool of nominees.
Membership and Fellowship Affairs
Council on Foreign Relations
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10065
Telephone: +1-212-434-9484 Fax: (212) +1-212-434-9801
E-mail: applications@cfr.org
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