How to become an IPA member?

In principle, IPA membership is open to national, and international regional or specialist publishers' associations which:

· share IPA's Objects, and actively promote and defend publishers' interests; and

· conform with IPA's Statutes, and are themselves based on voluntary membership and the principles of democratic self-organisation of publishers; and

· pay their annual subscription to the IPA Secretariat; and

· undertake to give effect in their respective countries to the resolutions and recommendations passed by the IPA General Assembly and to report to the IPA Secretary General on the steps taken and the results achieved.

IPA distinguishes between three categories of membership.

Regular and Associate Membership

Regular Membership may be granted to national publishers associations representing to the fullest extent possible the publishers of their country. Regular Members pay an annual subscription determined for each Regular Member by the General Assembly from time to time. Regular Members take part in the work of the Association.

Associate Membership may be granted to international regional publishers organisations and international publishers organisations with specialised publishing interests.

Affiliate Membership

National publishers'associations which do not yet fulfil all criteria of Regular Membership, but have taken specific steps to demonstrate their aspiration to do so may be accepted as Affiliate Members of IPA. Affiliate Members may, in consideration for an annual subscription, take part in the work of IPA, but do not have any voting rights. Affiliate Membership is intended to lead to Regular Membership and Affiliate Members are requested to regularly update IPA on the progress made in this respect.

Benefits of Affiliate Membership

Affiliate Members may appoint one or two delegates to the General Assembly as observers. Affiliate Members may take part in the work of IPA's committees and working groups. Affiliate Members receive all general newsletters and other communications from IPA. IPA endeavours to provide the same advice in terms of legal counsel and legislative assistance as it does to its Regular Members.

Affiliate Members pay an annual subscription agreed between them and the Executive Committee.

Affiliate members are not entitled to vote. Their representatives cannot, in that capacity, hold IPA offices.

Application Procedure

We kindly ask all to complete a basic questionnaire on their activities; this is available from the IPA Secretariat. The information provided by the applicant association in this questionnaire will help the IPA General Assembly to form a view as to whether your Association fulfils IPA's criteria for a given membership category. The IPA General Assembly decides, at its discretion, whether or not to accept any given application.

The application process itself, which leads up to the request for membership addressed to the General Assembly, is administered by the IPA Secretariat and will depend on the particular circumstances of each applicant. IPA generally asks applicants to make themselves available for a personal meeting at an international publishing event, e.g. during the next Frankfurt Book Fair, the next IPA Copyright Symposium or IPA Congress, to discuss the aspects raised in the questionnaire.

Should you have any question regarding IPA or the application process, please contact IPA's Legal Counsel: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it