Home |
Site Index |
FAQs |
Contact |
RSS
|
Podcast
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
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 selected men and women 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 be thought by some to exemplify the individual qualifications outlined below.
For further information regarding life membership, please contact Kate Metcalf at +1-212-434-9484 or kmetcalf@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 and help create programs 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 Sarah Dandurand, +1-212-434-9491 or sdandurand@cfr.org.
Download the nominee information form: Word document | PDF
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.
Although technically, only three seconding letters are required to assure that a candidate’s name will be forwarded to the Membership Committee, an additional letter may be submitted. Such letters are particularly helpful to the Membership Committee when they add information or insights about a candidate not already contained in a previous letter. However, it is strongly recommended that applications contain no more than four seconding letters.
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. All materials should be sent electronically to applications@cfr.org. Emailed letters must include electronic signature/letterhead or must be supplemented with a signed hardcopy, sent via mail or fax.
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. Please note that the second deadline has changed from September 15.
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 |
Candidates who are unsuccessful at any given meeting remain eligible for consideration at a subsequent meeting of the committee. 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. 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. After the hold period, the candidate may reactivate the file for consideration.
The process is entirely one of affirmative selection from the large and evolving pool of nominees. The committee and the board choose a number of members without prejudice to the candidacies of those remaining in the pool.
Membership and Fellowship Affairs
Council on Foreign Relations
58 East 68th Street
New York, NY 10065
Telephone: +1-212-434-9487 Fax: (212) +1-212-434-9801
E-mail: applications@cfr.org
The Council offers a variety of email newsletters about up-to-date CFR.org material on what’s happening around the world.
Enter your email address,and click 'Go' to subscribe.
Council Experts are based in the Council’s New York and Washington offices. Each expert's bio page contains his or her contact information, professional and educational history, links to publications and current research, a downloadable one-page biographical narrative, and a high-definition photo.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
Walter Russell Mead recounts the story of the centuries-long rivalry between the English- speaking peoples and their enemies in God and Gold.
Complete list of CFR Books.
If you wish to receive a printed copy of one of our annual reports, please email your request to publications@cfr.org or call +1-212-434-9665.
Be sure to include your complete mailing address, phone number, and the year of the annual report that you wish to receive.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
