Membership: Denied!

I graduated late due to undergoing surgery four times during my fourth year of medical school. Thus, I am currently between residency and medical school, and not really a medical student or a doctor, and definitely not an enrolled medical student or a resident.

I let some memberships lapse during this period, and decided to renew only my AOA and AAFP right now. I emailed the AAFP because I was not sure which application to fill out since, as stated above, I don't really fit the criteria for any of them. I received a response that said that I cannot be a member until I am a resident.

I was looking forward to reading the journals as one part of my study plan. I have a 10 month old, so having a copy at the house would be nice because when I have 5-10 minutes free, I can read an article. I do not have a few hours a week to drop by the local hospital library and read their copy.

In addition, I was hoping to go to the conference in August. I haven't looked yet to see if I can attend as a non-member. In any case, I'm sure if I can it is way more expensive. I"m still a little disappointed from the email response, and am giving myself another few minutes for the other disappointment.

Finally, I wonder what it will look like on my residency applications to FP programs when I am not even a member of their organization. Will they notice this, and if so, is the denial of membership to those between these two steps of training part of common knowledge, or will my non-membership simply reflect negatively on me?