Affiliate Services

General Liability Insurance—MTNA is pleased to offer general liability insurance coverage for every MTNA-affiliated state and local association. Every state and local association is covered under this policy for an unlimited number of events at no cost to any individual association. MTNA has agreed to pay the cost of this premium. For more information, choose General Liability Insurance from the sidebar.

ASCAP Music Licensing—In 1997, MTNA entered into a blanket licensing agreement with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). This agreement covers the licensing fees of all public performances of copyrighted music at all MTNA-related events—local, state, division and national. (The agreement does not cover individual members, public recitals or programs.)

To comply with this agreement, state and local affiliates must send two copies of any association-sponsored event program during which copyrighted music is performed to the MTNA Senior Deputy Executive Director by June 30 of each year. This is done to ensure ASCAP composers are properly credited for the performance. No attendance figures are required from the states. MTNA then submits a report, the licensing fee and the program to ASCAP. For more information about ASCAP or MTNA's resources on Copyright, choose from the links to the right.

501(c)(3) Status—State and local affiliates may apply for 501(c)(3) status through MTNA’s group exemption process. As of October 2006, 136 affiliates had taken advantage of this opportunity, saving themselves a combined total of more than $68,000 in Internal Revenue Service application fees.

Among the advantages of 501(c)(3) status, affiliates can accept charitable contributions that will be tax deductible to the contributor and claim exemption from state sales tax.

To take advantage of this benefit, affiliates must review their constitutions for compliance with Code Section 501(c)(3) requirements and submit a letter authorizing the national organization to include them on MTNA's "group exemption roster." The national headquarters provides guidelines for completing the process. The PDF file is available from the sidebar.

For more information about becoming a 501(c)(3) organization, contact Marge Bengel, Senior Deputy Executive Director at MTNA national headquarters at (888) 512-5278 or mbengel@mtna.org.