Resolution No. 348
Member/Spouse Fraternal Benefit

      WHEREAS, Resolution No. 169, as adopted at the 113th Supreme Council Meeting in 1994, directed the Board of Directors to implement a member/spouse fraternal benefit to be paid on the accidental death of any member or his spouse, provided that the member resides in insurance territory, and it further directed the Board to report back to the 114th Supreme Council Meeting the following year with a recommendation regarding the continuation of the benefit; and

      WHEREAS, Resolution No. 162 adopted at the 114th Supreme Council Meeting in 1995 set forth a benefit in the amount of $1,000 in the first two years of membership and increasing by $500 per year until it becomes $2,500 after four years of continuous membership in good standing, and decreasing beginning at age 65 by $500 per year to a maximum of $1,000 at age 67; and

      WHEREAS, resolutions at the Supreme Council Meetings in 1996, 1999, 2002, 2007 and 2012 authorized the continuation of the benefit for multi-year periods, and directed the Board of Directors to report to the Supreme Council Meetings at the conclusion of these periods with a recommendation as to the continuation of the benefit; and

      WHEREAS, at the 130th Supreme Council Meeting in 2012, upon recommendation of the Board of Directors, the benefit was continued and another report requested regarding continuation of the benefit from that time forward to be delivered at the 135th Supreme Council Meeting to be held in 2017.

      NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that, upon recommendation of the Board of Directors, the Member/Spouse Fraternal Benefit be continued as a permanent benefit of membership in the Knights of Columbus.