The members of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (MM&P) include the world’s best-qualified and most highly trained professional mariners. Membership in the MM&P Offshore Group as a licensed deck officer is awarded under an apprenticeship system, where applicants accrue points over a period that typically lasts four to five years. During that time, applicants’ performance may be evaluated by the MM&P licensed deck officers they sail with. Such evaluations are important in determining whether and when applicants become full book members of the union.

On a number of vessels, MM&P represents the entire crew: licensed and unlicensed, deck and engine. The conditions for joining MM&P as an engine officer or in the unlicensed category are different form those applied to membership as a licensed deck officer. For more information, please see the section on Engine Officers or the section on Unlicensed employment, below.

Contact information for those who wish to join MM&P’s United Inland Group, Government Employees Group or Pilot Group is provided at the end of this section.

Membership Prerequisites

MM&P applicants must hold a valid U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) license and possess all training certificates required under the 1995 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW-95).  Applicants must also comply with all International Maritime Organization (IMO) and USCG training requirements. The union and its contracted shipping companies can and do set additional training requirements for applicants. Please contact MM&P Special Projects Director Richard Plant (rplant@bridgedeck.org) for a list of the courses needed to sail with specific MM&P-contracted companies.

Becoming an Applicant

The union serves its Offshore members through a network of 16 hiring halls and offices located in port cities throughout the continental United States, and in Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The complete directory of MM&P offices is posted online. You must visit a hiring hall in person to fill out the paperwork required to apply to the union for membership, to ship and to receive benefits.

You should bring to the MM&P union hall a blank check to cover a minimum of 10 percent of your initiation fee and your first quarter dues, which are prorated based on the number of days remaining in the quarter. [Please see sections below on Calculating Your Initiation Fee and Dues.] If you start the process near the end of a calendar quarter, you should be prepared to pay the dues for the next quarter as well. Bring with you two passport-sized photos, your original USCG license and all your training certificates. If you have a passport, you should bring it as well. Your training certificates will be duplicated for entry into our National Ports computer database. When jobs open up, the National Ports computer database is used to identify union members who have met the training requirements for the MM&P-contracted company involved.  

Becoming a Full Book Member

To be placed on the list of those working towards full book membership in the Offshore Group, you must have sailed on your license a minimum of 150 days on MM&P-contracted vessels and have paid your initiation fee in full. Today it takes between four and five years and approximately 2,400 points to become a full book member of the Offshore Group.

Points are awarded applicants as follows:

• 1 point for each day as members in good standing;
• 1 additional point for each day spent sailing on their license;
• 1 additional point for each day spent standing a minimum seven-hour port relief officer (PRO)/night mate watch;
• 1 additional point for each day attending courses at MM&P’s MITAGS/PMI training facilities;
• 3 additional points for each day spent sailing as an able bodied seaman (AB) on MM&P’s vertically manned vessels; note that you will not receive sea-time credit on your license for sailing as an AB.  

All applicants receive a national shipping card, which is valid for up to two years in any of MM&P’s 16 hiring halls.  The national shipping card is stamped with the year, month, day, hour and minute on which it was issued. Applicants compete both with other applicants and with full book members for jobs.

In the MM&P hiring hall competition for open positions on MM&P-contracted vessels, jobs are awarded to the mariner who has the oldest shipping card and meets the training requirements for that particular company or vessel.

What is a full book member?

Full book members are those who have been accepted to membership after:

• paying off their initiation fee;
• achieving a minimum of 150 days of sea time on MM&P-contracted vessels; and
• reaching the top of the point list described above.

Members are taken into full book membership status at the quarterly General Executive Board/Offshore Advisory Committee (GEB/OAC) meetings, usually held at MM&P Headquarters. Full book members are also issued a national shipping card, but theirs is valid for a maximum of one year. Depending on the amount of sea time an applicant has accumulated on MM&P-contracted vessels, he or she can become a C-Book member (between 150 and 360 days), B-Book member (361 to 720 days) or A-Book member (over 720 days) upon being accepted as a full book member.

Please note:  Time spent sailing on non-MM&P-contracted vessels or on Military Sealift Command (MSC) vessels as a civilian mariner (CIVMAR) does not count toward your book status in the Offshore Membership Group and no points are accumulated for this sea time.

Calculating Your Initiation Fee

• Base fee: $3,500  (or $4,500, if your license is older than one year)
• A minimum of 10 percent is payable when you apply to MM&P
• The remainder is payable within 360 days of shipping on your license aboard MM&P-contracted vessels or working as a PRO.

Dues

• Non-working dues are $400 per year, or $100 per quarter, payable in advance
• Working dues are equal to 6 ½ percent of your vacation pay (the number of vacation days varies between 15 and 30 days for each 30 days worked, depending on the MM&P-contracted company you work for and on your license position aboard the vessel).

The MM&P Point System

To become a full book member of MM&P, as an applicant you must:

• Accrue a minimum of 150 days of licensed employment on MM&P-contracted vessels, 20 days of which may be eight-hour work days as a PRO.
• Pay off your initiation fee.
• Reach the top of the point list by earning points as follows:
• One point for each day an applicant is in good standing, whether working or not
• One additional point for each day sailing in a licensed capacity on MM&P-contracted vessels
• One additional point for each seven-hour-long day of PRO work. There are no limits on the number of points that can be earned as a PRO
• One additional point for each day spent attending the MM&P training facilities, MITAGS and PMI
• Three additional points for each day spent sailing in an unlicensed capacity on MM&P-contracted vessels. Please note that although unlicensed AB jobs do not count towards the minimum 150 days of licensed employment needed for classification advancement, they do count for points towards membership.

MM&P Engine Officers

• Initiation fees are waived for engine officers after 120 days of shipping employment, which need not be continuous. Upon approval by the MM&P General Executive Board, engine officers are immediately granted Class A seniority in the organization. There is no point system requirement for engine officers. If an engineer joins MMP and pays his total initiation fee of $2,500, he is granted Class "A" book status immediately with distinction, upon approval of the GEB. 
• Dues for licensed engineers are the same as for licensed deck officers:
• $100 per quarter with the first quarter pro-rated or $400 per year;
• 6 ½ percent of wages and vacation pay.

Unlicensed Positions

• Applicants for unlicensed positions are required to pay a $500 initiation fee, a minimum of 10 percent of which is payable up front.
• The remainder is payable within 360 days of shipping on MM&P-contracted vessels.
• Dues for unlicensed positions are payable by dues check-off at a rate of 2 ½ percent of wages and vacation pay.

Contact Information for Other MM&P Membership Groups

For information about joining the MM&P United Inland Group (UIG), contact UIG Vice President Michael Murray: mmurray@bridgedeck.org.

For information about joining the MM&P Pilot Group, contact Pilotage Vice President George Quick: geequick@aol.com.

For information about joining the MM&P Government Employees Group, contact Government Fleet Representative Randi Ciszewski: rciszewski@bridgedeck.org