It becomes a member when it pays its dues.
Can I get a amen?
Jaysus, what a rotton thread to have open when the IT guy comes by to check on the Vista upgrade.
No kidding, this just happened. I feel like such a memberhead.
In Russia…
I was a charter member, once. 
“I ensue, therefore I am”
AMEN!!!
And mine’s paid it’s dues many, many times!
Quasi
It goes back to latin usage as well. From Carmina Burana - (Amatoria. Potatoria. Lusoria 136 - fol, 69b)
Si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula
Felix coniunctio.
Amore suscrescente, pariter e medio
avulso procul tedio fit ludus ineffabilis
membris, lacertis, ladiis,
si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula,
Felix coniunctio.
Rough translation -
If a boy and a girl are shut in a small room,
Happy is their union.
Love swells, and for both
restraint is banished from their midst
making an ineffable game come over
their members, their shoulders, their lips.
If a boy and a girl are shut in a small room,
Happy is their union.
A penis is a warm gun.
So that’s what Heston is talkin about.
Reminds me of those trashy romance novels with the picture of Fabio on the front holding a swooning, cleavage-showing damsel:
*Randall held Christine in his strong, manly arms…*something something… throbbing member…something something…heaving breasts…etc…
Man I ate those up in high school…
It became particularly popular usage after the movie “Goldmember”, that Austin Powers flick.
I had that as a clue in charades once. Since I don’t think of “member” as a standard euphamism for the “fuckstick”*, I couldn’t solve it even with the chick emulating a giant phallus. I got “gold”…
*Never heard that one before, but it is obvious. Unless you mean a dildo.
So I guess Lorena Bobbit really “dismembered” her husband John.
Duuuuuude! No wonder you’re the Best Wife Ever!