My club had let our affiliation lapse due to an oversight. When we discovered the oversight, I promptly sent in the renewal and the $50. To our VERY small club the SASS affiliation is very important. Being listed on the SASS website is a big deal if you want to be found by prospective shooters. The SASS website isn't cheap to operate so I figure some club money going that way is good. We will use some of the resources provided by SASS for local advertising.
SASS also payed for an exhibitor booth at the Great American Outdoor Show this week in Pennsylvania. There will be 200,000 people attending that show from a 5-6 state area. The many clubs in the area are getting HUGE publicity.
This is all important enough to me that I will make a point of finding affiliated clubs to attend this coming season while most likely overlooking non-affiliated clubs.