ILDA has five categories of members: Corporate, Nonprofit, Individual, Hobbyist and Student.
Individual, Hobbyist and Student (IHS) members are prohibited from using their ILDA membership to promote commercial laser display activities. Specifically:
- IHS members are listed under their own name — not a company name. In the “Company” or “Member Name” field of the ILDA database, listings for IHS members use their personal name in reverse format like this: Lastname, Firstname. For example, Velasquez, Juan or Baumann, Sandra. (The “Contact” field uses the normal name format: Juan Velasquez or Sandra Baumann.) It is not allowed to use a company name if the ILDA membership category is Individual, Hobbyist or Student. Instead, the Corporate and Nonprofit categories are for companies, businesses and other organizations.
- IHS members may not promote commercial activities in the ILDA online directory. (It is permitted to describe themselves as a one-person freelancer or consultancy; e.g. that they have expertise and are available in a certain area.)
- IHS members may not use ILDA Member logos on commercial webpages or materials. (This is permitted for single-person freelance or consultancy activities, where the IHS Member is not producing lasershows themselves, but is working on a freelance or consultant basis as part of other persons’ lasershows.)
- IHS members entering the ILDA Awards do so under their own name — not a company name. If they should win an ILDA Award, the trophy as well as all records such as a list of winners will use the individual's name; for example, "2020 ILDA Awards 1st Place, Laser Photography category: Juan Velasquez".
- IHS members are not eligible to receive financial discounts (for commercially-related business activities) that may be offered to ILDA members by other companies. IHS members can receive ILDA-provided member discounts such as lower prices for Conference and laser safety class registrations.
- IHS members cannot take advantage of insurance referrals or other business-related programs offered by ILDA.
Persons who wish to take advantage of these features should join as Corporate or Nonprofit Members.
This policy was adopted by the ILDA Board of Directors in June 2004.