Membership

Pittsburgh businessman Bernie Mullin said yesterday he has the necessary financing and will apply for membership to the Major Soccer League this week."

The Baltimore-Washington Corridor Chamber of Commerce will offer a "Membership 101" class with a program on marketing strategies at 9 a.m. Thursday at the chamber office, 312 Marshall Ave., Suite 104, Laurel. The class will cover effective networking techniques, resources for expanding a business, ways to find new clients and tips on which events to attend to increase business. The membership class and marketing program are free. Reservations are required. Information: 410-792-9714 or 301-725-4000, ext. 102. Job fair Thursday at Arnold campus The Anne Arundel County/Anne Arundel Community College job fair will be held from noon to 4 p.m. Thursday in the David S. Jenkins Gymnasium on the Arnold campus, 101 College Parkway.

Opening my kitchen door, I found my neighbor on the step, a large plastic measuring cup gripped tightly in her hands."I'm making dinner and I need something extra for the gravy," she said as she headed for my bathroom. "Where do you keep your NyQuil?"As she wrestled with the tamper-resistant, child-proof cap, I steered her back toward the kitchen and the benign safety of flour."I promise it's just this one time," she explained, attempting to saw through the lid with a Ginsu knife. "It's practically an emergency.

Interest and membership in the NAACP has surged in the wake of the recent national black leadership summit sponsored by the Baltimore-based civil rights group, Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. said yesterday."

The apparent link between the two men charged in the bombing in Oklahoma City and paramilitary groups has attracted membership in such organizations rather than discouraged it, a new report by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith says.The report, "Beyond the Bombing: The Militia Menace Grows," concludes that while some paramilitary groups have lost membership since the April 19 bombing, which killed 167 people, "gains plainly appear to outweigh losses.""Our impression is contrary to what would be the normal response to an act so terrible and horrific: that people would shy away," Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL's national director, said in an interview.

For the third consecutive year, membership in the American Bowling Congress has declined. The ABC, the national governing body for tenpin bowling, had its membership drop to 2,922,829 during the 1990-91 season, down from 3,036,907 -- a loss of 3.7 percent -- from the 1989-90 season.Darold Dobs, ABC executive director, attributes this decline to several factors: the loss of 121 bowling centers, the loss of 32 local bowling associations and general overall decline in the nation's economy."We are not pleased with our continuing membership decline, however it is the lowest in the last three seasons," Dobs said.

Sykesville Town Council has approved an increase in membership for the Historic District Commission, from five to seven members."We have a lot of projects and a lot of work to be done," said Councilman Garth Adams, liaison to the commission. "We are becoming more active in the community."The commission hopes to renovate the Gatehouse into a municipal museum during the next several months. The state is leasing the building, once part of Springfield Hospital Center, to the town for $1 a year.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. addressed criticism yesterday of a fund-raiser he hosted at an all-white country club by saying its membership is "not my business," and he complained of a "double standard" because there was no outcry when prominent Democrats held events there. Speaking on WBAL-AM yesterday morning, Ehrlich, a Republican, said the decision to hold an event at the Elkridge Club on June 20 was made by his campaign staff, not by him. Members of the club told The Sun last week that it has never had a black member in its 127-year history.

WASHINGTON -- Russia and most of the former Soviet republics were invited yesterday to join the capitalist world's two premier financial institutions, clearing the way for a massive injection of Western aid and what Moscow's new economic "czar" called a "radical speeding up" of foreign investment.The admission of the emergent democracies widens the global scope of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.The two institutions, formed at a meeting of 44 nations in the New Hampshire village of Bretton Woods in 1944, have helped guide economic and financial order in the free world since.

THE YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County began 75 years ago as a home away from home for young women coming to work in the state capital. Today, it is the county's No. 1 human services agency for women and their families.In addition to the educational and recreational programs it offers to the community, the YWCA runs the only program in the county providing domestic counselors and shelters for victims of violence. It also offers the Teen Infant Program at Meade High School."Our domestic violence, parenting and career services are much bigger pieces of our program now," said Michael Cohen, director of communications.