The club I joined this year did have a "Bridge Membership", nominally for "Learn to Skate" students, but actually open to other newbies.
Gardens Figure Skating Club
Bridge Membership 2010-2011 Option
This special category of membership, designed specifically for Gardens Ice House Learnto-
Skate participants is more suitable for younger or beginning level skaters. It includes:
*Home club membership in the Gardens Figure Skating Club for the remainder of
this season (through June 2011)
*Participation in Alice In Wonderland on Ice as part of a group number or
numbers, which includes access to specially designated Saturday Club Ice time
for rehearsal purposes, dates to be determined. Skaters wishing to practice on
Saturday Club Ice time on their own will be required to purchase ice time at our
club member ”walk on” rate.
*Membership in US Figure Skating, which would allow the skater to participate
in US Figure Skating sanctioned competitions, including the May Day Open
scheduled for May 12-15, 2011 and hosted by the Gardens Figure Skating Club.
The cost for this Option Limited- Bridge membership will be $90.00 for each interested
skater ($40.00 pro-rated limited membership fee plus $50.00 show participation fee.)
This cost is inclusive of the participation fee for the show plus a greatly reduced home
club membership fee. It should be noted that a Bridge membership may only be utilized
one time per skater. After that, any skater wishing to join the GFSC for the 2011-2012
season and participate in club related activities would be required to pay the regular
membership fee.
AFAICT, I got a full Skating magazine subscription and USFSA "full membership" with it. That club normally charged a lot more for membership and for show participation.
Maybe it was something the member club added, rather than the USFSA itself. Or maybe it got confused with the "Introductory Membership" category of which
http://www.usfigureskating.org/Content/ClubsMatter-Fall10.pdf says
You can package the new introductory membership
with special benefits to welcome beginner/new skaters into your club.
The introductory membership is a full membership available to
first-time members at a discounted rate of $25 (second and subsequent
members are $15). This membership is available only through a member
club. Introductory membership carries the same privileges as a full membership,
including a subscription to SKATING magazine and all testing and
competition rights. Be creative and take advantage of this special savings
to grow your membership.
I was new to that member club, though I used to belong to the USFSA a long time ago.