I think I see the problem now! The "Pending Email Body" was customized where it omitted the call to "verify your email address". Since this was done by my client, I was not aware of what exactly was there before it was changed, but rest assured it was just a "vanilla" email message:
Your website registration has been received and we are awaiting review and approval
by your chapter president. Once chapter approval has been received, you will be
activated on the website and provided your log in credentials.
...with none of the recommendations in the "Pending Email Body" hints. I will try and reconstitute a proper email response to the user that prompts for an email confirmation and hopefully that will solve the issue.
If you could do me a favor and point me to a place where the default message might be that would save me a lot of time.
thanks a bunch!
Paul