[Duramax 6.6L]

I would like to assign a default membership level that is assigned when a customer creates an account. Below is the code that needs to be modified I beleive, but if I change anything in the code to make it hidden with the membership level I would like to use it breaks the page.

{if $config.General.membership_signup eq "Y" and $membership_levels}
<li class="single-field">
{capture name=regfield}
<select name="pending_membershipid" id="pending_membershipid">
{*<option value="">{$lng.lbl_not_member}</option>*}
{foreach from=$membership_levels item=v}
<option value="{$v.membershipid}"{if $userinfo.pending_membershipid eq $v.membershipid} selected="selected"{/if}>{$v.membership}</option>
{/foreach}
</select>
{/capture}
{include file="modules/One_Page_Checkout/opc_form_field.tpl" content=$smarty.capture.regfield name=$lng.lbl_signup_for_membership field='pending_membershipid'}
</li>
{/if}

I tried to use this peice of code and comment out the whole block, but it breaks the page.

<input type="hidden" name="pending_membership" value="Premium" />

Could some one please post the exact code to make this work.

Thank you for your help in advance.

Frank