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New Membership Proposal, this to be voted on as separate proposals for the current season 2019/20 starting 1st September 2019.

Background and introduction

Main Committee formed a Membership Sub Committee the purpose of which was to make recommendations about restructuring the memberships within the club. There were a number of key drivers for this as follows:

1) to create a membership structure that fitted within the RFU supported GMS system that would see the club migrate to a single security database of information.
2) to simplify the membership structure especially the free volunteer memberships which it was becoming obvious were increasingly open to abuse and increasingly difficult to track due to the sheer volume of them.

In doing this work it was found that the club has up to £11k of unpaid membership payments. Difficult to assume this is all delinquency since some members may have genuinely left the club, however, there are clearly people on the delinquency list who simply should be made to pay, a mood that was formally agreed and minuted at the previous AGM.

One of the biggest benefits of the GMS system is that by having a single database, selection sheets will be printed from GMS and it is clear from that printed report whether those players are paid up members or not. No longer will managers be working to different data than the Membership Secretary and so the policy of ‘no pay, no play’ becomes much easier to enforce.

The structure of the membership proposals has been recommended by the sub-committee so that they fit within the GMS solution.

In addition up to £13.7k of free volunteer memberships were identified but not necessarily validated. For example, a first aid certificate may have been supplied to support application for a free volunteer membership and that certificate may subsequently have expired but the free volunteer membership status has been retained.

We are now a large, predominantly volunteer led, organisation and keeping on top of this kind of admin has improved but it is still inconsistent. This changes will reduce the amount of volunteer man hours spent trying to maintain the accuracy of records and whilst it will not generate anywhere near to an additional £13.7k of revenue it will generate some increase in membership revenue.

Proposal 1

To scrap all current membership categories and replace with the new categories defined in Proposals 3 to 9. This removes the family cap and discounts for First Aiders and coaches. These are no longer necessary as the Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership will be the same rate as the existing Mini/Junior membership

UNLESS

In the event that any of the proposals 3 to 9 are not carried in which case the current membership category that the rejected proposal 3 to 9 is intended to replace shall remain in force until any subsequent AGM or EGM.

Attendees of the EGM should take the time in advance to choose whether they support Proposal 2 OR Proposal 3 OR neither. We will pause after Proposal 1 to allow EGM attendees to read Proposal 2 and Proposal 3, ask questions about both before moving to vote on them consecutively.

Proposal 2

Proposal 2 has 3 parts which only work if voted in together.

Single Mini/Junior Membership £60.00 per season (or £5.00 per month by Direct Debit)
it has no voting rights, the Mini Junior Member must have at least
one other family member over the age of 18 as either a Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership or other over 18 membership ie Full/Senior Citizen/Life.

Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership £60.00 per season (or £5.00 per month by Direct Debit) it has no voting rights, open to any family member over the age of 18.

Any single paid Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership may accompany multiple Single Mini/Junior Memberships within the familial structure (including step-parents).

Additional Accompanying Adult Membership – No Fee. Open to other parent, step-parent, grandparent or guardian who is involved in helping at the club. It is common place for two Accompanying Adults to be actively involved at the club, sometimes across different age groups: one Accompanying Adult may coach an age group whilst another may be an Age Group Manager of a different Age Group. It was never the intention that this proposal force families which had multiple family members actively involved at the club to have to all pay to become members of the club, however, we need them to be registered on the system so that we capture coaching qualifications, safeguarding checks and any other training they may have undertaken.

For the avoidance of doubt this Membership does not replace the free membership previously allocated to volunteer roles – for every Single Mini/Junior Membership there must be one paid Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership.

A maximum of three Additional Accompanying Adult Memberships may be attributed to any one Single Mini/Junior Membership.

Note: Current rate for a Mini Junior Membership is £120 so we are merely splitting this into player & accompanying parent.

Proposal 3

Proposal 3 has 3 parts which only work if voted in together.

Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership £60.00 per season (or £5.00 per month by Direct Debit) it has full voting rights, open to any family member over the age of 18.

Any single paid Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership may accompany multiple Single Mini/Junior Memberships within the familial structure (including step-parents).

A maximum of three Additional Accompanying Adult Memberships may be attributed to any one Single Mini/Junior Membership.

Note: Current rate for a Mini Junior Membership is £120 so we are merely splitting this into player & accompanying parent.

Attendees of the EGM should take the time in advance to choose whether they support Proposal 4 OR Proposal 5 OR neither. We will pause before Proposal 4 and to allow EGM attendees to read Proposals 4 and Proposal 5, ask questions about both before moving to vote on them consecutively.

Proposal 4

Single Full Membership £120.00 per season (or £10.00 per month by Direct Debit)
Includes any person over the age of 18, it has full voting rights.

Note: It is the recommendation of the Membership Sub-Committee of Main Committee that Single Full Membership of the club is specifically designed to be the same price as a Single Mini/Junior Membership plus Mini/Junior Accompanying Adult Membership.

The rationale behind this was that once the youngest child of a family leaves the club it may improve our retention of the Adult Member because we are not inviting them to increase their direct debit/payment in order for them to remain a member of the club whilst additionally giving them voting rights. It is, quite simply, a path of least resistance ‘you don’t need to change anything and keep coming to watch the Senior Teams’ strategy.

Granted, it represents a reduction on the current membership fees, however we think the removal of the free volunteer memberships will generate the 16 memberships at £120 to replace this revenue. Not all the free memberships are parent volunteers.

Clearly it will take some time to establish whether this strategy will play out and help us to both retain Accompanying Adults as Single Full Members and, potentially, attract those Mini Junior players back to Sandbach to play Seniors post university careers etc.

Proposal 5

Single Full Membership £132.00 per season (or £11.00 per month by Direct Debit)
Includes any person over the age of 18, it has full voting rights.

Note: This is the current rate and proposed by a member prior to the publication of the EGM Notice. Understandably the members concern is that the reduction of £12 per Single Full Membership creates circa £2000 loss for the Club and it is right and appropriate that this option is presented to our members for voting.

The only other membership category that will be completely removed under all of these proposals is the Non-Playing Membership which currently covers 36 members. Those members currently pay £120 rather than £132.

Proposal 6

Senior Citizen Membership £80.00 per season (or £6.67 per month by Direct Debit) Includes any person over the age of 65, it has full voting rights. Note: those currently paying the SC rate age 60 – 64 would be allowed to continue.

Note: Current rate is £72 per year.

Proposal 7

Life Membership £1250 ( Single one-off payment)
Includes any person over the age of 18, it has full voting rights.

Note: This is the current rate

Proposal 8

Honorary Membership no fee. Includes any person granted this status by the membership at an Annual General Meeting, it has full voting rights

Proposal 9

Vice President Membership. Shall be the same price as the Single Full Membership as voted for in Proposal 4 or 5.
Includes any person over the age of 18, it has full voting rights. Open to any member of the club that has given over 10 years’ service to the club as a volunteer.

Proposal 10A to D

To vote individually for the following members to be granted Honorary Membership (see appendix 1 for current list) for their services to the club. A member, or several, would normally speak at the meeting on the members service to club.

10A - Joe Riley - Treasurer of club when reformed in 1956
10B - Mike Hopkins - Services to the club over 60 years
10C - Steve Clayton-Barker - Services to the club over 60 years
10D - Tony Brookes - Founder and Chairman of the Mini/Junior section 1975 - 1985

Appendix 1 - Current list of Honorary Members

Colin Drew
John Frayling
George Jones
Keith Jones