Joining fees

richiekelly · Nov 27, 2010

why is it that some clubs charge new members joining fees that are as much as and in some cases more than the annunal subscriptions,one club i have seen annual sub-£20 joining fee £36 another £100 - joining fee £96 although i can understand there may be extra paperwork involved with new members as against renewals i cannot understand how it would cost £96,it just seems to me that people are being ripped off with joining fees,mind you i have seen a golf club where the annual subs are £575 and the joining fee is £600,glad i dont play!

Scott Whatmore · Nov 27, 2010

the blanker said:
why is it that some clubs charge new members joining fees that are as much as and in some cases more than the annunal subscriptions,one club i have seen annual sub-£20 joining fee £36 another £100 - joining fee £96 although i can understand there may be extra paperwork involved with new members as against renewals i cannot understand how it would cost £96,it just seems to me that people are being ripped off with joining fees,mind you i have seen a golf club where the annual subs are £575 and the joining fee is £600,glad i dont play!

That's cheap.

But I agree, joining fees are gemerally a rip off.

kevin o connor · Nov 27, 2010

I think in a lot of cases, the joining fees especially for golf clubs is used to deter what they consider undesirables from joining. With some angling clubs, it may be the same. The cost for extra paperwork,I can not understand, simply because in most cases the secretary of the the club is unpaid.:wh

richiekelly · Nov 27, 2010

just because someone has the money to be able to pay these joining fees doesnt mean that they are responsible people,i think it is just a way of getting extra money out of people or maybe they dont want new members and joining fees are a way of putting them off.

J K · Nov 27, 2010

the blanker said:
just because someone has the money to be able to pay these joining fees doesnt mean that they are responsible people,i think it is just a way of getting extra money out of people or maybe they dont want new members and joining fees are a way of putting them off.

................... or maybe it's a way of keeping members for more than one year, you let your membership lapse you have to repay a joining fee.

richiekelly · Nov 27, 2010

never looked at it in that way jk but i still think that some joining fees are over the top

J K · Nov 27, 2010

I can only comment on my own club. The joining fee is £35 for a senoir membership costing £65 and an OAP membership of £30. Other clubs may have a selection of waters that make the joining fee worthwhile even though it is expensive.

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Nov 27, 2010

Well having been on clubs committee's for many years, (I dont do it now) the joining fee is worth every penny IMO.

Lets say you have been a member of a club for 30 years, and a new member join's, that new member is getting all the benefits of the club for nothing if he doesn't pay a joining on fee, do you think that is right??, after all you have paid in for 30 years haven't you.

As for golf clubs, the joining on fee is called a Debenture, ( not sure of the spelling), you pay the joining fee when you join, and when you leave you get the fee back, it may not be the full amount, and with some clubs, if you leave within a few years you won't get anything back.

It's about trying to keep members, keeping the money coming in so you can improve your waters, or get new one's. Without joining on fee's many clubs wouldn't be able to carry on.

904_cannon · Nov 27, 2010

A few years ago when the very first single National Rod License was introduced Chester le Street & District AC (Co Durham) put the cost the previous migratory rod license on to the cost of its 'Joining Fee' specifically to discourage coarse anglers from joining the club and fishing for salmon & sea trout. When the separate coarse/migratory licenses were introduced the joining fee was reduced.

There are still some people in angling that believe all coarse anglers are of a lower class.

The Chub Study Group has a joining fee ... £5

I paid the £5 when I joined in 1986
Our Treasurer Simon, he really is a lovely chap, (he once tried to flood the whole of Essex, but that's for another time

) defends it's retention with his life. Simon also insists that all members not rejoining by 1st January pay the £5

We all ignore him.

Although I agree with Ray's point about retaining members and provides clubs with the ability to improve waters, at my club we found that by taking away the joining fee helped re build the membership after we went through a dramatic drop. Mind, when we 'discouraged' a group of so called 'specimen anglers' who thought our stillwater was their very own syndicate water, member's came back in droves - but that's another story.

904_cannon · Nov 27, 2010

Just looking back at the CSG history page, we had a joining fee at the very start in 1972

"Subscriptions were 60p with a £1-00 joining fee. The Group started with £3-11p brought forward from the N.C.S.G. ..."

If those differentials were in force today we would really struggle to get members

Jeff Woodhouse · Nov 27, 2010

Ray Daywalker Clarke said:
Lets say you have been a member of a club for 30 years, and a new member join's, that new member is getting all the benefits of the club for nothing if he doesn't pay a joining on fee, do you think that is right??, after all you have paid in for 30 years haven't you.

Ray's right.

To express it a slightly different way, the past members of teh club have both paid and put in hours of effort to build swims and to make the venues into fisheries - places where you can now plonk your butt and fish comfortably. Asking a new member for a small contribution which should go to furthering the success of the fisheries either by replacing older timbers in swims or introducing new stocks seems only right. However, the 'joining fee' should never be treated by the club to pay for ongoing licences and general outgoings, it should ALWAYS go to improving fisheries.

Our club has subs of around £60 and a joining fee of £20, which seems to me about the right balance. And next year I get the OAP allowance - Yippppeeeeeeee!

904_cannon · Nov 27, 2010

"And next year I get the OAP allowance - Yippppeeeeeeee!"

And dont forget the bus pass Jeff,

but you never know with this LibCon con lot.

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Nov 28, 2010

I think if a joining fee is payable, it should be around a third of the subs,

I agree when John said they lowered the joining fee to bring in more members, best way, and Jeff is right, the money should beused for the clubs waters and fish stock.

Work parties can also be a pain, one club I was in, you had to do two work parties a year for the first five years, after that you could buy your way out for £10, I think that is ok also. Another club you could do the work parties or buy out for £10.

richiekelly · Nov 28, 2010

its when joining fees are as nearly as much or in some cases more than the annual subs that i think are a rip off,as for working parties what if you are disabled and cannot attend is it fair to then charge £10 for not attending?

Jeff Woodhouse · Nov 28, 2010

john m h said:
And dont forget the bus pass Jeff, but you never know with this LibCon con lot.

I've had one for the past 5 years, John. My next one is guaranteed also, well as far as a guarantee goes from Bucks County Council. Arrives sometime before next April.

the blanker said:
as for working parties what if you are disabled and cannot attend is it fair to then charge £10 for not attending?

No, working parties should just be for the normal able-bodied senior members and exclude juniors, ladies (if they wish), registered disabled, and senior citizens (thankfully for me). I've done my fair share in the past and may do some in future, but it will be MY decision and not one forced upon me, hopefully.

Ray Daywalker Clarke · Nov 28, 2010

the blanker said:
,as for working parties what if you are disabled and cannot attend is it fair to then charge £10 for not attending?

This can be a difficult one, for me some disabled are able to do working parties, and i do know of one angler who goes around in a wheelchair to pick up any litter or trims back the path's, then there are other's who play on the fact they have a disable badge, not saying all do.

If a disabled angler wants to help, then let them, if not you can't charge them, i don't know of any club that does charge disabled anglers for not doing work parties

904_cannon · Nov 28, 2010

A friend who used to be Sec of a small pub A/C (about 750 members) in the W/Midlands told me that doing work parties was part of the membership deal, unless of course they were old and £nackered like me

If a member did not do the required number of W/P (recorded in their club book) there was an extra supplement the next year.

The Blue Badge scheme is badly abused, I've known some at my club who qualify but are more than able to carry/push enough gear round our specimen lake to enable them to stay a week at times. One guy in particular used to push his tackle on big carp trolley for almost a mile from his house to our water as he only ever had a moped. I'm not getting at those who genuinely are disabled (I couldn't manage without my Blue Badge) but some do take the Micky

Jeff, I wouldn't take anything for granted with any local/county councils these days. We've just had my son round for Sunday lunch and he's been talking about the cuts already made at his Unitary Authority. 17% already this year with at least another 5% before the financial year end, and a further 7%, at least, next year. Fortunately the two after that will probably at worst flat-line....leading up to the next election

stu_the_blank · Nov 28, 2010

At the risk of becoming unpopular, let me explain why our Syndicate charges a joining fee.

We are a small syndicate (20) who run the fishing at a small lake (about 3 acres). We have run the place for 18 years and still have some original members. We didn’t charge a joining fee for many years while we created our own little piece of heaven. We have grown on fish from fingerlings to a very impressive list of lake records, created a very pretty lake, built bridges to islands, planted rushes and lilies, put up a hut, built a car park, etc, etc.

What the joining fee does is help keep the cost of annual subs down and compensates the longer standing members for the effort and money they have put in over the years. All the money goes back into the lake, we don’t make a profit (I wish!). The alternative would be higher subs. Is that fair on existing members? It’s only a rip off if somebody is pocketing the filthy lucre!

One way or the other you have to pay for the privilege.

flightliner · Nov 28, 2010

I know of clubs that actually own the water and surrounding land that was bought with a mortgage,.Lots of back breaking work was put into making these/this water fishable/private/well stocked etx etx, The club therefore belongs to each member in equel measure but new members are entitled to join, What do you do- simply let them in for the annual subscription that the original members still pay each year.

richiekelly · Nov 28, 2010

Ray Daywalker Clarke said:
This can be a difficult one, for me some disabled are able to do working parties, and i do know of one angler who goes around in a wheelchair to pick up any litter or trims back the path's, then there are other's who play on the fact they have a disable badge, not saying all do.

If a disabled angler wants to help, then let them, if not you can't charge them, i don't know of any club that does charge disabled anglers for not doing work parties

i could make the tea.

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