A new year means membership renewals are on the horizon. Below we have outlined what you will need to do and the prompts you can expect to receive.

 

Please note, membership fees are changing.

 

As agreed at the 2021 Stragglers AGM, our annual fee to be a member will go up to £20 from April 1st. This is to support our move to Bushy Park Sports Club as the new home for the Stragglers. We encourage our members to also join England Athletics as it means you can represent the club in races and also receive cheaper entry on most events. EA fees too are increasing to £16, so the total you will be charged in April will be £36, up from £30 in 2021.

 

The Stragglers membership year runs from 1st April to 31st March and the annual subscription is charged to members accounts on 1st April.  Ahead of this, we ask all members to re-register on the ClubBuzz system each year for the following reasons:

To  ensure that our membership database is correct;

So that we only charge the next year’s subscription of £20 to members who want to renew;

To enable us to process England Athletics registrations of £16 in time to avoid a break in registration;

So that you can update your profile to show whether you want to receive StragMail and Team Captains’ emails about races (Surrey League, Green Belt, Welsh Castles etc). Unless you say that you don’t want to receive them, then the default will be that you do. If you start by receiving them, you can change your selection at any time by updating your profile.

 

On Saturday 8th January 2022, you will receive an email request from ClubBuzz to re-register. This doesn't affect your membership for the current year, but please don’t ignore it or your membership won't be renewed for next year.

 

In the email there will be a link to re-register and, if you do not want to renew, a link to let you flag that your membership is not to be renewed. Please note, re-registration is a two step process, first you will be asked to confirm that the information in your profile is correct and then to confirm that you wish to re-register for the new membership year. You need to complete both steps to renew.

 

Once you have re-registered and updated your profile, you don’t have to do anything until the new membership year. The annual subscription (and EA registration if you have requested it) will be charged to your account on 1st April 2022 and you will receive an e-statement on 15th April 2022 which includes payment options. It is very important that you pay promptly. Our Treasurer, who is a volunteer, is very busy with his own job and doesn’t have time to keep chasing people over late payments.

 

Our preference is that members pay by direct debit. This is the simplest and cheapest method for the club and ensures payments are made on time. If you have previously set your preference to pay by direct debit you don't need to set it up again but if not, the set-up process is as follows: login, go to My Account/Account Settings, and click on the blue “Edit Settings” button which allows you to set up a direct debit. Should you wish, you can cancel the mandate at any time just by going to the same screens.

 

If you haven’t set up a direct debit, the other payment options will be shown on your e-statement. One of these will be to pay via GoCardless, however this is only a one-time payment and will not create a direct debit that will be active for future payments.

 

We hope this is clear but if you have questions or comments, please email admin@stragglers.org or contact any member of the committee.