Ffestiniog Railway Society seeming subscription oddity -- anyone au fait, here?

[Calthrop]

Having had a lifelong love of the Ffestiniog Railway: for many years in times past, I belonged to the supporting Society. Shortage of cash caused me to let my membership lapse; a situation which has long obtained. A recent unexpected "windfall" has had me considering re-joining the Society. Looking at the procedure for this, revealed what appears to be a surprising statement on the part of the Society: "The Ffestiniog Railway Society membership year runs from 1st January until 31st December. Membership is for the remainder of the current calendar year only. If joining in October or later, your membership will be extended until the end of the following calendar year."

Assuming that my understanding of the above, is correct: it would appear that if I were to apply today, to join the Ffestiniog Railway Society: the full annual membership fee (in my case, £33 for a senior citizen) would be required of me, but would give me membership for only five months; in January, I would need to stump up another £33 for membership for 2024. Am wondering a little, whether my supposed understanding of voluntary society subscriptions is at fault: i.e., I had thought that one might join a society at any time of the year, and one's annual subscription, then paid, would as a matter of course run for the succeeding twelve months. Is that perhaps not so; and is what the FRS appear to be doing here, standard or at least commonly-found practice? -- although I think one would be justified in considering it -- well, unethical. Or am I misunderstanding the above-quoted information from the Society? (Should the situation turn out to be what it looks like to me; I suppose that I'd delay "signing up" until October, so as to benefit by the extension procedure of which they tell.) My former FRS membership was decades ago, and I honestly do not remember what the date-and-joining regulations -- if any -- were back then.

I'm in the process of contacting the Society's Registrar, asking him for clarification re this matter; but it occurs to me that participants here might perhaps help to shed some light on the business -- from their experience of Festiniog Railway Society, and / or other preservation society, membership.

 

[duncombec]

Most of the bus enthusiast societies I belong to also operate on a calendar year membership, primarily because it means there is a single flurry at one point in the year, and otherwise you only have new members to deal with, rather than 20-30 every month all year. The one I help manage (ca. 350 members) has recently started to offer quarterly membership as a way of counteracting that for the first year (although you move to annual renewals thereafter), but take-up has been fairly limited: people either want the whole year so backdate, or use the short-term membership as a test and then either renew or don't.

In general, the larger the society, the more likely they are to have rolling membership (LOTS and the Omnibus Society being the two I know of - I don't know the numbers for the former, but the latter has between 900-1000 members).

 

[thejuggler]

Quite sure when I was a member of KWVR it operated in a similar way. Membership ended on a particular date regardless of when in the year you joined.

When running a largely voluntary organisation with a membership system the main priority is simplicity. Membership ending at different times, or graduated fees depending on months of membership all take time and money to administer and with differing end dates it makes end of year accounts more complicated and costly to prepare as you need to pro rata fees across different financial years.

You have the option of waiting a few months and getting two months free which looks to be a good trade off. If you want to join now consider the extra paid a contribution, its not as though it won't be used by the railway.

Outside of railways my rugby club is the same. Membership is due 1st September, even if you join in January full subs are due.

 

[wce]

Lynton and Barnstaple do this too with all memberships to the 1st of April, if you join between 1st October - 31st March you membership is extended to April the following year so it’s possible to get 18 months for the price of 12 by joining in October.

 

[alastair]

Would also point out that given the extremely generous members travel concessions, compared with the current normal fares even £33 for 5 months is a brilliant deal (obviously only if you were intending to travel).

 

[dakta]

I can understand why it feels a bit off, though the practice is widespread, a gliding club I used to be a member of also operated on the same principle, full price up until 3/4 of the way through the year then your membership would be continued to the next year as well.

If it's an issue can always just hang on it a bit, practice is widespread though I do think it's a shame people can lose out a bit - that said it's probably done to limit admin

 

[The exile]

While it is a bit iniquitous for the paying member (especially if for some reason you can’t defer joining until after the cut-off pint where “next year” kicks in) it is a way of making a membership secretary’s life manageable by enabling renewal reminders /membership cards etc all to be done in one fell swoop. OK - possibly easier to manage today than when everything was on paper, but still easier for the person concerned to know that they put their life on hold for a week at a set point in the year than constantly having to be dealing with drugs and drabs. Good admin people on committees are worth their weight in gold….

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks to all responders. "I have no head for this sort of stuff," as people say -- struggle to understand some of the details in some posts; but that's me being thick -- no reflection on lucidity of people's posting ! I do clearly get the general picture that -- as I'm justly accused of sometimes doing -- I've rather been "living under a rock"; and the couple of hobby-type societies which I have belonged to, and paid an annual subscription to in recent years: run on the "join when you wish; your membership is then for twelve months from that date, whatever the date might be" principle.

Also; privy to recent approaches to F.R. Society (in a context of possible birthday present to me), has been my brother -- who is not a joining-societies-with-annual-subscription, kind of guy; his focuses are basically elsewhere. On finding the FRS thing of "join mid-year, paying full subscription, and you'll need to pay the full subscription again come the beginning of January": this was to him a new, amazing, and rather horrifying concept -- which he perceived as outright theft. At the time, I felt in line with this perhaps rather severe judgement of his; reading the various replies, though, I come to the sentiment that one can see at least some validity in all points of view in this matter. First and foremost, I do "get" that "it's Jan. to Dec. -- joining in middle of calendar year, is treated the same as joining at the beginning": is the way nowadays, in which many organisations of the kind concerned, operate. (Their reasons for doing so, to keep life handle-able: taken on board.) And the point is taken, that the outfits involved, seek and implement ways to mitigate the seeming harshness of this basic policy. Am reckoning that I will definitely delay joining FRS, until October; and thus take advantage of the concession of so getting ?two ?three months', free membership.

Travel concessions -- I live quite a long way from the Ffestiniog; am elderly, and my active travelling days are likely mostly done: don't see much travel on the railway in my future -- basically would just like to once more, give it some support (without feeling outright ripped-off in the course of same !). I seem to recall from my long-ago days of membership: that the Ffestiniog Railway Magazine then regularly suggested to Society members, that they help a little with the outfit's perennial cash shortage; by abstaining from using their free-travel facilities, and paying the appropriate fare when they travelled on the railway. I also recall having been so idealistic -- or something else? -- as to frequently comply with that appeal. The Ffestiniog has always had a name for being, as it were, the Sparta of the railway preservation movement; and has frequently been disliked, accordingly, by other participants in that movement. I've always felt that it is -- historically -- a terrific railway; its modern doings being sometimes conducted in heavy-handed ways, may be regrettable; but not a reason for me to shake the FR's dust off my feet, and eschew it.

 

[simonw]

To me it seems a very old fashioned method of administering membership and would be a negative factor in the decision of whether or not to join.I

It also creates problems for the organisation itself in terms of dealing with all renewals at onevtime. All right if there are only a handful of membets, but not if there are hundreds or thousands.

 

[Gloster]

This seems to be fairly common, although many organisation will send out all that year’s journal, etc. (subject to availability). With many the journal is often the main attraction.

I don’t know if this is the case with the FR, which is quite a large organisation, but in many cases the Membership Secretary is a volunteer and it is easier for him or her to have the work concentrated in one period, rather than in dribs and drabs through the year. And it is getting more and more difficult to get volunteers to do the tedious but necessary roles.

 

[Sulzer:1999]

I was the membership secretary of one of the Scottish preserved railways from 1990-2000. I inherited a monthly renewal system from the previous secretary which worked fine for me, a big splurge at one time of the year would have been too much to handle, even if we only had around 150 yearly subscriptions (approx 50 lifers).
There were peaks & troughs, the summer months would see more renewals put out than say February/March.
I would say that if you are joining a society half way through their membership year then it depends on your enthusiasm for that particular railway. Maybe one could accept that you will only receive a couple of the quarterly journals and treat the ‘non-benifit’ as a donation?

 

[Calthrop]

I would say that if you are joining a society half way through their membership year then it depends on your enthusiasm for that particular railway. Maybe one could accept that you will only receive a couple of the quarterly journals and treat the ‘non-benifit’ as a donation?

My feeling (probably we're essentially in agreement) is that the course one takes in such a situation here -- postpone joining for a few months; or as you say, "treat the 'non-benefit' as a donation": is up to oneself; neither way of handling it, is right or wrong. The following, not necessarily my own situation: but however keen one is on the railway, it's legitimate -- particularly, maybe, if one's personal finances are on the "straitened" side -- to seek for oneself, the maximum "bang for one's buck".

 

[1955LR]

My National Motor cycle club changed from Membership renewals on a fixed date irrespective as to when one joined to the anniversary of joining as it was deemed to be fairer . It is now being reversed as it created extra work and costs to the organisation due to extra complexities in the magazine distribution .

 

[Henffordd]

Posters have talked about the workload. There's also a consideration of cashflow. Processing Annual subscriptions at one date gives lumpiness. May suit some smaller organisations to plan, knowing how much money they have at the beginning of the financial year. Processing subscriptions on anniversary of joining may give something smoother. However, as Sulzer:1999 says in post #11, there may still be peaks and troughs. I suspect most heritage railways recruit most of their members during holiday periods. I wonder what the cashflow of FR looks like?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Pretty sure the Talyllyn are similar

This gives them the extra benefit that all membership renewal forms can go out with one edition of the Talyllyn News which makes for simpler admin and also potentially saves postage costs

 

[Bletchleyite]

Very common for charity memberships, as it's easier for the treasurer to deal with renewals all at once than have to keep doing it through the year.

 

[Calthrop]

As I've mentioned earlier: I have a sense of being in various ways, out of touch with how things tend to be done nowadays -- subscription-handling "all centred on the end / beginning of the calendar year" and that which arises therefrom: was to me, new and surprising -- or might as well have been ! Plainly, it's much commoner than I'd thought; if anything, the other approach is a bit unusual.

I mentioned the almost-horror felt by my brother (part of whose life, this sort of stuff isn't -- it was a new thing in his ken) at learning of what he saw as the organisation's "stealing" a considerable part of the new recruit's first subscription payment. With people being extremely diverse and varied in their reactions and "takes" re things: it would seem (and has come across in some of the responses on the thread) that some potential or actual subscribers to outfits, will feel in various degrees hard-done-by, in being -- one could see it as, a victim of this larceny. Maybe this applies to not all that many, who in fact do subscribe: true "Scrooge" types tend not to do subscribing toward a common purpose, anyway -- they have better uses for their money ! I find self now in the position -- with the matter having been rather clarified for me by this thread (thanks to all) -- of seeing the sense in "all centred on year beginning / end", for the outfits who do it that way; but re the FRS, I'm choosing for me, the course giving to me the greatest achievable bang-for-buck.