membership renewal

[graeme]

I have life membership of two clubs. How do I get out of that?

[Mrs H]

The answer's obvious but somewhat drastic

[awk]

You can join as many clubs as you want. However as far as BOF is concerned you only belong to one of them.

Not totally true. The membership structure for BOF only recognises one club, but the rules clearly recognise that one can belong to more than one.

I have to say that rereading the eligiblity rules, I find them awfully confusing (they didn't used to be). i'm not certain why they bothered to include 3.2.2 (b) or (c), as I can't see why 3.2.1 should need to be waived in those circumstances, but that's probably me (I'm surprised, though, that 3.2.1 doesn't include a phrase along the lines of "in any one calendar year").

3.2.1: A competitor shall only compete for the open club for which they are registered with Britisn Orienteering, and for a 'closed club' of which they are a member.

3.2.2: Rule 3.2.1 shall only be waived if:
(a) having ceased to compete for the first club, and having obtained written approval from that club, the competitor may join and compete for a second club. OR
(b) the competitor joins an open club, not having previously been a member of a different open club in the same year.
(c) the competitor join a closed club, not having been a member of a different closed club in the same year.

[graeme]

The answer's obvious but somewhat drastic

(literally - J&J just asked what was up.)
But now you've got me worried it's a new BOF rule...

[EddieH]

Thanks for searching the rule out AWK. It just goes to confirm that years after BOF made it impossible to legitimately run for an open and for a closed club in the same year, the rules state that you can do so.

And this anomoly has been going on for about 6 years now

[Mrs H]

Apparently the HOC membership secretary was assured it would be possible for the club to maintain family membership after the new scheme was introduced and doesn't understand why this promise has not been honoured by BOF. He is looking at ways to resolve it for this year but it's going to require a lot of to-ing an fro-ing.

Have we reached omnishambles status on this yet?

[awk]

Thanks for searching the rule out AWK. It just goes to confirm that years after BOF made it impossible to legitimately run for an open and for a closed club in the same year, the rules state that you can do so.
And this anomoly has been going on for about 6 years now

I'm not certain they have made it impossible, although, as I said, I find the rules less than clear. From what I can make of it, BO appear to expect most people to join them through an open club, and that is the one you can run for. What the rules also seem to allow is that you can join a closed club (but not through BO), and you can run for them, even though BO have no record of that membership. Presumably, if you are only a member of a closed club, then that would be your 'registered' club, but the rules don't seem to cover that not unlikely possibility.

Thus offspring's open club is Aire, and that is who BO have him down for, but he is also a member of EUOC (but not through BO), and can run for them as well.

Where I think there is a problem, is that whereas the rules used to state you can only run for one open and/or one closed club in any year (but there was no problem with how many you joined), now it seems to be that you can only join one open and/or one closed in any one year - or at least once you have joined one of each, you can't run for another even if you haven't run for the first ones (I think that's what the rules are stating). How BO are going to tell what closed clubs you are a member of and in what order you joined them, given that they don't keep a record, is a bit of a mystery to me.

Personally, unless someone can explain/persuade otherwise, I think British Orienteering have got it wrong; their eligibility rules should be about which clubs you can run for, not which clubs you can join: 3.2.1 should start with the phrase "In any one calendar year", and 3.2.2 (b) and (c) should be scrubbed.

[daffdy]

As someone who regularly runs for an open and a closed club in one year, including in big events etc, I can say it's definitely not impossible! The membership database only records one club, but it's certainly legitimate to run for a second so long as you keep within the rules about one being open and the other closed.

I'm not sure how many years ago it was decided, but does anyone on here know what the story was behind club (and possibly in the past British Orienteering?) family membership categories including "children" aged up to 25 years old? Seems pretty high to me. I wouldn't expect my dad to be paying my membership fees now, let alone when I'm 25 and (hopefully) employed. Though he's welcome to if I'm camped outside the job centre trying to find a use for my degree in colouring-in skillz.

[greywolf]

As someone who regularly runs for an open and a closed club in one year, including in big events etc, I can say it's definitely not impossible! The membership database only records one club, but it's certainly legitimate to run for a second so long as you keep within the rules about one being open and the other closed.

Does your BOF membership card record both your open and closed club then?
The rules for the British & JK relays state (in bold):
1.4.3 All members of a team (except for those in an Ad Hoc class) shall be members of the same club, .... For British teams this is as shown on their current British Orienteering membership card.

[King Penguin]

You mean those cards which no longer exist and are now a letter ?

[greywolf]

You mean those cards which no longer exist and are now a letter ?

Dunno. I have a membership card for 2012 which seems to exist OK (although it only lists a closed club and an association 500 miles away )

[Mrs H]

I'm not sure how many years ago it was decided, but does anyone on here know what the story was behind club (and possibly in the past British Orienteering?) family membership categories including "children" aged up to 25 years old?.

It was an enlightened era when they knew that young people had a habit of wondering off and doing other things but they might just wonder back if you kept the door open.

[roadrunner]

Personally, unless someone can explain/persuade otherwise, I think British Orienteering have got it wrong; their eligibility rules should be about which clubs you can run for, not which clubs you can join: 3.2.1 should start with the phrase "In any one calendar year", and 3.2.2 (b) and (c) should be scrubbed.

I think 3.2.2(b) is there to cover the case of someone who is a member of a closed club through BO and then joins an open club - but I can't see the point of 3.2.2(c), maybe it was there for when BO recognised two clubs and they forgot to take it out.

[denbydale]

It was an enlightened era when they knew that young people had a habit of wondering off and doing other things but they might just wonder back if you kept the door open.

I'm wondering why those young people 'wondered' off - they'd have got a lot further if they'd 'wandered' off

[Mrs H]

whoops That's what happens when you let your fingers do the talking - got my glasses on now and got it right on the HOC forum