Are you a secret British Orienteering member?

[seabird]

Shropshire born, I completely sympathise with your stance.

I am a member of a running club, but only particpate in training on about 15-20 days per year, and enter no races.

I refrain from doing any volunteering for them mainly on the basis that the level of my involvement in orienteering doesn't give me the time to help elsewhere. It also doesn't help that the running club's main race of the year is always at the height of the orienteering season in April.

Your comments also raise for me the whole question regarding BOF full membership and local membership.

For my running club I pay the full rate to the national governing body, (can't even remember what they call themselves these days; is it UK Athletics?) just like everyone else. I have no problem with this.

I know several people, who sound like yourself, in that they only enter a handful of BOF races per year, but will pay the full membership rate for the privilege; quite rightly again.

It has always seemed ridiculous to me that members who only want to orienteer in their region, but orienteer much more frequently than you, pay a lower membership rate.

[Wayward-O]

The Board Meeting minutes from 15th December, now available ob the BOF website, include the following notes, so it would appear that changes to the membership and levy arrangements are being considered.

To agree the discussion items (Membership & Levies Schemes, Memorandum & Articles) that will be taken to the 2011 AGM in preparation for a proposal for the 2012 AGM.

LW [Lyn West] thanked MF [Mike Forrest] and PB [Philip Baxter] for producing the discussion document regarding membership and levy schemes. Board member agreed there were largely two options for membership; either an opt in subscription membership or membership through participation.

Board members discussed issues relating to the membership and levy discussion paper including what are the issues and how can they be addressed. A central theme was how to engage the membership in a practical and usable membership structure.

Board members agreed a review of membership and levy schemes was necessary and also agreed that the central issue to be decided was what form the review would take. Further work was necessary before a discussion item at the AGM.

Action 2: LM [Laura Martin] to re-circulate paper produced by staff on suggestions to changes on membership structure. (LM, by December 2010)

LW thanked MF and PB for their work in producing the membership discussion document.

LW to work with MH [Mike Hamilton] in producing the next stage of this future proposal.

Hopefully, there'll be a reasonable level of consulatation with the membership before the final proposal is produced. One issue that needs to be included in this is what central organisation and structure we want / need and are able / willing to fund through membership fees and levy, given the future reductions in / loss of funding from other sources.

[fabian4]

Just a quick update:

BOF have amended the online entry provider export such that all members are now included. Where the member has requested that their contact details are not to be released, the export excludes the address, telephone number and email address of the member.

These "secret" members are now live in the Fabian4 database. Because there is no postcode, the Auto Complete functionality in step 1 will not find a match, but all other functionality will operate as normal.

Note that the new export is still in line with the original statement on the membership form:

Data Protection: British Orienteering may sometimes be asked to provide contact details relevant to your membership to your Club and/or Association, to another British Orienteering member, to online entry providers (entry to orienteering events) and to Data Processing Agencies working on behalf of British Orienteering. Under no circumstances will British Orienteering provide your contact details to other external organisations. If you do not agree to British Orienteering using your memberships contact details in this way please check this box.