Membrship fees (proposals)

[LostOldTimer]

Just got my Focus magazine and egm details...
Re. the membership fee proposals
(Seniors to increase from £15.00 to £20.00, Juniors NO increase at £3.50)
Is it me, does it seem that seniors are subsidising juniors? This particularly hits single seniors without children - as either childrens fees are paid by mum and dad anyway, or 2 parents get a cheaper family rate. Why can't Juniors be just 50% of seniors?
And I dont buy the answer - 'it's to encourage more juniors to take part'
Someone needs to justify this large increase for seniors.
It cant be just me moaning, so everyone needs to vote at the EGM on Sept. 24th

[graeme]

A note on regressive taxation...

Senior fee is about 5% of average adult weekly income.

Junior fee is about 50% of average children's weekly income.

Is it just me or does it seem like juniors are subsidising adults

Graeme

[LostOldTimer]

But i doubt if the child pays their own fees.
And not everyone earns £400 a week.

[rocky]

And I dont buy the answer - 'it's to encourage more juniors to take part'

why not???

perhaps if its worded "not discourage" ???

[awk]

To me it's about investment: the juniors are the future of the sport. At that price, it's pretty cheap to me.

And not everyone earns £400 a week.

Which, of course, includes many parents.

It cant be just me moaning, so everyone needs to vote at the EGM on Sept. 24th

Certainly, but I will vote in favour of no increase for juniors.

[Mrs H.]

...and of course if we all - in due course - have children and take them orienteering then we will all at some stage in our lives benefit from the differential. You don't get a rebate on your tax because you died before you were old enough to collect your pension

think of it as an investment to ensure there is still a sport when you are an even older timer than you are now.

anyway - the question is not "why no increase for juniors"?
its "why the increase for seniors"?

[Max]

If it is a matter of encouraging younger competitors how about this:

It has been mentioned before that the increasing number of 'older bearded competitors' are giving Orienteering a bad image, so how about charging a higher rate to old and bearded Orienteers? This might result in more clean shaven Orienteers and hence 'not discouraging' younger ones.

Or how about scrapping the childrens fee entirly and replacing it with an essay system, one where children have to write an essay entitled 'Why I want to dib my SI Card'. Anyone not writing a suitable essay won't be allowed to Orienteer. Careful consideration will have to be made, if this scheme is chosen, to ensure that 'dumbing down' does not occur in our young ones.

Seriously though, is a £5 rise for seniors really that difficult to cope with? I say this with the anticipation that the extra money will be clearly spent on improving Orienteering, and not just to get eaten into the black hole of BOF's swanky London headquaters.

Which leads me on - Why is a London headquarters so important? Are there many events held in Central London? When did Greater London last hold the JK? Was that Tory minister simply taking part in a 'night event' when found on Clapham Common years ago? (if so I assume it was a 'score' event). Please enlighten me.

A non-bearded, non-London resident.

[gross2006]

Seriously though, is a £5 rise for seniors really that difficult to cope with? I say this with the anticipation that the extra money will be clearly spent on improving Orienteering, and not just to get eaten into the black hole of BOF's swanky London headquaters.

Which leads me on - Why is a London headquarters so important? Are there many events held in Central London? When did Greater London last hold the JK? Was that Tory minister simply taking part in a 'night event' when found on Clapham Common years ago? (if so I assume it was a 'score' event). Please enlighten me.

A non-bearded, non-London resident.

Am I missing something??? Do BOF have a secret that we don't know about??? What's all this about swanky London HQ?? Might be that Max has never sent his membership form to Matlock in Derbyshire

[awk]

One thing that has always bothered me about the membership divisions: the Family membership is very biased towards two adult families (be they parents or non-parents). What about the one parent family?

I've long felt that some sort of system similar to the one the CTC (and others?) use would be more appropriate: charge the full fee for the first adult in a household, and then reduced (senior/junior) fees for any others in same household. If only juniors join, then the first one is full junior rate, and later ones reduced. Of course only one Focus etc. would go to the address, one vote would be available etc (if you want more, pay the full fee!).

I would also love to know where Max got this idea that BOF were moving to swanky London offices!

[Max]

Okay i'm a complete idiot, I take it all back.

You see it all started when I read the following line on the BOF Conference thread:

'(3) that it makes good sense for a distributed membership organisation like BOF to retain a central office location.'

I read that as :

'(3) that it makes good sense for a distributed membership organisation like BOF to obtain a central London office location.'

I know what your thinking, but I seriously did!!

So sorry to BOF for any slander caused in your good (and completely economical) name, I take it all back.

[FatBoy]

Speaking as a non-parent who earns (significantly) less than £400 a week I'm still in favour of keeping junior fees cheap.

We've said before it's cheap £5 more or not - whether we accept that £5 rise really depends on what it's spent on. From what I've read on here I think that enough keen knowledgeable people are now working on it for a sustainable policy from 2007 on. Time will tell...

Question - how do you qualify for family membership - do you have to have children?

[Lil' God'rs]

Question - how do you qualify for family membership - do you have to have children?

No - my wife and I have a family membership...

[awk]

...but you don't have to be married either.

[bendover]

i have a habit of thinking of things in terms of beer. probably because i've been bartending now for almost ten years.

so the increase in the BOF membership fee is less than the cost of two pints. to be honest its not a great deal. as someone who earns considerably less (and thats an understatement) than 400quid a week i'll happily pay it.

and if that 5quid is subsidizing the juniors, then even better.

i'm all for a beard/brown o-suit tax aswell.

[John Morris]

Bendover wrote:-

".. and if that 5quid is subsidizing the juniors, then even better."

Let's hear it for the squid! Or is it time you eased up on the bar-tending?

Bendover also wrote:-

"i'm all for a beard/brown o-suit tax aswell."

I'm with you on brown O-suits - I hate knolls that squeak when you run over them - but can we have less of the beardist stuff, please? Remember, a beard is only a ponytail with a poor sense of direction...