SBRA has in its latest issue of rolling wheels has place the following amendments regarding club members ship. Below are the proposed amendments and I will give my comments on what I like and what I oppose after the amendments.

By-Laws I Dues
Section 1: The annual dues shall be $20.00 per member for any 12 month calendar year. No dues will be required from members under the age of 18. The monthly News- letter will be electronically delivered by email link. Effective October 1, 2011 for new members or upon renewal. (Sep ’11)
Section 2: The annual dues are payable on or before the expiration of the 12 month period.
Section 3: Reinstatement shall be by payment of the current year’s dues.

Proposed Amendment: Amends by-laws 1 Dues Section 3

Effective February 1, 2015 all new memberships will include an administrative fee of $20.00 in addition to yearly dues.
All lapsed memberships will be considered new memberships and the administrative fee of $20.00 will be charged up reinstatement.

Proposed Amendment: Amends by-laws 1 Dues Sections 1 & 2

Effective March 1st, 2015 membership for all members will run annually from March 1st thru the following February 28th.
Renewal of all memberships will take place between December 1st and February 28th.
Members joining after February 28th will have memberships run thru the current year ending on the following February 28th.
For the year of 2014 all members will pay their membership dues on the current renewal date for memberships expiring thru August 31st.
All members renewing from September 1st on will be grandfathered in under the new membership’s dates of March 1st.
All members will therefore be responsible to pay their membership dues for 2015 between December 1st and February 28th
Members not making payment by February 28th will be considered new members upon reinstatement.

First what I like:

I always thought that one of the most difficult and time consuming job, was done by the club member ship director, who maintained and updated our membership rooster. It’s a job where every month the membership director must send out renewal notices, send out membership cards, update and renew memberships and process new memberships. It’s a time consuming job.

By changing the membership to a fixed period rather than renewal on anniversary Date, its means the vast majority of the work can now be now in a two month period. This also means the club can find additional volunteers to help with this yearly renewal process. This could mean the job would no longer be such a heavy burden on a single person.

When I was researching other bike club website, I saw the yearly fixed membership being used elsewhere . So changing to fixed membership period for each year, for easy membership maintencace is not a new idea.

Now what I don’t like:

Charging new members a $20.00 administrative fee in addition to the club membership fee of $20.00 for a total $40.00 for a new membership. I absolutely opposed this fee. Recruiting new members is what keeps this club going! I opposed any addition administrative fee for new members. Also I don’t recall any other bike club doing this. New members are our life blood, we must not do anything to discourage the recruitment of new members.

Second charging existing members or previous members the administrative fee of 20.00, when they do not renew on time. I agree an additional fee is necessary to give existing members an incentive to renew on time. Without any fee you would end up losing the benefits of changing to a fixed membership period. If club members were allowed to renew any time they wanted, you might as well stay with the existing system. I just feel $20.00 is too high and too punitive.

So I would support an administrative fee of $10.00 for late renewal or reinstatements of previous members. Again new members who were never previously a member would not pay the administrative fee.

I would make this effective for the membership roll effective Jan 1, 2014. Prior club members who left the club prior to Jan 1, 2014 would not be charged the administrative fee if they return the club. Any returning prodigal club members will be forgiven this one time. However in the future, if you drop out and, if want to return, you must pay the $10.00 administrative fee.

Lastly I consider a vote these amendments Jan 2, 2014 when notice only went out Dec 31, 2012 to be unconstitional based on the club constitution.

The club constitutional states:
Section 2: After such notice, and the publication in the next newsletter of the intent to amend, it shall be voted upon at the following meeting. It shall be become a part of the Constitution only if approved by a two-thirds majority of the Members present and voting at said meeting.

Now when the club constitution was written, the newsletter was mailed and received several weeks prior to the next club meeting, so generally the membership has several weeks’ notice. Now in this case the club the membership got notice via club newsletter two day before the next club membership meeting. Such short notice was not the intention of Section 2 of the SBRA constitution. Such rational changes in membership rules deserve adequate notification to the SBRA Membership and the full consideration by all of SBRA membership. With such a short notice, many members will most likely miss these changes to the club membership rules. So I propose that any vote on this amendment be done on Feb 6, 2014.

Sincerely yours,
Dan Mussler