Please find below an update from Jordan Moore, President (Sport and Physical Activity) and Ross Leven, President (Communication and Democracy) regarding membership fees for Societies and Sports Clubs.
Over the course of the past nine months, we’ve been really impressed with the level of activity that our Society and Sports Club committee members have provided for members. However, we know that a lot of students have lost part time jobs and are not back where they expected to be, so we’ve been thinking about what we can do as your Students’ Union to support RGU students further. It’s only right that while we’re asking the University, private landlords and others to support students as much as possible financially, that we do the same as well. That’s why we are amending our Society and Sports Club membership pricing for the remainder of this year. We appreciate these memberships vary in cost and may only be a small amount for some of you, but it is important to us that we do all we can to help.
Society Memberships
For Societies, it is increasingly likely we will have another semester of fully virtual activities ahead of us, and while committees continue to arrange an exciting and innovative programme of activities and events, we have made the decision to provide this additional financial support to members; reimbursing all membership fees that have been bought this academic year.
Society Membership Refunds:
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Members that purchased an RGU Society membership between 1st?August 2020 and 22nd?January 2021 will receive an automatic full refund back onto their original payment card.
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This is a decision made by the Union’s Sabbatical Executive Committee, and one that will be funded entirely by the Union too – the refunds will come from the Union’s budget and not individual societies.
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This means that as a society, you will keep the membership income you have received to date. This is to ensure that no society is disadvantaged by this decision.?
Semester Two Memberships:
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From Friday 22nd January – until 31st July 2021 – society membership fees will be set at £0 as default, which we hope will allow students to continue to benefit from membership of these Activities, and be able to take part in the activities and events that these groups offer.
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Students that wish to ‘purchase’ a membership between these dates will still do this through the Union website. They will still have full membership to your society and full membership rights at subsequent society elections and general meetings.
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At the end of this academic year, your budget accounts will be rolled over, as happed at the end of the 2019/20 academic year.
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This will mean that societies will not receive any additional membership income between now and the end of this academic year. However, from feedback received to date, this will not have a material impact on your society finances this year.
Sports Club Memberships
For Sports Clubs, although all of this sports club activity is still happening, albeit virtually, we have made the decision to partially refund membership, due to lack of competition taking place.?As?competition?features heavily in semester?two,?we have decided to refund in full for this semester.?
Sports Club Membership Refunds:
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Those with full annual membership (£62) will be entitled to a £40 refund.
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Those with a second club membership (£20) will be entitled to a £10 refund (plus £40 for full annual).
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Those with a community annual membership (£69) will be entitled to a £45 refund.?
Semester Two Memberships:
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From Friday 22nd January – until 31st July 2021 – sports club membership fees will be set at £0 as default, which we hope will allow students to continue to benefit from membership of these Activities, and be able to take part in the activities and events that these groups offer.
For more information:
Societies:
Ross Leven, President (Communication and Democracy) – prescd@rguunion.co.uk
Sports Clubs:
Jordan Moore, President (Sport and Physical Activity) – presspa@rguunion.co.uk