GUIDANCE TO CLUBS NEW CLUB AFFILIATION FEES AND PROCEDURES

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1 GUIDANCE TO CLUBS NEW CLUB AFFILIATION FEES AND PROCEDURES New affiliation fee from 1 April 2018 From 1 April 2018, all clubs will be charged the same annual affiliation fee, which the Board of Directors have set at 100 per year for the 2018/19 financial year. This set fee will be reviewed annually by the Board. There will no longer be a distinction between junior and senior clubs there will only be one category of Canoe Wales club affiliation. Clubs can renew their affiliation at any time during the year but the club must have renewed their affiliation and paid their fee before the affiliation expiry date for their affiliation to remain valid. All club affiliations will be processed through a new online membership system called GoMembership. This system includes an online affiliation form and a GDPRcompliant club register tool allowing you to easily manage all your club members, check their membership status and check member coaching/volunteer qualifications. Your club secretary will receive information on how to access the system which is currently anticipated to go live on 10 May If your club affiliation is due for renewal between now and 1 June we have extended your current affiliation through 1 June 2018 at no cost during this transition period. You do not have to take any action to request this free extension and we will contact your club secretary when the new system is live with instructions on how to renew your affiliation. Please note, due to delays in getting our new system live, we have also extended the grace period for renewal until 15 June You will continue to be affiliated at no extra charge until 15 June. At the time of affiliation, you will need to name a Club Chairperson, Secretary and Safeguarding Officer. We will need an address and phone number for all three officials. Training requirements for Safeguarding Officers will be phased in over the next two years to meet NSPCC guidelines. We are offering free training and information will be circulated about the courses in the next few months. We would also recommend that all clubs name an Event Safety Officer although this is not currently an affiliation requirement. New membership requirement for club members In addition to the club affiliation fee, all club members will be required to hold a valid Canoe Wales membership and be listed on the club s GoMembership register in order to be insured for club activities. 1

2 For club members who only paddle during organised club sessions, there is a special low-cost Club Associate membership priced at only 5 per year for kids and 10 per year for adults, alongside an additional 15% discount for families. However, any category of membership is acceptable to meet this requirement. This change will take effect from the date of your next club renewal date so if you re due to renew by 31 October, you will need to ensure all of your club s members are on your club register in GoMembership and hold valid CW membership by 31 October. If your club s affiliation is due for renewal between now and 1 June, you will have until 15 July to meet the member registration requirement. This is to give your club secretary plenty of time to get up to speed with the system and to give your committee time to communicate with your members. New participants/prospective members can attend up to three club sessions before they are expected to hold Canoe Wales membership this is to allow new participants time to decide if they want to take up paddlesport before paying their membership fee(s). Club secretaries will need to ensure that the club s register in GoMembership is kept up-to-date. The system is user-friendly, but we will provide online training videos on how to use the system to help to make the transition as easy as possible. The easiest way for a club to manage this requirement is to ask their members to join Canoe Wales directly by visiting our website. This will save the club secretary considerable time and give the member control over their own membership account. If a club member creates their own GoMembership account and joins Canoe Wales, they can select your club at the point of membership and they will be automatically added to your register (subject to your approval of their club membership). Your club secretary will also be able to search our membership database to easily add members who already hold Canoe Wales membership. At any time, the club secretary will be able to view the membership status of all club members through GoMembership to check that they all hold a valid membership and send reminders to any club members whose membership may have expired. Some clubs prefer to pay CW membership fees on behalf of club members and this will be an option in GoMembership. You will be able to select from a range of payment options, including payment by card, direct debit, or invoicing for payment at a later date. The latter option is for clubs who wish to collect several months of membership fees and pay them all at once. Club affiliation benefits from 1 April 2018 All currently affiliated clubs, regardless of when they last renewed their club s affiliation, will receive the following package of benefits as of 1 April 2018: Public Liability insurance Support and advice from Canoe Wales through a designated support officer 2

3 Access to Sport Wales Community Chest and Development Grants and advice when completing application forms Free DBS checks for all club volunteers who work with children Free and/or discounted training opportunities and special events Welsh Sports Association membership, with free policy templates and legal/financial advice helplines A listing in the searchable online Canoe Wales club finder A listing of all public club events on the Canoe Wales website Event safety support and advice 50% off facility fees at the National White Water Centre for club groups Clubs will also have the option to purchased navigation licences for club boats at heavily discounted rates of 10 per boat you will only need these if you hold club trips on canals managed by the Canals and Rivers Trust or on rivers managed by the Environment Agency. What action do clubs need to take? We will contact you when the GoMembership system is live with instructions for how to access the system. At that point you will need to: View the online training videos. Log on to the system and update your club s details. You will be able to add club members to your register immediately when the system goes live, but will not be required to do this until your next affiliation renewal date. When your club s affiliation is next due for renewal, you will need to: Log on to the system and fill out the affiliation forms Add your club members into your club membership register From that date forward, you will need to ensure that all new and renewing club members hold a valid membership and are included on your register. Why has Canoe Wales implemented these changes? We know that an increase in fees is never welcome. To keep things as affordable as possible, we have kept our club affiliation fees fixed at the same rate for nearly ten years. As you will have heard if you attended our Road Shows, we are facing very significant funding cuts across the sport sector, and like all sports governing bodies, we are having to make tough choices. As part of the new strategy the Board is currently developing, they wish to expand the services we provide to clubs and to provide better face-to-face support from Regional Development officers. Without a sustainable funding base we will not be able to turn Canoe Wales into a strong, dynamic organisation, helping to develop paddlesport at the grassroots while ensuring the safety of all our athletes and participants. 3

4 We have tried to make the system as fair as possible, with a low fixed fee that covers the services we provide to all clubs (regardless of size) and a membership requirement which covers the variable costs that depend on the size of your club membership. It is also essential for the development of paddlesport and the safety of participants that we have accurate data and information about all of our members including our club members. When we receive advice about a safeguarding concern, we need to be able to check if that individual belongs to one of our clubs. When we approach a potential sponsor, we need to show them that we have a growing base of members that will make their support of paddlesport a worthwhile investment. When we make a case to Sport Wales for increased funding to help under-represented groups like women or disabled people into paddlesport, we need to back up our argument with solid data and show that we can track the impact that any new initiative will have. In the long run, all these developments will come back to help our clubs grow we are in this together and want to work with you to ensure that paddlesport thrives in Wales, directing as many resources and as much support as we can towards those of you working at the grassroots. As we go through this transition together, please do get in touch with us if your club needs help we are here to provide advice with fundraising, Sport Wales funding applications and development plans. Questions and Answers What if our members don t sign up for Club Associate membership (or another category of Canoe Wales membership)? Then they would not be insured for club activities. To ensure that we have accurate information about club members for insurance purposes and for reporting to Sport Wales, it will be essential that all club members are members of Canoe Wales and that they are included in your online club register. If you were to submit an insurance claim, we would only be able to cover claims for members who were both listed on your club register and members of CW at the time of the incident. Does this mean that every time we get a new member that we will have to add them to our register? Yes, but we strongly recommend that you make this as easy as possible for your club secretary by asking new members to go to the Canoe Wales website and join directly themselves, selecting your club from a drop-down menu when they join. If you are concerned that members will not do this, then as a club you have several options: Register the member directly yourselves and pay their membership fee; Bring a smartphone or tablet to your sessions and allow members to use it sign up for CW membership before taking part in the session (bearing in mind that they have three trial sessions before this requirement takes effect); Inform the member that they cannot take part until they have joined Canoe Wales, as they are not insured without a valid membership. Can we use GoMembership to collect our club subs at the same time or manage other club requirements? 4

5 GoMembership are currently developing an add-on to the system called Club+. We have been advised that while this is not currently available as it is still being tested, it will be available later in the year. Therefore, at this time you will still need to maintain a separate system to collect your club subs (if you do these online) and manage any other information you collect or manage about your members. As soon as Club+ is available we will share information about the option with all clubs as our long-term goal with GoMembership is to enable clubs to manage all of their data requirements (including their CW affiliation and club register) through one GDPR-compliant online tool. What if we have club members who live in England? We re working with our insurers and with British Canoeing to agree on procedures for registering English members in a Welsh club. While the exact procedure has not yet been agreed, we can confirm that these members will not be expected to pay for both British Canoeing and Canoe Wales membership. For the time being, if an English member holds British Canoeing membership, this will be sufficient to ensure that they are insured for your sessions. 5