Membership Structure Review

Following discussions at the last two board meetings, regarding our current membership structure of £1 annual memberships and the amount of time needed to run the renewals period each year. It was felt that the board as we stand does not have the manpower to be able to dedicate three board members to the renewals process full time for a period of up to four months, as has been needed in the past. Also, the £1 membership fee does not reflect the amount of administration required to maintain the membership database.
For the above reasons it has been agreed that we will replace the annual memberships with a one- off payment of £5 for life membership. We have also agreed to increase the age limit for junior membership from under 16 to under 18 and this will  now be a free membership up to the members 18 th birthday. We will continue to offer our corporate membership package at £50 per annum, full details available on request. In summary we now have three categories of membership

1. Fully Paid Member – £5 one-off payments for all adults
2. Junior Member – free membership to all under 18’s
3. Corporate Member – £50 annual payment, additional sponsorship options available

Over the next month we are going to be carrying out maintenance of our database to ensure that all members renewal dates, where applicable, are accurate however we understand that some current members may be having difficulty in accessing  he members area of our website, we would ask that any member that this is effecting please contact us at admin@khist.org.uk and you records will updated as a priority.

Any current member that took out either a five- or ten-year membership will have their membership converted to a Fully Paid Member and should receive their new membership card during October and November this year. All current members that paid the £1 annual membership prior to August 2019 have previous had their memberships extended to 31/08/21 as no renewals program was held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These memberships will now be extended to 31/08/22 free of charge to give us time to complete the migration to the new structure. Commencing January 2022, we will start to contact these members with details of how they will be able to upgrade their current membership to a Fully Paid Membership and we hope to have this completed by 31/06/22.

As we will no longer be taking annual membership payments, we would ask members to consider making an annual donation to the trust by way of a standing order. If any member has any questions or concerns regarding this change we would ask that they contact the board at admin@khist.org.uk