Our club fees were raised last year to £52 a year, and there are mumerings that another rise will be proposed at the AGM this year.

Of those of you that are a member of a club, how much do you pay per year, and what do you get in return for your money ?

We get :
A cup of Tea or Coffee at every meeting + max two biscuits, ( One Choc, One Plain)*

Free entry to the annual show (most of the members are there in one role or another anyway)


errrr...... nothing else.

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 01, 2015, 07:07:51 PM
Our club fees were raised last year to £52 a year, and there are mumerings that another rise will be proposed at the AGM this year.

Of those of you that are a member of a club, how much do you pay per year, and what do you get in return for your money ?

We get :
A cup of Tea or Coffee at every meeting + max two biscuits, ( One Choc, One Plain)*

Free entry to the annual show (most of the members are there in one role or another anyway)


errrr...... nothing else.

The Berkshire area N gauge group have very similar subs but we pay 10p for unlimited tea and the odd biscuit.
What we do get is the companionship of fellow N gaugers, plenty of expertise and advice and a jolly good time.

I'm sure your club must provide the same Graham??

Hmmm. Seems a bit steep. I'm a member of Tonbridge MRC http://www.tonbridgemrc.com/8.html refers.

Membership is £27 per annum. We meet in a Scout hut which means we have to get everything out and put it back each night. The normal meeting night is Thursdays but working meets happen on some Tuesdays and Sundays. During the winter we have guest speakers a few times. Tea and coffee with biscuits is available at 10p per cup although most people chuck in a bit more than that.

Club layouts include N, OO, O, O-16.5.

Then there is the annual exhibition, annual meal (Extra cost) and trips out (extra cost).

Our club's annual fees are quite a bit more, but we are a small club with only about 14 members, so paying the rent (for the committee room beside the village hall) is not a cheap activity. For the money we meet every Friday with a roof over our heads, talk trains for a couple of hours and get a contribution to the club layouts. It also pays for the hire of the main hall for about 5 days in a year for work days.

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 01, 2015, 07:07:51 PM
Our club fees were raised last year to £52 a year, and there are mumerings that another rise will be proposed at the AGM this year.

Of those of you that are a member of a club, how much do you pay per year, and what do you get in return for your money ?

We get :
A cup of Tea or Coffee at every meeting + max two biscuits, ( One Choc, One Plain)*

Free entry to the annual show (most of the members are there in one role or another anyway)

errrr...... nothing else.

That works about at about £4.33 per month. That is less than a wagon. It's all relative I know, but I see club membership is a benefit, that goes hand-in-hand with modelling - worth the price of a couple of carriages.

Ours is £110 per annum for which we have access to a permanent warm dry clubroom, contribution to building layouts, modelling and learning from one another. The opportunity to take our layouts to shows on occasion and play trains. Plus as has been said elsewhere the privilege of many friendships grown over the years of membership.

Just over £2 a week -  less than the price of a pint (even in Weatherspoons) for those who struggle to find it all at once can be paid quarterly or monthly. It's an absolute bargain in my view and to be very honest I get slightly irritated by those who think it is a lot in the context of other non essential things or activities they happily pay more for in relative terms.

Roy

Stevenage and District charge £25 per year and £2.50 a week if you choose to come. Permanent club rooms, layout participation in 3 scales and if you can go Monday night and Wednesday morning you only pay for the week once and get two cups of tea plus biscuits!  My son Callum is covered by the subs too.

Im not now a member of any club ( too busy at the mo) but I have been and no doubt will be so again in the near future.
Assuming that I actually want to be a member, and like the other people in the club ( I do) then I reckon  up to a fiver a week is acceptable; maybe a little less, say £3 p/w if the club is financially ok etc

As is mentioned above, even "simple pleasures" like having a few pints with ya mates on a Saturday night make a big hole in £30 or so.

We moved club rooms at the end of last year and can now leave the layouts permanently erected rather than putting them away at the end of each meeting. There are presently 14 members and we pay an annual fee of £10 and then £15 per month. For that we can access the club room at any time (as long as there are 2 of us present) and have a regular club night on a Friday night. There are 2 OO gauge layouts - one analogue and one DCC- and an N gauge layout which will be able to operate as either DC or DCC. Tea/Coffee is 20p per mug.

In the past some of the fees have gone towards the costs of building the layouts but we run our own stock. Now the rent and electric bill take most of the income so layout funding is strictly limited until we get some more members. A couple of the local model shops also give a 10% discount on their prices on production of a Club Membership Card.

Six hours company and comradeship, plus 'expert' help from other members for £4 is good value as far as I am concerned.

Ours is £84 per year.
The club rooms are open three nights a week plus during the day if a few people want to. We have loads of books to borrow from the library and have all the main magazines going back many many years. Free drinks 2 working n layouts plus 2  under construction, 2 running OO layouts plus 2 in store plus 1 or 2  being planned plus a TTE, 1 US based HO , 1 7mm narrow gauge and 4 7mm standard gauge. We did have G scale layout we we donated this to another club.


I reckon this is not bad value for money.

Seems some pay more and some pay less.

I'd love to know how a club with so few members can afford it's own hut, we hire a village hall.

The heating is next to useless, so not that many turn up in  the winter, and we only meet once a week, club nights barely last 2 1/2 hours, so by the time we have set the layouts up, there is very little time for anything else.

I would be happy to pay an annual fee, plus monthly subs, that might generate enough cash for us to consider our own clubhouse somewhere.

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 01, 2015, 10:34:57 PM
Seems some pay more and some pay less.

I'd love to know how a club with so few members can afford it's own hut, we hire a village hall.

The heating is next to useless, so not that many turn up in  the winter, and we only meet once a week, club nights barely last 2 1/2 hours, so by the time we have set the layouts up, there is very little time for anything else.

I would be happy to pay an annual fee, plus monthly subs, that might generate enough cash for us to consider our own clubhouse somewhere.

Graham

We previously hired another village hall for 3 hours on a Friday evening and had to put the layouts up before starting modelling and then put them down at the end of the night. As you say does not leave a lot of time for working on the layouts and the risk of accidental damage is greatly increased. Storage was a problem and as the layouts developed room became extremely limited. The main storage area was also shared with an Art Group and we found ourselves competing for space.

After growing problems with the Hall management committee we started looking for alternative accommodation even though we knew it would probably mean an increase in fees and less money for the layouts. We now rent part of another village hall but this is a two storey building of extreme vintage and was originally a couple of cottages. We have part of the upper floor with  its own toilet facilities and electric meter for lighting and storage heaters and our own entrance to the building.  There is a sink unit used for washing the tea cups etc. To keep costs down the heating is not put on that often and it did get chilly in there last year. Members use the clubroom three times a week, Tuesday pm for the analogue OO, Wednesday pm for the N gauge and Friday nights for 3 hours for general. Space is limited and there is not a lot of spare room around the layout boards. In order to encourage new members to join we contacted the local press and got a photo feature in a recent edition and we are planning an Open Weekend in Feb next year so may use the room even more to get the layouts ready for that.

The N gauge layout is 4ft x 9ft and is being constructed by 5 members (4 of whom are NGS members and the other is a 009 group member) and we have formed the NGS West Norfolk and Fenland Group. Info on the NGS site re the group is out of date at the moment as we meet at Pott Row and not Watlington. If anyone is in the area and would like to come along and see  if they would like to join us send me a PM and I will let you have further details. We have one member who regularly makes an hours journey each way to attend so we must be doing something right.

Our subs are £100 per year, payable annually or quarterly. We also pay £1.00 per month for unlimited tea/coffee and biscuits. We currently have about 20 members and our clubnights are Tuesday & Thursday, but after 6 months attendance members get their own set of keys to our Clubroom, which we rent from Network Rail. In fact our Clubroom is the old Mortimers Coal yard buildings behind Chippenham station, so we can also watch the 12" to 1' railway as well, we don't charge any extra for that facility   

The subs go into the general funds to keep the roof over our heads as our rent is huge at circa £8000 per annum, which is also why we run 3 shows per year. But we have 4 4mm layouts finished and exhibitable & 3 4mm layouts that are work in progress. 1 N gauge complete, Hedges Hill Cutting and 1 more being renovated which is 20' long.

Regards

Neal
Chairman
BMRG

Whar is surprising me is the vast range of fees that people are wiling to pay in order to meet other people interested in the hobby, and the variety of club rooms and cost thereof.

I'm not sure of the cost of hiring the village hall for the year is, but at last years AGM we were told that membership fees barely covered the cost, so simple math means it comes to aroound £1500 a year, which considering what some are getting for rent, seems to me a bit expensive for 3hrs per week.

£8000 sounds very expensive, but at least you have 24/7 access, and you don't have to spend one hour of your 3 setting up and putting down.

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 02, 2015, 09:07:01 AM
which considering what some are getting for rent, seems to me a bit expensive for 3hrs per week.

You aren't getting "3 hours per week", you're getting permanent (and hopefully safe) storage of the layouts (albeit by the sounds of things, in an unassembled form), with exclusive access to the rooms for an agreed time period; this is what you're paying for.  You could always look around for a better deal ...

Quote from: MikeDunn on November 02, 2015, 09:17:24 AM

Quote from: Graham Walters on November 02, 2015, 09:07:01 AM
which considering what some are getting for rent, seems to me a bit expensive for 3hrs per week.

You aren't getting "3 hours per week", you're getting permanent (and hopefully safe) storage of the layouts (albeit by the sounds of things, in an unassembled form), with exclusive access to the rooms for an agreed time period; this is what you're paying for.  You could always look around for a better deal ...

Welll actually no, we have had buy our own storage as the hall hasn't got enough of it's own,  the club seems to throw money around like confetti, the last shed we bought they paid £2000 for and it's just a garden shed 10 x 8.