Warrington and District Model Engineers: Membership

If you live in the area and are interested in Model Engineering why not drop in to one of our meetings and get to meet us. You'll quickly realise that most of us are mad as hatters!

Seriously, though, it's an important step in becoming a member. Our membership application form requires that you find two existing members to sponsor you and the easiest way is to come to a meeting and make friends. You'll find a warm welcome, interesting chat and, if you can stay for an hour, a cup of tea and a biscuit!

Membership of the club requires you to print off and fill in the membership application form and post it to the secretary. If you have difficulty printing it out, contact the secretary who can post you a hard copy. The club committee will then consider your application and, all being well, will approve it. You should then receive an invitation from the secretary to send some money to the club treasurer who in turn will issue you with a membership card. As our existing members have to renew every March, if you join at a different time of year, we usually adjust the initial amount. The current subscription rate is £25 per annum for full members. As we are a Registered Friendly Society there is also a small joining fee of £1 in return for which you are issued with a single, non-returnable share certificate which you can frame and hang up on the wall for all to admire.

We have three categories of membership, well actually there are four, but you only get Honorary Membership after you've been a full member for several years and done wonderful things for the society. For new candidates we have:

• Full Membership. This gives you full voting rights at General Meetings, and the privilege of paying £25 per annum subscription. Only full members are issued with a share scertificate and hence only pay the £1 joining fee.
• Associate Membership. This is for friends and partners of full members. You don't get the vote, but the subs are only £5!
• Junior Membership. For young people aged 16 or less. You don't get the vote either, and are also let off with only £5. You are encouraged to take part in all the activities, subject to at least one full member being present to provide supervision. We recognise that Junior members are the Full Members of the future and so we see the Junior Membership in a similar light to an Apprenticeship period.

As a Registered Friendly Society, we have to have a rule-book and everyone who becomes a member is expected to adhere to this. The rules are all just common sense and most members have probably never read them! If you wish to study the legalese then the above link will reveal the gory details.

We hope that the above information is enough to tempt you to come along and join us. You are welcome to attend any of our Thursday night meetings - see the Club Diary web page for details of these - and ask the members present for more information. If you have difficulty in attending the meetings, feel free to contact us by telephone or email for more details.