Subscriptions
Once your child has joined join the Scout Movement via 1st Nuneaton Scouts please be aware of the process for paying the membership subscriptions.
By joining you become a member of the Scout Movement and as such need to pay a membership fee. Our Group has to pay a fixed sum to the Movement for each place we declare at the beginning of the year. This is paid before we receive anything from yourself. We are also responsible for everything to do with our Headquarters. We pay the ground rental and all maintenance and running costs. Then we have to provide monies for equipment and anything required by the Sections for their meetings.
What is the membership fee?
As with all membership fees they are payable in advance. To make it easier we have adopted the monthly fee option over 10 months. No payment is due for August and December when holidays affect some meetings. This means there are no arguments about payment when the HQ is shut.
How do you pay?
Members are expected to pay via our Direct Debit system. It means Leaders and other support staff do not have to spend time chasing monies in arrears which, from experience, is far too time consuming. To utilise this system you will need an email address. When your child has been accepted you will be sent an email with a link to set up the Direct Debit with GoCardless. It is a very simple process. Please use your child’s name and not your own so we can identify it easier. You will always be notified of the proposed charge and you can cancel it if you have a problem with it. If your child leaves you should cancel it or inform the Leaders immediately so they can stop it. The Direct Debit mandate is set up with the Section so if your child changes Section unfortunately it has to be set up again.
Difficulties with payment
If you have difficulty with financing the subscriptions then please speak, in confidence, to the Group Scout Leader, Mick Judd via email juddy_80@hotmail.com. He has the authority to assist. We always try and ensure children are not excluded because of financial problems.
Gift Aid
When you fill in the Membership Form there is a section relating to Gift Aid which is a very important source of income to the Group. If you are a taxpayer you just need to sign that box. It needs to be someone who is a tax payer. We can then obtain a 25% refund from HMRC based on your tax payments. As long as you are paying tax it will not provide you with any problems. If you subsequently stop paying tax you need to notify us so we can stop claiming it against your payments.
Please note that subscription arrears places the Group in a difficult position because there are still costs which we have to meet. So any payment problems needs to dealt with early.
A Guide to setting up a Direct debit mandate for parents
To set up a Direct Debit mandate you need to receive an email entitled “New Payment System”. Further down the page you will see the “https:” link which you click or press.
You will then access a screen entitled “What is this?” At the bottom it will give details of the first payment. Please click or press “View details” in the bottom right corner.
The next Screen is headed “Subscriptions”. Here you must click or press “Setup Subscription”. Do not click or press “Pay Now” else only one payment will be covered by the mandate then it will cease.
The next page will be the OSM details form.
Please provide the child’s name and not yours as that is used to describe the bank transactions and we need to know who it is for.
The email address is critical as that is the system’s means of communicating with you. If you wish to change it you need to notify us so we can initiate another Direct Debit mandate.
The Sort Code and Account number are essential as it provides the access to the correct bank account for the Direct Debit transaction.
If your child wishes to leave the Group please let us know immediately so we can cancel the Direct Debit mandate.
