New Members to the Sport

The ArcheryGB insurance allows clubs to run "Beginners' Courses" of up to six weeks in duration without those beginners having to become members first. However you must record the start date and expected finish date of the course in your club's Minutes Book in advance; it is also highly advisable to record contact details for the people taking part. If this is not done and an insurance claim is necessary, it could be very difficult to satisfy the insurance company that a genuine course was taking place.

Once the beginners' course has been completed, any new entrant who wishes to continue shooting at your club must apply for membership of ArcheryGB (national), SCAS (regional) and KAA (county).

Clubs are perfectly entitled to collect their own membership fee in installments if they so wish, but ArcheryGB, SCAS and KAA fees must be paid in full before membership can commence.

Once you have received the ArcheryGB fee in full you should immediately issue an "ArcheryGB Subscription Fee Receipt" (Form D) and record the receipt number and recipient's name – a register is not supplied, but this only needs to be two columns and might be part of your existing members register. You must fill in the receipt completely before giving to the new member. It is valid for the remainder of the current membership year or until the member receives their permanent membership card, whichever happens first.

Insurance cover starts and the new member is permitted to shoot as soon as you have received full payment of the ArcheryGB membership fee and you have issued the receipt. Remember that if the new member is allowed to shoot before all of that, it will invalidate the insurance for everyone present.

Details of the new member must be added to the "Payment Summary & Membership Update" form (Form B). It is important that the date of birth is recorded correctly for all juniors, to ensure that the correct fees are requested in future years and that they are converted to senior members at the correct time. This also affects entitlements to vote or stand for election to ArcheryGB, SCAS or KAA and to hold records for the correct age group.

Now follow the guidance notes provided by ArcheryGB, but with one important exception relating to county and region fees - because of a change in the way SCAS will collect its membership fees in future, clubs must not send fees direct to SCAS under any circumstances - please refer to the revised process for payment of membership fees.

It is completely acceptable for the club to delay this to include additional new members and to ensure that any cheques that they receive have been honoured (it would be unreasonable to expect a club to pay away money before they are sure they have been paid), but avoid delaying anyone's membership application by more than 2-3 weeks.

The new member will receive their membership letter and permanent card direct from ArcheryGB and can normally expect to do so within 8 weeks, but during the busy part of the membership year (September to November) it could take a little longer. If they are not received within this expected timescale, then the Club Membership Secretary should query it with the Membership Officer at ArcheryGB office.