is pony club right to penalise lapsed members who rejoin?

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grey dawn

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If you join pony club as a new member between september 12 - december12 you get membership til december13 for £58, but if you are a lapsed member it will cost you £75
I feel this is unfair to ex members who maybe left while not having a suitable horse or did not have time to attend due to exams etc and may cause young riders to not return to ponyclub.
 
It's a drive to get new members!

If you are an existing or lapsed member you have been there done that with pony club and know what it's all about.

It's no different than cable TV offering x number of free months to new customers and not offering the same to existing.
 
Where did you hear this? I am a branch secretary & have not heard of a price increase!! If you join after September your membership will run until the end of the following year because
 
Dumb phone sorry!!!

...because the end of the year is usually down time & not as busy as the rest of the year. I havent been told that its dearer for lapsed members, unless that's something that your club does as they are allowed to charge what they like for branch fee (ours is £35 extra but we don't charge for rallies) xx
 
I didn't realise that! Was going to rejoin my daughter to a different pony club, she wasn't a member this year as the branch she was a member of for the 2 previous years refused to move her into a different group, she is 9 and a vary capable little rider, jumps 2ft6 had won PC ODEs and yes due to her being under 11 she had to stay with the little ones who were mostly on or only just off the lead rein. It was a waste of time and money as she was waiting around for them getting bored then jumping a course of tiny x poles. Even the instructor said there was no point in her coming til she was 11 and could go with the older ones as she wasn't gaining anything from it!

Is it the same if join a different branch for 2013? As we have found one a little further afield that seems much better?
 
I apologize - you were right!

I've not started on our renewal process yet so have not looked at the new forms but you got me wondering so I've had a look & seen it for myself!! I think it is pants :(


I know pc don't encourage moving clubs unless its due to moving house so they put a ban on members that move branch being eligible for teams for a while. If I were you though I would just move. The branch you were with before should have been more accomodating (sp?). They should be there to make the members happy! If mine was stuck in a lower group just because of age I wouldn't have been happy either - it should go on ability & then split with sizes of ponies (for health & safety- xx
 
Thats a shame that it has gone up but I still think that we get good value for money with ours. if I worked out how much we save on lessons over the year it would be a lot more.
We do use the PC a lot for lessons and rallies and we are lucky to have a very active branch . We just joined the nearest not realising the difference there was between them. I was also shocked at the problems of moving branches , we have two families that have changed to ours lately and boy was it made as difficult as possible.
 
dieseldog said:
I am just shocked that PC is now £75 :eek::eek::eek::eek:

If I had kids I would make them Junior RC members at £25
Click to expand...

I think a lot depends on the individual PCs/RCs. My daughter is a PC member and a Junior RC member, but although RC is fun and she loves doing the teams, the training opportunities she gets through her PC branch are much more extensive and more suitable for her needs, so she definitely gets her money's worth!
 
Pony club fees have not gone up, they were £58 last year as well. New members joining from September pay the £58 which carries them through tilll the end of 2013. The £75 is a new scheme from head office I presume to discourage members from lapsing but is not very encouraging for those that are between ponies for a year. Members can transfer from branch to branch at any time of the year but need the authority of both DCs and the area reps. If they transfer then they will not be eligible to ride in area teams for 14 months.
 
dieseldog said:
I am just shocked that PC is now £75 :eek::eek::eek::eek:

If I had kids I would make them Junior RC members at £25
Click to expand...

The advantage of PC is tuition is a LOT cheaper and generally very good (in our PC anyway, it's competitive and generally for a small branch does very well, this year our teams won at area in 4 disciplines for example).
Daughter belongs to PC & 2 x RC. Typically PC rallies are £12 for an hour and a half, team training indoors is £12.50 an hour in winter, outdoors £8 in summer, and she does a lot of those (at times 2-3 a week) as we've nowhere to ride and she competes in more than 1 discipline. This is very good value -- locally if we hire a school it's £10, and we could add an instructor at £20-27 ! RC trainings are typically £17+ depending on venue/instructor. She does a couple of RC things a month, but they tend to be weekends.
I'm not a rider so can't teach her, and in winter our field isn't good for riding in, we can't ride on the roads as they're too busy, so I'd rather take her to a PC training for little more than the cost of hiring a school anyday.

And to OP it's no different to signing up for Sky, or an interest free credit card you get the introductory offer....
 
Thanks Dubsie, I'd forgotten that one! Another one who thinks its great value for money and full of opportunity...not only on the instructional and competitive side but also the social advantages of being able to ride and look after ponies with friends in a safe environment on a regular basis..a luxury that not all of us have at home.
 
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