Do you have an 'Association Fee'?

[Squash64]

Do you have an 'Association Fee' which you expect members to pay every year?
 
We charge £4 per plot holder per year, payable with the rent in October.
 
£3 of this is for insurance through NSALG, the remaining £1 covers electricity, cleaning materials, paper, printing ink, etc.

None of the committee claim expenses (unless it's something like a taxi for Council meetings)

The majority of plot holders pay the £4 without question but there are a few who complain.

I just wondered how much, if anything, other sites charge.

[pumpkinlover]

How do you pay the rest of the expenses Betty?- water, council rent etc, I'm wondering if you pay that direct to the council?

We have one payment for each plot, and the subs from this pay for everything- insurance, allottment association (AGC uk this year) water, council tax. Secretary gets a free plot.

Committtee decides how much the subs need to be for the coming year and recomend this at AGM, members then vote on it.

Younger and newer members seem ok with what they pay, some people only wake up for that part of the AGM to make sure the plot fees don't go up

[BarriedaleNick]

We just bundle the whoile lot up in the rent - we are an association - privately run so its easier for us to bung it all in one "fee".
The rent has been the same for years and we are pretty cheap but people still moan.  One year some of the old boys called a vote at the AGM for free plots for OAPs!

[Trevor_D]

We have a surcharge for NSALG and insurance, currently £5 per year. This is per member, regardless of how much land is rented. Everything else - rent to our landlords, water, machinery, repairs and so on - comes out of plot rental.

It was introduced as an emergency a few years back, when NSALG tightened up their rules and our insurance bill went up a couple of weeks before Christmas. We took it to the AGM in February and there were no complaints, so we've kept it.

None of the Committee gets any payment or free perks, though we do put in for expenses.

[Squash64]

How do you pay the rest of the expenses Betty?- water, council rent etc, I'm wondering if you pay that direct to the council?

We have one payment for each plot, and the subs from this pay for everything- insurance, allottment association (AGC uk this year) water, council tax. Secretary gets a free plot.

Committtee decides how much the subs need to be for the coming year and recomend this at AGM, members then vote on it.

Younger and newer members seem ok with what they pay, some people only wake up for that part of the AGM to make sure the plot fees don't go up

The water charge is included in the rent paid to the Council. 

As at your site, the younger/newer members are fine with it, it's only a few of the old blokes who complain.

[goodlife]

We have yearly 'membership fee' that is £5 per plot and that is to cover the insurance etc.
It used to be £3.50 for years and years but when we took insurance it had to go up.. ..ohhh what a battle that was with some 'older' members..
And thats it..we don't have any further payments to make..(each plot is 'purchased' as shares)..so to me having a plot for a £5 for a year is CHEAP ..and still they moan.. I look at it like this;..you don't get much from shops with a fiver ..maybe something to last just few days..

[Sparkly]

Some people will always moan. As hobbies go this is about as cheap as it gets!

These are our annual charges:

National Soc. Subs   2-00
UAGS Society Subs   2-00
Allotment Rent   31-00
(discount for 60+) or for a half plot   (15-50)
Ground Fund   2-00

Our site is part of a group for all the allotments in the area (UAGS). The tenancy is with them, although we self manage with our own committee. The ground fund is meant to contribute to general ground maintenance and admin etc. It doesn't cover it. The committee don't take expenses and the ground maintenance costs much more than this. The majority of the costs are raised through the annual open day and show and also the plant sale. The rent includes water charges, but that won't be for long. Not sure of the implications, but I wouldn't be surprised if it easily doubles the rental charges.

I would say the admin costs for the secretary job are about £50 or so: printing, paper, stamps etc. The website charges are about £60. I never claim either of these back. I could do, but I see it as a donation. We pay for skips which uses up more than the ground fund alone. Perhaps give a quick breakdown of the costs at the AGM to shut up the moaners.

[Robert_Brenchley]

We have a £3 charge for Association membership. It hasn't changed for many years.

[pumpkinlover]

The accounts are available for everyone to view at the AGM. At the end of the day the water is the single most expensive thing which we have direct control over.
Mostly eventually people accept that we have to have enough money coming in the pay the bills.
When we started to do fund raising it was always meant to buy things for the site- not for the basics. Therefore we have a seperate account for the stuff we fund raise.

[pigeonseed]

Ours is £2 per plot, plus the assoc keeps the profit from the Kings seed catalogue sales.

I've never heard anyone complain, but they have to pay it in person at the AGM, so it would be embarassing to say no, and if you don't want to be a member, you don't have to be. It's a council-run site.

[Squash64]

Had a chat with our treasurer today and it turns out that the £4 does not even cover what we spend on each plot holder!

£2.37 per plotholder for insurance
£2.12 per plotholder for membership of NSALG.

[Trevor_D]

Sorry to be picky, but where did the odd 12p come from? It's a flat £2.00 per head for NSALG. Or has it just gone up?

But no, our £5 supplement doesn't cover what we pay, especially as we now have a composting toilet to insure, so we come into the most expensive category!

[Squash64]

Sorry to be picky, but where did the odd 12p come from? It's a flat £2.00 per head for NSALG. Or has it just gone up?

But no, our £5 supplement doesn't cover what we pay, especially as we now have a composting toilet to insure, so we come into the most expensive category!

Our treasurer worked it out Trevor.  I told him how many plot holders we have (118) and he said we pay £250 per year so it works out at £2.12.  Did he get it wrong?

[Trevor_D]

I make that £236. (118 x £2)

[Squash64]

I make that £236. (118 x £2)

I'll check with him Trevor.

[lavenderlux]

We pay £2.00 per year as an Association fee which covers insurance (this is not NSALG insurance, the Association have negotiated their own insurance through a broker) This is a town-wide allotment association, belonging is voluntary, and we have about an 80% membership on our site.  
Our site expenses are met by having a trading table (for which items are donated) and by profits from our trading shed and the Association's bulk potato orders, we receive a percentage of the value of the orders from our site.   The association also gives a small grant to each site, other than that we have to raise funds ourselves to cover things like consumables for our compost toilet, cleaning materials, fuel for mowers, envelopes and paper for our newsletters (although most people are now on email which helps a lot).  

[artichoke]

Our plot is rented from a big company who charge us very low rents, on top of which we pay an extra £5 for  'Association Fee'. There is only one objector, an older man who buttonholes everyone to say he has been on the site for 40 years and no-one is telling him what to do (only he takes about 15 minutes to say this) and even he has capitulated.

[Squash64]

I make that £236. (118 x £2)

Trevor, I just checked the NSALG website and you are correct, it is £2 per person.  Thanks for pointing it out. 

[Trevor_D]

Just part of the service....

[Squash64]

There's been a development since I started this thread.

I started thinking about how some of the Old Blokes complain about paying the £4 so I wrote my thoughts down, emailed it to those on emails and printed copies for those not.

This is what I wrote:-

A few people have asked what the £4 Association fee is for.
 
Every plot holder is insured in case of injury to themselves, or for causing
injury to someone else.  This costs £2.37 per person per year.
 
We are members of the National Society for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners
(NSALG)  This costs £2 per person per year. http://www.nsalg.org.uk
 
Total £4.37  per person per year. This works out at less than 8p per week.
 
Walsall Road Allotment Association pays the extra 37p per person from funds,
and also covers the cost of electricity used on site, printing ink, paper, laminating
materials, cleaning materials etc.
 
I do not claim expenses for electricity used at home for allotment business, phone, postage, petrol.
 
The committee of unpaid volunteers do not receive payment, or benefit financially or in any other way from the work we do.  We do not receive 'rent-free' plots. 
 
I understand that the vast majority of plot holders are happy to pay the £4  but a few complain about it every year. 
 
I hope this clears up any misunderstandings you may have had but please
come and see me if you still have a problem.

Yesterday I saw the man who moans more than any other so  I took the letter and read it to him.  I offered to refund his £4 but told him he would have to show me that he had his own insurance and that he would not be able to order his potatoes from Kings Seeds as he would not be a member of NSALG.

He backed down and said that now he knew what the money was for he was happy to pay.

Then I told him that we would be increasing the fee to £5 at the next AGM because, thanks to his complaint I had looked into the true cost, and that I would publically thank him at the meeting.    

I don't know where I got the nerve to do this, I am not at all confrontational but I am getting so sick of these old men harping back to the Good Old Days and complaining about the committee.

(I had lots of emails from people thanking the committee, and saying that they couldn't believe people would complain about paying £4)