Dear Member,
We are now able to release the membership rates for season 2023-24 as follows:
Senior Player Memberships
Senior player options, with or without children playing in our mini and youth teams. Also includes social membership for rest of household.
Description | Standard | Early Bird |
Senior player only | £220 | £200 |
Senior player + 1 child | £295 | £270 |
Senior player + 2 children | £360 | £330 |
Senior player + 3 children | £405 | £380 |
Family Memberships
Family options for 1 or 2 non-playing adults, with rugby playing children. Includes social membership for rest of household.
Description | Standard | Early Bird |
Family + 1 child | £150 | £140 |
Family + 2 children | £225 | £210 |
Family + 3 children | £290 | £270 |
Other Memberships
Description | Standard |
Camelot Exiles | £25 |
Camelot Cubs | £50 |
Touch Rugby (Camelot Jesters) | £75 |
Social / Past Player | £30 |
Vice Presidents | £25 |
Honarary Vice President | £0 |
Lost / Replacement Membership Card | £5 |
Firstly some of you will notice we are reducing the membership fee for Social membership. Aimed at households that would like to be a member of the club; be it simply using the club for a drink, attend club lunches or support the teams from the touchline with a pint in hand followed by post match banter in the bar. By reducing the fee from £60 to £30 we are hoping that many more people take up this offering, especially past players, therefore bringing in much needed additional income to the club. Alongside this reduction though there will be a toughening up of our stance on those regularly using the clubhouse without paying; full bar prices and not members pricing will be applicable (please do not share membership cards - staff will be on the look out for this). We will also prioritise paid up members for events such as club lunches, summer balls etc.
Other fees have either stayed the same or increased. I realise increased fees can be an emotive subject, especially with other household bills growing. Unfortunately, the rugby club is not immune from the increased costs and in setting our fees we have carefully considered the fees needed alongside other income streams including sponsorship and bar revenue to balance against likely outgoings.
We have therefore done our utmost to keep the increases to a minimum, especially over the longer term. As an example, family membership with 1 child has increased from £125 back in 2005 to £150 this year, in fact £140 if you take advantage of the early bird option.
We believe we are still amongst the cheapest rugby clubs in the area and significantly cheaper than other comparable activities. The income generated is all re-invested back into the club, covering provisioning of rugby equipment, training courses for our volunteers, tournament entry fees, players post match refreshments, end of season awards, pitch rent & pitch maintenance as well as cover the costs of maintaining and running the clubhouse and facilities. We are almost entirely a volunteer-run club, the only exceptions to this being bar staff, our senior rugby coach and senior rugby physiotherapist.
If possible, we ask you purchase membership via this website, simplifying the process for our volunteers. We do however realise this is not possible for all members and therefore we do offer over the bar payment option asking you to complete a simple paper form instead as part of this payment process.
We are offering 3 approaches to payment of membership
1. Early bird single payment
2. Standard single payment
3. Instalments
For senior player and family memberships purchased on or before Sunday 10th September 2023 a discounted 'early bird' rate equivalent to last years standard rate shall be payable. Other membership offerings purchased whenever or senior player and family memberships purchased after this date shall incur the new 2023-24 standard rate.
For senior player and family memberships we also continue to offer a 3 payment option via the website only. Sorry, we simply don't have the volunteer resources to run this any other way. Using this option the fee equivalent to the 2023-24 standard rate will be collected over 3 payments. The first, front loaded payment is taken immediately as you purchase the membership (please be aware it can take 2 or 3 days to be claimed from your bank). The balance is then taken over 2 equal payments on 1st of November and 1st December. For example- the family with 2 children rate of £225 would be collected as £105 first payment then 2 x payments of £60.
Note - this product will only remain active until Monday 16th October for initial sign-up. We do however politely recommend that if this offering is your preferred method, you sign up for this earlier thereby avoiding 2 close payments in October and then 1st November.
Despite all of the above we do recognise our duty as a community rugby club and therefore we have no desire to exclude anyone from rugby or the club due to financial hardship in the household. If this applies to you we do have a hardship / assisted membership policy. Please talk to the committee in strictest confidence via membership@camelotrfc.co.uk
Finally it has been noticed that a small but not insignificant percentage of our playing membership have still not paid last seasons membership. This is not acceptable as it puts undue financial strain on the club and undermines our budgeting. I will therefore be talking to those people with a view to collecting this backlog alongside this seasons fees. Sorry if this seems harsh but a change of mentality is needed here. You wouldn't try to use Hemel Hempstead Sports Centres facilities without paying the applicable fee.
On the flip side a huge thank you to those that did pay or did approach us with regards to the assisted membership fund. At the end of the day its your club as a member. Please help us to help you, by providing the best rugby offering we can as every penny collected is invested in Rugby or facilities at the Club.
CLICK HERE to view and buy your membership subs.
Yours faithfully
Nick Hoyes
Membership Registrar