Entitlement / Membership

It has always been the deliberate policy of the Society to charge a minimal annual subscription rate (that covers the basic cost of society entitlements) and then to charge for our meeting events separately (which covers their costs).

This is so that our members who, for one reason or another, cannot get to our meetings, do not have to pay unnecessarily high subscriptions rates and get little benefit from them. We recognise that many of our members either live long distances away (Peterborough, London, Luton, Hertford) or have prior work commitments (work nights) that mean they can't get to our ordinary meetings.

Given this, our basic rate of society membership is £18 per household, which means that only one payment is due to cover all family members at a given address. This is renewable yearly, at the start of the membership year, currently 1st March. Anyone joining the Society will pay a pro-rata amount depending on when they join. The following table shows the amount payable for membership at different times of the year.

Joining Date Amount   Special offer: A reduction of £3 for renewals made up to the end of February. This applies to those who are renewing their membership, and not to new applications.
1 March - 31 May £ 18.00
1 June - 31 August £ 13.50
1 September - 30 November £   9.00
1 December - 28 (or 29) February £ 18.00 *

* Members joining between December and February effectively have those months free. Their payment of £18 covers them up to the end of the following membership year.

Payment can be made by Standing Order. This guarantees your qualification for the early renewal discount.

The membership fee entitles the member to the following:

* FAS Astro-calendars On request @cost price
* FAS Handbooks On request @cost price
* Monthly Newsletters Including JAS & FAS newsletters
Currently the newsletters run to about 20 pages and contains the very latest astro news.
The newsletter is distributed by e-mail, so an e-mail account is required.
We issue a general newsletter and an observing newsletter.

Members may attend the regular "Star parties", at the observatory at Standalone Farm and use the Society's observatory (after completion of training), which houses a permanently mounted, driven, 10" Newtonian telescope. They may also borrow books and other publications from the Society's library, and hire the Society's telescopes for use at home by the member .

Additionally we charge for meeting attendance as follows:
Attendee Charge
Members £2

Non-members (Adults)

£3
Children ( Primary school ) accompanied Free
Children ( Secondary school ) accompanied £1
This covers the room costs, and speakers only.

We would be most happy to receive your application for membership, by printing and returning the application form. The form is an Adobe Acrobat file and your browser will need to have the Acrobat plug-in or your computer will need the Acrobat viewer installed. If you want to save a copy of the form to your computer, right click on the application form link and use "Save target to...".
If you do not have the Acrobat reader, use the button below to get a free copy.

 


Updated August 2007