Because we are now an incorporated society, we are required by law to keep accurate membership records. To this end, you will recall that we amended the Constitution at the AGM earlier this year to cleanup the last vestiges of the old "anybody who happens to live at that address" unwritten rule (that still applied from when the club was formed back in 1964) by simplifying memberships types to a single person/single membership only.
This means that all members previously covered by family memberships need to re-apply as individual new members in the coming financial year, allowing us to update our records as required by the rules of incorporation. In many cases we do not have details of family members covered by a family membership, particularly those memberships dating back prior to incorporation (and computers, in some cases!). MBIE and Dogs NZ have been consulted about how the club is managing the changeover to a more accurate one person/one member system and we are following their advice with our process.
THE PROCESS
If you are a current family member, you will still be able to vote as a financial member in the 2021 AGM, however, all family memberships will cease automatically at the end of March 2021. Any person who does not re-apply as an individual member by that date, will no longer be a club member.
To simplify matters, you and your family members who wish to continue as members of the club, do not need to wait until 2021 to lodge your updated membership applications. Simply go to our website here, complete an individual form for each member of the family who wishes to join as a DCC member and select "Discontinued Family Membership" as the member type, to flag the application for the committee.
The committee will process the approvals at our regular committee meetings (as required by our constitution) between now and 31 March 2021, so renewal next year can be automatic on receipt of your individual member membership renewal fee.
Membership is $15 per individual member, however, even though you are applying now, this is not due until March 2021.
Please don't hesitate to contact our recretary, Jenny Ryan, if you have any questions or require help filling out the online form.
Rest assured, Dogs NZ have been consulted about this process and have approved how we are managing the upcoming changeover, which we anticipate should be a fairly smooth transition if we can get all the new member applications lodged with the committee for approval by end of this financial year.
This change does not affect Life Members or existing individual memberships.