As you may recall during 2016 we undertook a review of the Membership scheme.
The outcome of the review is contained within ‘NBN Trust Membership Review Results May 2017’. This document provides the summary of the Feedback received from the NBN Trust Membership Scheme Review 2016 Consultation Paper completed in November 2016 and an update on the development of the new membership scheme.
The National Biodiversity Network Trust, (NBN Trust), and the Board of Trustees would like to thank everyone who took the time to participate in the membership review though completing the online survey, providing detailed feedback and also passing on comments and suggestions to members of the NBN Trust staff and Trustees. All these comments have informed the decision made by the Board of Trustees on how to proceed.
In summary
Overall the feedback received was that the current membership scheme was not working, however, there was no clear consensus on a proposed new scheme. The Trustees have agreed that a transition approach is required.
The clear messages that came out of the responses were that organisational members were not able to, or prepared to, pay any more in membership fees at this time; that the proposed individual membership category was not appropriate and clarity was still required on the benefits of membership.
The Trustees have agreed to introduce simplified membership categories, hold fees at the existing rate for current members and introduce a ‘Pay What You Decide’ membership for individuals.
For simplicity there will be two types of Membership – ‘Member’ and ‘Corporate Member’.
Members will be able to join as either an Individual or Organisational. Organisational members will include all organisations, record centres, schemes and societies, voluntary groups, government bodies etc.
Corporate Support will be for businesses or other organisations who want to support the aims of the Network and for whom general membership may not be appropriate. They will not have access to the full suite of benefits e.g. voting rights.
Download the Revised Benefit Table May 2017
Fees will be kept at the current rates for existing members for 2017/18. New members will be asked to join at tiered rates relating to turnover. These will be similar to the current rates.
The terms and conditions of membership have been revised to take into account the replacement of the NBN Gateway with the NBN Atlas.
Download the revised Terms and Conditions of Membership
Next Steps
The NBN Trust Secretariat will contact all existing members to notify them of the changes and which category of membership they will be moved to – individual or organisational. All will be classed as a ‘Member’.
As members renew during 2017 / 2018 they will again be notified of the revised membership category. Existing and new individual members will be able to re-join / join as individuals on a ‘pay what you decide’ scheme.
Full details of the new scheme, the updated benefits table and updated Terms & Conditions will be made available on the website shortly.