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SYC Membership Improvements

26 April 2019

 

SYC Membership Improvements

The SYC ‘Plan for the Future’ sets out our strategic goals, how we will achieve them and our progress to date. Regenerating Membership is a big focus within the plan, as is evolving and enhancing our offer. Rewarding long term members with a focus on boat owners is also a key objective within the plan. Acting on this, your General Committee set up, oversaw and ultimately accepted the recommendations of a recent membership review.

The key membership changes, all strongly supported at the recent general meeting include;

  • Junior Members have been rebranded Youth Members, the fee reduced to $99 per annum & the age cut off increased to 24 (from 18)
  • Existing Intermediates aged 18-24 may transition to ‘Youth’* – saving $250+ per annum 
  • Intermediate nomination fees have been completely removed – saving $210
  • Family Memberships now include the new Youth category to age 24 … saving $355 per Member aged 18-24
  • The successful introductory Day Pass membership offer has been rebranded “SailPass” to align with a national rollout by Australian Sailing. The existing limit of 12 sails per member has been increased to a limit of 30 – all at a flat fee of $15 and in more good news, twilights will remain free of charge. The 30 sails are to be used within a 2 year window.
  • The Senior Membership category has been rebranded “Full Membership”
  • We’ve also made provision for
    • the “SYC Monthly pay with automatic membership rollover”
    • Family Members to transition following change e.g. death or divorce
    • Members under duress to apply for suspension
    • a streamlined on-line membership application process
  • Our popular Annual Member Promotions will continue to be offered to new or past members in the lead up to the season (Aug/Sep) and these include:
    • Member get member incentives
    • Waiving of reinstatement fees for past Members
    • Sign up to SYC monthly pay get one month free

*For those Members aged 18-24yo that take up the Youth membership offer, they are welcome to do so but they will lose two benefits – car parking privileges and voting rights.

So when do all these changes commence? For all existing Members the membership changes will commence on 1 September 2019. The exception is the Sailpass offer, this commences from 1 May 2019. For all new members, the new offerings are now available.

The key membership loyalty changes were also presented and were well received at the recent general meeting, and these include;

  • Boat Owners at SYC with 10+ years of Full membership will no longer pay race entry fees as of October 2019!
  • Boat Owners at SYC with 20+ years of Full membership will be entitled to one free gerni per annum in the boat yard as of July 2019.
  • Boat Owners with 30+ years of Full membership & marina occupancy will now receive 10% off their marina fees as of July 2019.
  • All 20+ year SYC members will receive an exclusively embroidered Gant Polo shirt on the decade anniversary of their membership….. and a new one for each decade milestone. So from June 2019, you will see more than 450 Members wearing their loyalty commemorative polos around the Club. In addition to this 2019 initiative, there will be annual top ups thereafter as Members hit new decade milestones.
  • SYC Member thank you events will continue to be staged similar to the Joe Camilleri & the Black Sorrows event we hosted for 500 Members in December 2018. Full Members will receive 2 tickets to these events and other Members will receive 1 ticket. Our next big event is our 10th Clubhouse birthday bash on 20 July 2019.
  • In the lead up to their birthday, Full members will receive a redeemable bottle of wine offer during their birthday month
  • All 20+ year Members will be recognised in a designated Membership section of the website which is now live.
  • In very good news for existing members aged 61+ with 10 years or more continuous membership (full and associate), the aged discount scheme will be fully retained. 

The continued growth and success of SYC will be attributable to many factors and one of the key elements is listening and responding to what our Members say, and acting on that feedback. These initiatives reflect this. That said, we have more important work to do in this space and we are currently in dialogue with different member stakeholder groups about how we can further improve our offerings. Keep talking to us, we are keen to listen and respond to our Members.   

I look forward to seeing you around the Club.

Yours sincerely,


Ashley Trebilcock
Commodore