What do you value in membership of CTC/CUK?

[Paulatic]

http://www.cyclinguk.org/files/ctc-shop-discount-list_0.pdf 3 seconds google got this...

It's five years out if date and it was going to take 2 months to update it. Two weeks more to wait

[Mick F]

What do you value in membership of CTC/CUK?
Not a lot, just £22odd a year.

I'm happy that they are campaigning, and I'm happy to receive legal advice and insurance.

I don't want my free copy of Cycle and I don't want the Cycle Clips email every week (so I've unsubscribed).
Can you stop the Cycle mag? I rarely read it, but leaf through it quickly and then get rid of it.

[Graham]

Can you stop the Cycle mag? I rarely read it, but leaf through it quickly and then get rid of it.

Things may have changed but, when I was working at CTC HQ ( 10years ago + ), the trigger to suppress the sending of the magazine was a single "failure to deliver".

If a magazine was returned to the Return Address because it could not be delivered for any reason, the mailing organisation would set a flag in the Computer system to suppress any further mailing of "Cycling" to that member/address.

The feedback mechanism relied on the member calling into HQ to get the magazine resent & posting restarted.

This used to cause quite a lot of distress to those that valued the mag. One single "failure to deliver" and that effectively stopped it for evermore unless the member chased it down and sorted it out by phone with CTC ( and that is when things went smoothly ).

Things may have changed ( I hope ).

Mick, have a word with your postman . . . . . .

[Graham]

Oh, or just contact Cycling UK and ask them to stop sending it.
Hopefully, you will get someone who knows which screens to access and which flag to set in the system.

[Mick F]

Thanks Graham.
I'm a member of the IAM too, and they send a mag every quarter. That gets scan-read then disposed of.

Maybe I should email CUK and IAM and ask them to stop sending me their magazines. Maybe I could get a reduction in my membership fees??

Advanced Driving Mag isn't for sale anywhere, but Cycle costs £3 every two months - that's £18 per year.
Considering I pay £28.50 pa, I should get membership for £10.50 pa without the magazine ........... and that doesn't count the postage costs.

[Paulatic]

For £10:50 it might be worth considering joining [emoji4]

[Mick F]

Exactly.
What about a membership without the bells and whistles?

[ANTONISH]

Just the insurance - and I can get that elsewhere. It isn't the organisation I joined.

[robgul]

Exactly.
What about a membership without the bells and whistles?

... watch this space

Rob

[PH]

Cycle costs £3 every two months - that's £18 per year.

That's the cover value, apparently the cost to CTC is around £3 per member. The rest being advertising revenue, one of the reasons they wouldn't want too many members dropping the magazine is the knock on affect that might have on advertisers. I get two copies, one gets read by me then passed around affiliated members, the other goes straight to the library where I know it gets read.

[PH]

I'm curious as to what members benefits are worth the money.

The simple answer is that if the member benefits were worth the money it wouldn't be permitted to be a charity.
So apart from those direct benefits (insurance, magazine, discounts) there are two reasons to value membership.
1) You support the objectives of the charity and wish to contribute towards the organisation's work in achieving them.
2) You wish to participate in the local group's activities, though there may be cheaper options than full membership to do so.
I'd rather those two things were separate, so you could choose either or both, but that isn't likely to happen anytime soon. I'd still be a member of both.

[mjr]

The biggest attraction of membership to me would be to have a voice in the democracy... but I'm not a big fan of joining an organisation and trying to change it too much, especially when it seems in such organisational flux as CUK does just now. I suspect it may go the same way as other charities and bulk-convert its remaining voting members into non-binding "supporters" soon.

I think everything else can be obtained more cheaply or effectively elsewhere, such as household insurers or local cycling groups. Even CUK's own affiliate "membership" (it's not really membership) appears to provide all membership does except for a vote and legal advice, according to http://www.cyclinguk.org/membership/aff ... -and-sizes

[steady eddy]

Why can't the magazine be sent digitally so that they save all the production costs and the postage - that's the way that so many magazines are going.

Personally I like the magazine - its as good as anything else cycle related on the news stands.

Before people get too hung up about the cost of membership, compared it to professional institutes, which again are not much more than lobby groups(and are charities), it is an absolute bargain. I don't have to belong to mine to practice, but many make that a requirement - my annual sub is £275 per year. The magazine is rubbish and I have to do CPD to keep updated in my time and at my - additional - expense.

Being a member of the CTC or what ever it now is, creates a sense of belonging and binds me to the rest of "you lot". Next week at age 61, I am off on my first continental jaunt with a bike and more importantly my wife - without you lot we probably wouldn't be going. You ( collectively) provide inspiration, knowledge and comfort that this can be done and it is easy - That is worth my sub. I will report back on the success or otherwise of this venture when we return, possibly even in the pages of Cycle. I am starting to think that northern Spain might be nice for next year. Don't give up on the CTC or Cycling UK - It does have a purpose, even if you haven't quite found it yet.

[Bicycler]

Why can't the magazine be sent digitally so that they save all the production costs and the postage - that's the way that so many magazines are going.

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=87260

[steady eddy]

15% discount on wet weather gear at Cotswold Leisure has just paid for this years subscription. Far better value that anything we could buy in a bike shop and it will all double up for hill walking.
What's not to like? - As they say!