A) What are The Yard’s new membership rates? Expand Young Adventurer: £8 per monthYoung Adventurer + AGM voting rights: £10 per monthYoung Adventurer + club: £20 per monthYoung Adventurer + club + AGM voting rights: £22 per monthVisiting membership x 5 visits: £20Visiting membership x 10 visits: £30
B) Why has The Yard increased its membership rates? Expand Our members are the heart of our community and together we achieve great things for disabled children in Scotland. Your membership helps make it possible for us to run our play services in Edinburgh, Dundee and Fife. As the Yard grows, it will help us support even more disabled children and their families throughout Scotland. Membership helps us rely less on fundraising, making it a vital part of what keeps our organisation strong and resilient. The cost of delivering our play services increases over time, and our 2018/19 membership review indicated it was necessary to introduce the first price increases since membership was introduced in 2014. Before making any changes, we consulted with our members at family sessions and through an online survey. The results showed the vast majority of our members highly value our services and are happy to pay more towards their true cost. Based on our current numbers, these changes will generate an extra £20,000 each year. This additional income could, for example, pay for ten weekends of family session. The Yard team will continue to earn income and fundraise to cover the majority of our clubs’ costs.
C) When do the new rates come into effect? What do I need to do? Expand Our membership changes are currently on hold due to the situation with COVID-19. We will keep you updated. All membership payments using all payment methods (cash, cheque and recurring debit/credit card payments) and payment frequencies (monthly and annual) will be charged at our new rates automatically via our membership database, MindBody. Please email us if you have any queries about your payment.
D) I pay monthly but I want to switch to annual payments – how do I make this change? Expand If you would like to change from monthly to annual membership payment, please email us to discuss this.
E) I pay membership annually before the rates change. Will I have to pay the new price? Expand We will contact everyone who pays annually to discuss how this works. Please make sure your contact details on our system are up-to-date by speaking to a member of the play team, or you can email us.
F) I have two children who attend a youth club. Does each child need a membership? Expand Yes, each child who attends a club still needs to have a membership in their own name.
G) My child attends a youth club but not family session. Which membership do I need? Expand All young people who attend a youth club need our Young Adventurer + club membership, which costs £20 per month. This does not change if your family does not use family session.
H) I already purchased a visiting membership at the old price. What does this mean? Expand All visiting memberships remain valid at their original price for one year from the date they are first used. The new rates only apply to visiting memberships purchased on or after the date we change over.
I) I pay our membership by debit/credit card. What do I need to do? Expand Your recurring card payment will continue to be taken from your account on the same date each month. Your first payment on or after the date we change over, as well as all subsequent payments, will be at the new rate automatically. You do not have to do anything.
J) My family currently uses a club but I pay for a standard Young Adventurer membership. What do I need to do? Expand Your recurring card payment will continue to be taken from your account on the same date each month. Your first payment on or after the date we change over, as well as all subsequent payments, will be at the new rate automatically. You do not have to do anything.
K) I would like to pay more than the standard membership fee. How do I do this? Expand Thank you for choosing to support The Yard in this way; we greatly appreciate it. In order to allow us to process your payments appropriately, and to differentiate between membership payments and donations, please set up any extra donation as a regular gift instead. This means we can also claim Gift Aid on your donation, which means The Yard receives anextra 25p for every £1 donated, at no additional cost to you.
L) I still want our membership but may struggle with the price increase. What can I do? Expand We will ensure no one is excluded from The Yard membership due to cost. We have a policy in place to support any members who may find it difficult to pay at the new rates. We are also working to help you access our services using your SDS payments, where applicable. You can find details of our membership assistance policy here. If you would like toenquire about accessing financial support, please read over this information and email [email protected] or talk to someone in our team. We will then contact you to check if you are eligible and discuss next steps. If you are not eligible for support but will find it difficult to pay for club membership, please email us for advice on how you can access other funds. Information on how to access Self-directed Support (SDS) payments is available here. You can initiate this process by contacting the relevant Social Work department directly. Edinburgh Fife Dundee
M) My child attends the 4-9s drop-in session. Which membership do I need? Expand Our 4-9s drop-in sessions are included in the standard Young Adventurer membership cost of £8 or £10 per month. These sessions are not clubs (respite) because they are attended with a parent or carer.