Club Membership Fees and Referees Expenses – An update

  • July 25, 2024

Message from: John Pemberton, Hon. Treasurer

Club Membership Fees and Referees Expenses – An update

Preparations for the implementation of the new way for charging annual club membership fees and paying members’ matchday travel expenses are on-track for the start of the 2024/25 season. Tasks completed since January include:

  • Pilot exercise with volunteers using WTR to generate expense claim reports completed successfully (this was for matches at which the volunteers officiated; the clubs paid their expenses in the usual way)
  • User guide for the expense claim process produced
  • Members’ bank details requested
  • Club contacts informed of our intentions with request for feedback and comments
  • Fee schedule for clubs defined
  • Clubs’ GPS co-ordinates checked and added to WTR.

The new system will be launched on 1st August. This means that from then, referees must not claim their matchday travel expenses from clubs under any circumstances.

A briefing will be given at the pre-season meetings (on 20th and 27th August at Sedgley Park and Blackburn respectively).

As a reminder, you can view a video recording of my presentation on the new approach that I gave at last December’s meeting here. You can also download a copy of the slides from here.

Also, the key changes can be summarised as follows:

·         The Society will take over the responsibility for paying referees’ travel expenses. The Society will then invoice clubs for the expenses incurred.

·         The annual membership fee for a club will be based on the numbers of matches that were covered by a Society-appointed referee for all its teams.

·         Clubs will be invoiced twice a season (in December and April). The invoices will cover the fees due and the expenses incurred by the appointed referees.