Membership

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Membership of Thoughtful Foods is governed by our constitution and rules.

Costs and benefits

Costs:

  • $10 share in the co-op upon joining (refundable if the member chooses to cancel their membership, up until one year from their membership becoming inactive)
  • 15 annual fee – reduced to $10 on 1st July and then to $5 on 1st November as the year progresses.

Membership expires on January 31, the end of our financial year, and after this date members will need to pay the annual fee to keep their membership active (there is a month grace period).

Benefits:

  • 10% discount on in-store items, except those labelled “no further discount”.
  • Able to order bread veggie boxes,
  • Able to place bulk orders
  • Able to volunteer to earn a further shop discount (lasting one week from date of volunteering).
-25% for 1hr
-40% for 2hrs
  • May be entitled to discounts at other co-ops.

Volunteering is not a requirement for active membership, but for accountability and insurance reasons we are not allowed to let people volunteer who are not active members.

Processing memberships

Thoughtful Foods has the right to refuse membership to anyone it chooses. The membership system is now kept on nationbuilder and a Google form. The membership is processed on the Google doc in the shop and then imported into NationBuilder weekly once it has been checked.

To sign up a new member:

  • Ask the prospective member to enter their personal details and agree to the terms of membership on the Google form. The homepage on the laptop is set to the Google form. There is also a bookmarked link to the Google form. The link is https://docs.google.com/a/thoughtfulfoods.org.au/forms/d/1ZMPgIIYcCIA6FpQ_BCFztjg2dunowaSxtb0NqArE4Ls/viewform
  • Complete all other information as prompted by the computer system
  • Take money and process the payment through the register and write out a receipt
  • Issue a membership card
  • Fill out details on the hard copy of 'Membership Applications' sheet and gett the prospective member's signature

Once a provisional membership has been processed, it goes to the monthly directors' meeting for formal approval. This is the point at which memberships may be refused.

To renew a membership: ?????????

Rules of membership Renewal

  • Everyone's membership is deactivated/expires on 31st January in the membership database, because our financial year starts on Feb 1st.
  • Members have a grace period of a month until 1st of March to renew in which we let them place veggie orders, order bread and get the member discount After March 1st, their member rights are forfeited until they renew.
  • After 1 year of an inactive membership, a member becomes ‘deactivated’ and their share is absorbed into the co-op – ie – they can’t get it back, and will need to repay their share when they renew.
  • A reminder to renew email goes out on 1st of Feb to tell people to renew and it is advertised in the bulletin. Reminder leaflets should be put in veggie boxes also.
  • An email reminder is sent to inactive membership on 1st July and 1st November letting people know that membership fees have dropped.

Refunding shares

Shareholding members of Thoughtful Foods may receive a refund of their $10 share if they wish to leave the co-op. The member will need to bring in their membership card. If they've lost it, a coordinator will need to check their ID. Shares are non-transferable and may only be refunded to the shareholding member directly. Only trained shop coordinators may process share refunds.

To refund a share:

  1. Are you a coordinator? If not, ask a coordinator to process the refund
  2. Confirm they are a shareholding active member
  3. Record the members name, email address and bank details so we can organise a share refund (processed electronically). Bank details we need are account name, BSB, account number and name of bank.
  4. Email this info to finance@thoughtfulfoods.org.au. The share refund will be processed as part of that week’s payments run (usually done on Saturday). If it’s urgent, text message the finance coordinator to see if a mid week payment can be organised – this will usually take a couple of days to happen.
  5. Write a share refund receipt including all required information - the booklet is in the membership pigeonhole
  6. Write all required details on the 'Share Refund Applications' sheet - in the Membership Folder - and get their signature
  7. Take the member card and staple it to the hard copy of the contact and bank details of the member requesting a refund. This gets placed into the ‘Monika’ sleeve in the invoice folder so the share refund can be processed as part of the weekly payment run.
  8. Notify finance coordinator of refund request.

We can NOT give cash refunds for shares and our refund procedures are clearly stated in our Membership Information Booklet

More detailed instructions can be found in the Membership Folder. (what else is needed? Should write whatever that is here as well)

to update NationBuilder (NB)

(this job for membership coordinator only?)

  1. tag with membership / share refunded (year) in NB
  2. delete current active member and current share holder tags in NB
  3. untick volunteer box if appropriate (in the edit screen)
  4. tick the do not contact period box
  5. save person
  6. insert background note "Share refunded YEAR MONTH DATE # initials of person doing NB update (eg 2015 07 04 #MSB)
  7. log follow up for membership refund

we need to sort out a follow up process for this (quick few questions about why the refund eg moving away, etc). ie set up a follow up, the membership coordinator sends follow up contact, logs the contact and closes the follow up


For finance coordinator

Once notified of a refund request, confirm if member requesting the refund is eligible for a refund (check NB and google doc) & sets up refund payment.

  1. Email refund details to treasurer for approval.
  2. Once approved, send remittance advice for refund to Membership coordinator for them to give to member & notify Membership director of refund for approval at next directors meeting.

Household membership

Before 2010 Thoughtful Foods made it possible to create 'household memberships'. Those living in a household would collectively pay for the equivalent of two memberships and all household members would then receive the full benefits of an individual membership. To comply with our constitution, however, we needed to alter the system as this complicated the issues of share refunds, voting rights and overall fairness. A household became a conceptual, computerised grouping of two or more independent co-op members who live at the same location, and who were granted the ability of issuing additional cards to others who live with them. The only benefit these additional cards gave the bearer was a 10% shop discount, as all other benefits conflicted with the constitution.

During the 2010 AGM, it was proposed that we remove the household membership option completely. It was complicated to implement the household memberships system and train shop coordinators to adhere to it, and co-op members took on a lot of responsibility for very little benefit if they issued additional cards. During the first five months of 2010, not one additional card was issued. This proposal was agreed on by consensus.

We decided that it makes more sense to have a simple, one person one membership system. People who want to get a discount or receive any other member benefits must be members.