NEW RENEWAL PROCEDURES FOR 2021-22
Dear Buccaneer Gun Club member,
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS VERY CAREFULLY AS THEY AFFECT HOW YOU WILL RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP THIS YEAR. This year’s membership renewal procedure will be undergoing several important changes. These changes do not change the Club’s requirements for what is required of each member in order to renew membership, but they will make it simpler for the Board to keep the required information on file and current.
The Board of Director’s has decided to make these changes for multiple reasons, including the increasingly expensive and often unreliable delivery by the U.S. Postal service; the amount of time required by the Treasurer to retrieve, deposit, and then hand enter each payment into our accounts as they come in over a 2 month period; and finally, the cumbersome way each data set (Hold Harmless forms, NRA membership affirmation and hand written bank checks) have to be tracked and entered by multiple Board members for each of our 425 members. Here is how it will work moving forward:
1. We will no longer be using the US mail system to have members return hundreds of packets of paperwork to the PO Box. INSTEAD, RENEWALS AND PAYMENTS WILL BE DONE ELECTRONICALLY via EMAIL. (For those 8 club members who do not currently have email accounts, you will be grandfathered in and sent your mail packet the first week of December to renew via USPS mail). For all other current members who already have an email of record in our BGC files, and for all newly inducted members moving forward, renewal will henceforth be done by email.
***VERY IMPORTANT: IT IS EACH MEMBER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THAT THE CLUB HAS YOUR CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS ON FILE AT ALL TIMES. If you have changed your email at any time and not updated it with the BGC Secretary Dick Brame, you must let him know IMMEDIATELY or you will risk not getting your notice when the bills are sent out for payment the first week of December. Also, for those of you who have MORE THAN ONE email on file with us, please pick ONE that you want used for all club business, and let him know immediately which one you prefer.
AGAIN, IF YOUR EMAIL HAS CHANGED OR YOU DO NOT GET OUR REGULAR NEWSLETTER EMAILS EACH MONTH, PLEASE NOTIFY THE BGC SECRETARY IMMEDIATELY by sending a note to DBrame55@gmail.com. Also, if you are in the habit of not opening club emails or they go to your junk mail inbox, you will need to go to your junk mail box and mark the BGC sender address as “accepted sender” or “NOT JUNK” and be sure you open any emails coming from the club in December and January of each year.
YOU WILL GET A QUICKBOOKS INVOICE FOR DUES AS AN EMAIL AROUND DECEMBER 6th. This email will have a simple “Review and Pay” button at the bottom that you just click on to pay. It will allow for immediate payment of your dues and any workdays you owe using the method of your choice including by credit card, debit card, direct e-payment from a bank account of your choice, etc. This will allow for a far more secure and efficient means of payments and accounting going directly through our BGC QuickBooks account straight into each member’s Buccaneer account and on to the club’s bank account. WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU PAY THE BILL WHEN IT ARRIVES OR SET YOURSELF A VISUAL REMINDER ON A CALENDAR. We will send out periodic reminders in December, but IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP THAT EMAIL AND PAY THE BILL BEFORE THE RENEWAL DEADLINE.
2. IT WILL NO LONGER BE NECESSARY FOR EXISTING MEMBERS TO SIGN A HOLD HARMLESS INDEMNITY AGREEMENT EACH YEAR. As many of you saw, last year we changed the indemnity agreement everyone signed to include a new clause that read: “MEMBER AGREES AND COVENANTS THAT THIS AGREEMENT SHALL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT FOR THE DURATION OF HIS OR HER MEMBERSHIP TO BUCCANEER GUN CLUB, INC. “.New members coming in each year will sign their Hold Harmless form at Orientation, but existing members who already have a signed form on file from last year (2021) will only be required to sign the forms once every 3 years (2023, 2026, etc.), unless there are major revisions needed to the Safety Rules or Hold Harmless agreement forms themselves.
3. IT WILL NO LONGER BE NECESSARY FOR ALL 425 BGC MEMBERS TO SHOW NRA PROOF OF MEMBERSHIP EACH YEAR. Almost half of our members are multi-year NRA membership renewal purchasers or are NRA Life/Endowment members. Asking each of you who have already documented to us that your memberships never expire (Life Members), or have certified that they extend past the current year that you are renewing your BGC membership for, just creates unnecessary work for both you and the Membership chairman who must track them all. Instead, we have sorted our BGC member records files to list NRA memberships by the year they expire, and WE WILL NOW ONLY REQUIRE VERIFICATION OF NRA MEMBERSHIP FOR THOSE MEMBERS WHOSE NRA MEMBERSHIP EXPIRATION DATE FALLS BEFORE FEBRUARY 1st of THE UPCOMING YEAR OF BGC MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL. For example, this year, if our records show that your NRA membership has already expired in 2021, or expires before February 1st, 2022 (this includes 72 members this year), YOU WILL GET AN EMAIL NOTICE FROM BUCCANEERGUNCLUBNC@gmail.com (separate from your bill for dues) STATING THAT YOU MUST RENEW YOUR NRA MEMBERSHIP IN ORDER TO COMPLETE YOUR ANNUAL BGC MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL.
You may submit your confirmation of current NRA membership proof in one of 3 ways:
1. ON THE WEBSITE-(Recommended method) By going onto your Member Profile page on the BGC website at www.buccaneergunclub.org. Enter your password for the site, then click on “Member’s Area” in the upper right of your screen to get to your personal page, then look under the “Your Account” header and clicking on “Membership Renewal”. This will let you sign the Hold Harmless form and submit your NRA info electronically and you will get an immediate email confirmation that it has been completed.
2. Via AN EMAIL sent to BUCCANEERGUNCLUBNC@gmail.com. Be sure you include your FULL NAME, JUST AS IT APPEARS ON YOUR NRA MEMBERSHIP CARD, THE ENTIRE NRA MEMBERSHIP NUMBER, and the new date of expiration.
3. By SNAIL MAIL, using the USPS and mailing in a photocopy of your current NRA membership card and/or the magazine label showing your membership number and an expiration date that is good until at least February 1st of next year. Remember, mail has been notoriously slow lately and it must be RECEIVED, NOT JUST POSTMARKED BY, January 31st or you will lose your club membership. The club is not responsible for delayed or lost mail, which is why we recommend using option #1 above.
Whatever method you choose, PROOF MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN JANUARY 31, 2022. As in the past, failure to submit this proof by the January 31st cutoff date or any falsification of the information you submit (which will be randomly sampled for verification) will result in loss of your membership, even if your invoiced dues have been paid.
We understand that these changes will require some adjustment, but we believe that it is a necessary change to keep the club operating efficiently and that members will find this new procedure much simpler and efficient to use in the long run. Please feel free to email the Treasurer or Board of Directors members at BuccaneerGunClubNC@gmail.com if you have any questions.
Thank you for your assistance in implementing these changes. Howard Hoadley, BGC President