Late last year the BMC held a stormy EGM in order to try and agree sub increases for Club and Individual members for 2004, which was necessary because of spiraling insurance costs. In a controversial move the Club Members saw no real increase in their fees and were allowed to opt for a cheap upgrade path to become Individual Members with the bulk of the necessary money coming direct from the Individual Members. In a move which may go some way to redressing this imbalance, the BMC have provisionally announced sizeable increases for next year for club members. Club Members - £8/member - a 28% increase; Club Member upgrade to IM - £13.50 - a 42% increase;
Individual Members - £ 27.50 - a 10% increase.
I'm not sure that another well-above-inflation increase for IMs is a wise move. At this rate it'll hit £30 in 2006, at which point a predict a significant fall in membership.
I think they will be forced soon to consider a little more seriously splitting insurance from the membership fee. I saw recently that the Foundry have closed their good value policies due to problems with some large claims and the caving problems are much larger.
The original proposals had club members paying £7.75 and the upgrade at £11 http://www.thebmc.co.uk/thebmc/download/egm_proposal_table.pdf So it looks as if they've taken on board our main argument that the upgrade was too cheap. Also, in reducing the gap between what an IM pays to what an upgraded CM pays from £9.50 to £6, they've brought it more in line with the stated objectives of phasing it out over 4 years (rather than 19 years). Whether the clubs will accept the whopping £1.75 increase is another matter....
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