Commencing 1 April 2007...

Dear Member

New Membership Fees

Following an extensive review of the BASES membership package, fees have been reduced and on-line journal access (i.e., Journal of Sports Sciences and Human Kinetics Journals on Demand) will no longer be part of the membership package.

On-line journal access was part of the BASES membership package for 2 years. As part of the development of a membership recruitment strategy, the Strategic Management Team felt it was timely to review the value of BASES membership by analysing the usage and value of products and services that we offer. This was achieved by various methods including feedback from the network representatives at a network training day, a review from the Student Advisory Group, and a day where the Strategic Management Team and representatives from the three Divisions met to review the membership package.
Analysis revealed that only a small percentage of members were using this benefit. This was supported qualitatively at the various review events that were held, where attendees reported that they could access the journals elsewhere and did not value on-line journal access as a membership benefit. From a financial perspective, on-line journal access cost the Association just short of £30,000 when the irrecoverable VAT is taken into account - this equates to 20% of turnover. Overall, it was felt that on-line journal access was not good use of income given both the quantitative and qualitative feedback about usage.

Therefore the cost-benefit analysis indicated that BASES should remove on-line journal access from the membership package but negotiate discounted rates for BASES members with both Taylor & Francis and Human Kinetics, so that any BASES members who wish to continue on-line access to journals can do so by liaising directly with the respective publishers.

Thus, the fees have been reduced to take account of this change and the projected increases in costs in line with inflation for the next 3 years. The Strategic Management Team also wish to incentivise members to pay by annual direct debit as this reduces the administrative costs associated with membership renewals, hence a cheaper rate for annual direct debit payers.

The membership fees to be effective 1 April 2007 are as follows:

Taylor & Francis are offering BASES members online access to the Journal of Sports Sciences for £25 per annum and print and online access for £60. Please contact Steve Bowman at (tf.societies@informa.com) or Tel 020 7017 5541.

Human Kinetics is offering £20 per annum for online access per annum. Please contact Sara Cooper (sarac@hkeurope.com) or Tel 0113 2555665. Human Kinetics is also offering 8 weeks grace for those members who have not downloaded their full online access throughout 2006.

BASES Office March 2007