Spring 2004 Newsletter : Help us to help you

Appreciating the risk of upsetting those members who do respond to their correspondence, alienating those who don't, and boring the pants off everyone, I do need to beg members to reply promptly to our correspondence to you. Please remember that the WPSA UK Branch is run by volunteers whose time could certainly be more productively spent than having to constantly send out reminders to those who have ignored our first, and frequently also our second, attempts to elicit responses - not to mention the cost to the Branch of repeated mailings!

Members who pay us by Annual Banker's Order, of which we wholeheartedly approve, were mailed at the end of October with the information that the Branch had been forced to change its bank account and that we therefore require new Banker's Orders to be signed, not in any way altering the arrangements between us. New forms were sent out and stamped and return addressed envelopes provided for convenience. A deadline of the end of December was necessary as these payments are made on 2 January each year. It may surprise many to be told that, 3 months later, at the end of January, 22% of these forms had still not been returned. This means that many subscriptions are in arrears and that payments have been missed. It is now necessary to mail all these laggards again and to try to reinstate their membership.

And those who pay annually on invoice are no better! 29% of members had still not paid their initial membership renewal invoice after two months and so further reminders have had to be been sent to these.

With grateful thanks to the many members who regularly respond promptly, and apologies to all for another rant, I really do have to remind some members that I do have better things to do than to keep chasing overdue accounts.

Please help us to help you!