A FEW THINGS TO KNOW:
1. You should renew by December 31
The above process is for the renewal of active memberships. On January 1, when we open up for the purchase of new memberships, a slightly different process will be used to re-register. The above process is a fair bit simpler, so it's to your advantage to complete your renewal by midnight on December 31.
2. You can now print your own membership cards*
We will no longer be sending membership cards - you are now able to print them yourself! You can do this by clicking on 'Printable Membership Card' in the menu on the left side when logged into the member portal.
Being able to print your own cards was a common member request and we've listened to your feedback on this. In addition to not having to wait for cards to show up in the mail, this new feature substantially reduces our use of single-use plastics and the environmental costs of transporting them. As a conservation organization, this is important to us. This also represents a significant cost savings to the organization - the hard and soft costs of sending out cards exceeds $12,000 each year, and takes several weeks to complete. Even with self-printed cards though, we recommend against printing a paper copy. Instead, print them to a PDF or an image and save them on your phone to provide proof of membership as needed.
If you would prefer to have a club-printed card like always, you can order them by click on 'Buy Membership Card' in the menu to the left side when logged into the member portal, or by calling the office at 780-467-0085. They are available for $5 for an individual card or $10 for the cards for a family membership. (Please make sure you have registered all of your family members prior to ordering.)
*We noticed a small bug in the membership cards during testing. The printing option is still functional, the card just displays with an incorrect expiry date. We'll have this fixed by the end of the week, but we decided this wasn't a big enough issue to hold things up.
3. You no longer have to display your membership card
As was mentioned on page 29 of the Fall 2020 edition of Range of Thoughts, we updated the Facility Rules this year to remove the requirement that membership cards be displayed while on the property. You still do need to have your membership card with you - either as an image on your phone or as a printed card so that you can show them if requested by anyone - you just don't have to have it displayed on a lanyard. We did this for a few reasons:
- This requirement was a holdover primarily driven by our past use of Rule Enforcement Officers, this was intended to filter against non-member range use which, at the time, was against our rules. We now follow a different process for member discipline and no longer employ Rule Enforcement Officers, and since mid-2019 have had a supervised range guest process (currently suspended due to pandemic-related challenges).
- In the winter and/or on windy days (which we have a lot of at the range) it can be a nuisance that borders on a safety hazard to have your membership card on a lanyard around your neck. We listened to member feedback about this.
4. Reminder - dependents who turned 18 in 2020 will need their own membership in 2021
As always, if you have a child under your Family membership who turned 18 during the year, they will need to purchase their own Regular membership for 2021. (Some members have expressed surprise at this, thinking this is new. It's not though, it has been this way for some years now & is a requirement of the liability insurance policy that is part of your membership.) A membership can be purchased for them any time after January 1, 2021. Meanwhile, please renew yourself and your other family members prior to December 31 as discussed in point #1 above.
We have already contacted the primary members who have children turning 18 this year to make them aware of this, but in case we've missed you or you've missed our email, these are the details you need to know. You may notice your child drop off your membership over the coming month as we process this in the office, but please know that your child is still a member under your 2020 membership for the balance of the year and they are able to use the facility like usual until December 31.
