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Pay your SJA fees – you know it adds up

By Neil Wilson, SJA Honorary Treasurer
Once upon a time, when we were all young and Fleet Street was a place of newspapers, journalists could always make their expenses add up to the figure that first came into their head. Now generations of them, young and old, cannot get their heads around two simple figures- £20 and £30.

Those amounts might not buy decent a round in a Fleet Street pub these days, but for those paltry sums all of you can enjoy the privilege of membership of the SJA for an entire year. Yet too few of you pay it at the first attempt and it is costing your Association dearly.

So far this year our accounts have been credited with payments of sub fees in 12 different amounts. One member’s standing order was for £3! How many centuries ago was that the annual fee? Others had their banks pay a fiver, £7.50, £6.75, £11.25 and one sent £38.50.

One members sent two different amounts on the same day, one presumably a former standing order not cancelled. Neither amounted to the figure we wanted.

Then there are the members who work for a London national paper but believe they should pay the lesser regional fee because they work from home in the provinces.

Every mistake involves the cost of a letter pointing out the mistake and a further call on the private time of our long-suffering membership secretary, Bill Colwill. Often the same member received a letter last year but the standing order was still not amended.

So please, take a minute out of your day to check those standing orders before the same farce is repeated next year. After all, we are all quick to call when the expenses we receive are not the figure we first thought of.

Standing order forms can be printed off and completed here and information on SJA membership can be found by clicking here.

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