HAT Membership Changes

September 2024

At the end of August, HAT celebrated some of our members and a number of dedicated HAT volunteers at the Friends of HAT Celebration held at the Esquimalt Gorge Park Pavillion! It was a fun event, and we are both grateful for everyone who could attend and hopeful that we’ll be able to celebrate those who couldn’t make it soon. 

It was also a chance for HAT staff to share a little bit about some changes to how Membership works at HAT. Approved by the HAT Board at the June board meeting, HAT is working to make Membership easier to manage for existing and perspective members, and more accessible to communities and groups underrepresented in the HAT family with changes to how Memberships renew and to Membership dues. We are very excited about these changes, and hope that you will be excited about them too. Please read on to learn about the changes and see how they might impact your membership. 

Membership With Benefits 

While participation in this program was mostly during the early- and mid-stages of how COVID-19 was impacting us all, this aspect of membership had been conceived to connect members of the HAT community with local businesses at a very particular time. Now that COVID-19 has become more integrated into our lives than we all first suspected in early 2020, the need for this sort of partnership has waned. We still maintain close ties with the businesses who partnered with us and offered savings, discounts, and more accessible services to Members who chose the Benefits option (instead of a tax receipt), but we have placed the program on hold for now. Everyone who had registered for a Membership with Benefits are still members, and the below changes still apply to you. Your membership will be rolled into a standard membership at renewal. Sunsetting this program also means that Membership Cards are returning to general Membership (as they were used to identify Members with Benefits to participating local businesses). 

Thank you to everyone who spent time as a Member with Benefits. We are so grateful for your support, and our partners extend their gratitude as well! 

Membership Renewals 

This might be the biggest change to how HAT Memberships work, and we are making this change in hopes that it will make being a HAT Member that much easier.  

Since the beginning of HAT, Memberships have renewed based on the day that each Member (or family, depending on Membership Category) registered, and were basically “anniversary based.” One of the most difficult parts of this anniversary basis has been reminding Members when your Membership expires, giving you the chance to renew quickly and easily without impacting your Membership status. Unfortunately, despite trying several solutions, we just never landed on a method that integrated well with our current systems and was consistent. 

Effective 25 August 2024 (the day the changes were announced at the Friends of HAT Party), all HAT Memberships now renew at the end of January. This makes January leading up to the Annual General Meetings (AGM) that is held every year in early February “Membership Month.” By early January a reminder email will be sent to all current HAT Members that your membership is due to expire at the end of the month and along with an invitation to the AGM, this email will list all the possible ways to renew for the coming year. 

One of the added benefits to this change is how it centres the AGM as a Membership event. Members can renew at the AGM while participating in an evening of HAT governance and celebration that holds Members up as a vital governing body and seeks guidance from Members for the coming year. The AGM will also give donors, volunteers, and other folx within the HAT community the chance to become members. 

How this will Work Right Now:  

  • if you are currently a HAT Member, you will remain a HAT member until January 2025, with no need to renew between now and then.  

  • If you pay for a HAT membership between 25 August 2024 and December 2024 then you will remain a HAT Member until January 2026. 

If you are unsure of your Membership Status, please email members@hat.bc.ca to have your membership confirmed.  

How this will work going forward: You can become a HAT Member at any time by submitting dues (see below) to HAT. If it’s still possible based on your sign-up date, this will invite you to the AGM (February) and to the Friends of HAT Celebration (August), and you will be invited and/or notified of all other benefits and special events that Members are invited to. Your Membership will then renew on the following January. 

Membership Dues 

HAT Membership dues have been stable for a very long time, ranging from $20 for a student, $30 for an individual Membership, to $45 for a Family Membership. The more Friendships and partnerships that HAT is invited into, particularly with marginalized communities, the more important it is becoming for HAT to reduce barriers for those communities to become HAT Members and to be represented within HAT Membership. 

To address one of the barriers, the HAT Board approved a change in dues structure, and we are very excited to share this with you all. 

Effective 25 August 2024, Membership Dues are now paid on a “pay-within-your-means" sliding scale.  

  • If money is a barrier to Membership, there is now the option available for individuals and families to become HAT Members without paying any money. Simply sign-up as a HAT Member on the HAT website (https://hat.bc.ca/member), just click the button that reads “Reduced Barrier Membership”, and you will be directed to a Membership form that has no donation option. 

  • If money and finances are not a barrier, this also gives folx the option to donate what they are able to towards HAT Membership rather than being forced to split a donation between Membership dues and financially supporting other programs (you can still split your donation in any way you would like, and this actually gives you the ability to direct your entire donation towards membership, if that’s what you are hoping to do). 

Both memberships will operate the same and there will be no distinction made. A HAT Member is a HAT Member regardless of their financial capacity. 

If you have any questions about Membership, including to confirm your current status as a Member, please email members@hat.bc.ca.  

(The above changes are for "student,” “individual,” and “family” categories only. “Organizational Memberships” are slightly different. If you would like to become an Organization Member, please email HAT’s Community & Development Coordinator, Kikila, at chris@hat.bc.ca to book an appointment to discuss what this sort of relationship might look like for your organization.) 

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We are very excited about these changes to HAT’s Membership, and hope that you (the HAT Community) are too. Please let contact us if you have any questions by emailing members@hat.bc.ca, or you can call the HAT office during business hours at 250.995.2428. 

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