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New Membership Fees from June 2013
From 1 June 2013, membership fees will increase slightly. The new membership fees will be as follows:
Membership Type: |
Sub-type: |
|||
| Member | Overseas | Concessional | Honorary | |
| FRACI | $260 | $235 | $115 | - |
| FRACI CChem | $260 | $235 | $115 | - |
| MRACI CChem | $260 | $235 | $115 | - |
| MRACI | $230 | $210 | $115 | - |
| Post Grad Student | $115 | - | - | - |
| Undergrad Student | $25 | - | - | - |
| Associate | $85 | - | - | - |
The Board has also resolved to remove the spouse concessional membership fee as it is believed to be outmoded in today's environment.
For any queries, please contact National Office.
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Cheaper to be in the RSC.
Can you please advise if concessions apply to retired members as I have now retired. Thank you
Why are the fees increasing when services are decreasing?
The school corporate membership fees are missing.
The student membership, typically free is also not listed.
What is a concessional membership? What rules apply? I have used the spouse membership for some years now as my husband and I are both RACI members. It was Head Office who first suggested I take up the spouse membership as the only difference would be that I didn't receive journals as we already had one copy.
Having served many years on committees etc I find now that there are absolutely no reasons to continue to be a member. We recently moved and have no local branch in the area. We have been considering setting up some sort of local entity. How many members do we need?
Your member advantage card is a complete waste of time for us. I would much rather the money was spent on real items associated with Chemistry, chemical education etc. We would both rather have a membership card for the RACI - or something that means something. At this stage I find it very hard to think of a reason to remain a member. Over the years we spent much of our efforts giving back to community, encouraging young ones to take up Science as a career, showing them the importance and the joy of being a Chemist. I still find that if I tell people I am a Chemist, I am immediately assumed to be a pharmacist or associated with evil. As an environmental chemist , I now find I always say that I am an Environmental Scientist instead. I recently qualified as a Personal Trainer and MUST belong to the appropriate professional society to practise and have so many continuing education points each year. Anyone can claim to be a chemist when applying for a position. I am afraid the RACI has completely lost its way.
I can only think that the RACI does not want to retain retired members as the fees have gone from $65 to $115 in three years. When I was working I was able to claim a tax concession but as I am no longer employed I cannot hence the cash difference between FRACI on 42% tax rate and a retiree on 0% tax is only $21.30. After 39 years I will not be renewing my membership
Dear Colin,
You are quite correct. The rates have increased over the last three years but for the 8 years prior to this there was no increase for the retirees. Costs are forever increasing and we, unfortunately, have to keep pace. If you check the financial statements on the website you can see how the finances of the organisation has tracked over recent years it’s not a case of increasing for increasing’s sake.
Dear Pamela,
The spouse concessional rate is falling away for those couples who are both working. If one is not then the concessional rate will still apply.
You have the option of forming a section which would fall under and be supported by the state Branch. You do not need that many people I would say 4 or 5 would be sufficient.
The card can be useful if you use it. I have taken advantage of their medical insurance offering and have saved money. I also regularly utilise the move ticket option. The card is useful as it identifies you as an RACI member and is a handy reminder of what your membership number is.
You are quite right about the misconceptions of the general population of what a chemist really is. This is one of the reasons that we have the 5 touring exhibitions travelling around the country visiting libraries promoting the benefits of chemistry and what it provides to society. Our schools interactions are also aimed at stimulating interest in chemistry, the crystal growing for the primary school kids and the titration competition and ANCQ for the older ones. It would be great to have the sort of “closed shop” arrangements that some professions seem to enjoy but, unfortunately for us chemists, it doesn’t happen anywhere in the world. The breadth of the chemical sciences does not help. – How do you define a chemist!!
Dear Margaret
RE: Student Membership
“Free-bees” are an unusual animal. It happens time and time again that people tend to perceive something that is given out for free being worthless and when the time comes to pay for it they don’t.
RE: School Membership
This was actually deliberate. The Schools cannot pay on line and are dealt with individually. The numbers are small and allow this.
Dear RACI Member,
Believe it or not the majority of the membership are actually paying slightly less than they were 12 years ago and in todays economic environment that is something. Many people tend to forget that fees were dropped substantially in 2010 to encourage more people to join. This, unfortunately, was not successful.
I am curious to know what services are not being provided now that were in the past. I’m relatively new but in my time we haven’t deliberately cut back on anything.
Dear Rex,
There is a concessionary rate for retirees @ +/- 50% of normal.
Dear Phil,
But what do you get out of being a member?
Phil - I agree as I don't think I get any more from being a member of RACI than I did when I was an RSC member. Not sure if there is really any point in being a member of either though other than that I can use them as a tax deduction.
I note with interest that the costs for Member and Fellow are now equivalent. Is this in recognition of the limited (non-existent?) benefit of Fellowship or is it to extract more cash out of the general membership?
And in response to Roger’s comment to Phil regarding membership of the RSC:
But Roger, what do I get out of being a member of RACI? (never mind, it is a rhetorical question as it is experimentally impossible to measure the absence of something).
I assume the fees are due on the 1st July 2013 as they were due last year on the 1st July as per received letters. It is essential this date is consistent for member's such as myself who work for establishments that pay annual fees
In February this year there were cuts in the Public service where I worked for 25 years. The closed some areas and I was made redundant. Therefore if I want to remain a member with RACI .... I believe there is a different price for non-workers or/ self-funded retirees ....
Please send me the details of what I would be up for.
I was a MRACI
Thanks for responding to my comments. Just a quick one about the card. No, we can't use the card to go to the movies as it doesn't apply to our cinema. The card does not offer a discount on our health insurance over and above what we already receive. Sorry, but I have yet to find any benefits to the card. Having run or helped to run, crystal competitions, totrations competitions where the students travelled 300 km to participate and 300 km home again, bubble competitions, displays in shopping centres etc, as well as running talks for members etc. I am very aware of how much has not been done over the last decade in this regard in comparison to the previous decade. perhaps we have all given up. If you can't define what a chemist is, how do you now decide who can be a member of RACI?
Hi, So if you are not working and you are an MRACI and CChem, I take it that I should pay the $115 rate. I would appreciate a reply as the fee is steep.
Cheers, Michelle.
I believe that membership of any organisation provides an opportunity to contribute not only through membership fees,it allows us to pursue avenues of research interest,as well as providing a forum of discussion for working and retired Chemists. I continue to have a positive attitude to my membership of the RACI over many years.
dear roger,
I am a member of both RACI and RSC. But since you ask about what I get out of being a member of the RSC -
Travel Grants to support research visits and attendance at conferences;
similar support for PhD students and post-docs;
a very good and invaluable publication in Chemistry World;
excellent online resources for teaching and learning;
regular and diverse division and interest group meetings;
There are many more benefits I am sure, but I am not a recruitment agent for the RSC.
Dear Roger,
I would have thought that you might be aware of what RSC membership "gives" you? I would have thought that the RACI might be aware of what competitors such as the ACS and RSC provide?
Agree with a lot of the other comments on RACI value. I have an old chemist friend that hands over his RCS magazines for me to read & these have lot more general interest chemistry topics.
I have kept my RACI membership active as it was a useful ready 'proof' of qualifiaction for signing AQIS Fit For Purpose.
The discount on Qantas Club was only benefit to me from the Advantage Card, but would suggest it is also responsible for a few more SPAM emails offering anything / everything I do not require.
Once I hit retirement, will probably save myself $250 & spend it on Google downloads of technical articles, should I need them.
Why is the overseas more cheaper? I wish I was in overseas then. I am thinking of not renewing this year if the prices will go up every year like the council rates.
The fees of the ACS is only 150 AUD and the member advantages are massive compared with RACI.
I like to see RACI providing more support to members and consider that there are universities out of Sydney and Melbourne.
ACS offers:
Online seminars
Online professional development workshops
A nice little gift with every year renewal
A 5-year memebership certificate of appreciation
It looks like we have many members out there who are very supportive of the RSC and ACS and I agree they are very good institutions and have many offerings to members who are locally based but the tyranny of distance limits this for us Australians.
Both institutions are incredibly fortunate to have large publishing interests that bring in vast sums of money with membership fees making up less than 15% of their income. Being “not for profit” this gives them scope to do an enormous amount for members and to push the promotional activities for the importance of Chemistry.
I actually visited the RSC’s Cambridge office in the UK in January and it’s huge. They have 350 employees working there of which only 25 dealt with membership and membership issues.
Unfortunately our situation is different. The Divisions and Branches put on many events which is essential to give you, the member, benefits however most of these are breakeven and do not generate funds leaving the RACI heavily dependent on membership payments to cover operating costs.
I would love to have the same problem as the ACS and RSC – how to spend surpluses!!
Alan: The Membership year runs the same as the Financial year. We send out the first reminder notices at the start of June for those wishing to pay early and get the tax deduction this year.
Olga and Michelle: There is a concessional level for those out of work individuals.
Pamela: Unlike the RSC and ACS the RACI has limited resources and relies heavily on the wonderful work our dedicated volunteers do. Unfortunately time pressures of modern day living has reduced the available time to do this. The National Office is always available to support any worthy ideas because, at the end of the day, providing benefits to members is why we exist.
Faridah: Overseas fees are cheaper because they are not charged GST.
I am curious what proportion of membership fees fund participation in the Member Advantage program as compared to the proportion that fund RACI activities? I am also a member of APESMA, as I'm sure many RACI members are, and as they also offer the Member Advantage program, any fees I am paying for that through my RACI membership are redundant. has there been any consideration of offering Member Advantage as an optional extra?
Member advantage fees cost us less than $3 per person per year and the advantage card doubles up as a RACI membership card.
Offering as an optional extra would be administratively taxing and we also have to factor in that the lower the numbers the higher the cost will be.
Member Advantage has been a winner for me! A purchase of a new motor vehicle saved $3500 on the new vehicle price. "Hotel Club" for accommodation has better rates than Expedia and Wotif! I recommend Member Advantage to all RACI members.
Now retired for some twenty years, my Honorary membership has been invaluable, providing me with the opportunity through "Chemistry in Australia" to be informed about our country’s continuing research and scientific achievements. Thank you and well done RACI!
Disappointed at the removal of the spouse rate. There is already a saving to the institute through only providing one copy of CHemistry in Australia. While I agree with the principal that it is an outmoded fee structure (particularly as at the time we did it it was pointed out to me that the man would be the full member), there is nothing to replace that embraces the flexibility of the modern workforce and family. For example a full-fee is a financial impost on those working part-time (whether men or women) - there is accomdation made for this by my union for example - and there is no clearly specified way to keep memebrship going at a reduced rate while on maternity leave. I haven't yet renewed my memebership this year and am considering my position as I find it difficult to justify the expense.
The concessional category still provides for those spouses who are not employed for whatever reason. Simply contact Regina at National Office and she will arrange it.
I am very disappointed at the removal of the spouse rate. I do not see any justification for its removal, other than trying to get more money from members and advertisers. The fact that they were established years ago under certain reasons that no longer exist, does not mean they should be disbanded as new reasons have arisen for them to remain.
If that means that my household, both adults working full time and MRACI CChem, now receives two copies of Chemistry in Australia, then I consider it agains any sensible environmental policies (publishing and delivering copies of magazines that RACI knows are redundant and have a high likelihood to end up in the rubbish/compost/recycling bin untouched and unopened does not seem very environmentally friendly).
Unless the potential sudden increase in publications number and circulation means RACI will be able to collect more money from advertisers. But that would be a bit too creative an accounting trick, wouldn't it?
And if that was the result, how would RACI deal with the moral dilemma that the "income" generated is actually at the cost of the environment? In my mind, for my particular case, paying full fee just means I am encouraging an organisation to willy-nilly generate waste. Basically, a waste of money to generate a waste of paper, energy and time. I'm not sure I want to be that person.
How does RACI reconcile that with its policies and statues? How can RACI purport to be interested in environmental issues, having and supporting environmental-themed groups and seminars, when it can not get this simple thing right? Please reinstate the spouse rate that excludes the costs of publication and distribution.
I find the overseas membership rate to very high. I would love to continue to support RACI but I find the expense of an overseas membership hard to justify. The personal benefit to me isn't clear and I am also unable to reclaim any costs through tax (or charge it to my work budget). At the moment I'm afraid that I will have to let my membership lapse at least until I can find a job back in Aus. I am also a member of the Australian Institute of Physics and would point out that their overseas membership rate is half that of the Australian rate. This is much more palatable and I am likely to renew my AIP membership.
With today’s notion of equality and partnerships rather than marriage having a spousal category is difficult to both justify and police. However if one of the partners are not working there is still the unemployed category available.
On the subject of the magazine, the Chemistry in Australia management committee would love to go on line, you can in fact choose to receive the on line version rather than the hardcopy in your profile on the web, however membership appears to be resistant to this. We recently had a survey on this issue and the response was for hard copy. Moves are being made to encourage the on line selection an example being you can get the latest edition 2 on line weeks prior to the hard copy arriving.