World Ship Society - MEMBERSHIP - Application form & Information
For Membership costs and an easy-to-print application for Membership form, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Membership Application/Renewal Information
1. All memberships are for the calendar year, i.e. January 1st to December 31st. If you join the Society at any time other than the 1st of January, your membership will be back-dated to January 1st, and we will forward to you any Marine News magazines published since January 1st.
2. All membership renewals are due before January 1st of the upcoming year. Please arrange to make your payment before December 15th each year, by sending the required amount to the Membership Secretary, or to the Representative that you have been dealing with in past years. During the later months of the year, at least one renewal reminder will be enclosed with your copy of Marine News, if you subscribe to the paper format, or by special notice to those requesting a PDF format for Marine News. Use this form, unless your Branch Secretary or Representative has sent you a detailed Renewal Form. If you are paying your annual dues through a Branch, make sure that the Branch Treasurer receives your payment in time for him to forward the proceeds to the International Treasurer before December 15th.
3. Payment amount depends on the category of membership, whether you pay through a Branch of the Society, and whether you pay for additional items such as a Warships magazine renewal. The 2013 base amount for all memberships is £20. But if your request paper format of Marine News, you must add on a postage surcharge (£33 for memberships in the UK – or £41 for memberships to locations outside the UK). Family memberships (the prime member, plus one other family member), require a £1 surcharge for each additional member. 4. Please send your renewal application to the address shown on the Renewal Form. Most UK members pay their local Branch Secretary or Treasurer, while most overseas members pay their dues to the Overseas Membership Secretary. Regardless of the office you make your payment to, please ensure it arrives in plenty of time so that we can update our records and keep your magazine subscriptions flowing seamlessly.
5. Payments can be made by pound sterling cheque £ (provided cheque is drawn on a British bank). Any other paper format cheque will be subject to bank charges of up to 20% of the value of the cheque. Most members opt to pay by credit card. We accept both MasterCard and Visa. When sending us your charge card details, please write clearly and include all the requested information. Each year we have to reject many payments because of faulty data being sent to us. Always include the full account number (exactly as embossed on your card), the expiry date (exactly as embossed on the card), your name as embossed on the card, plus the CVN number (which is the last three digits of the printed number that appears in the signature line on the reverse of your card).
6. When corresponding with any Society representative, always quote your 5-digit membership number. You will find this number on the mailing label of your Marine News magazine. If in doubt, contact the Membership Secretary at membershipsecretary@worldshipsociety.org (If the number is less than 5 digits, add preceding zeros.)
7. If you are paying for additional merchandise along with your membership application or renewal, please clearly indicate how much is to be credited to each item. Membership secretaries only handle the following payment options:— a) Membership dues payments b) payments for the annual WSS calendar, or Marine News binders c) payments for Warships magazine subscriptions All other payments must be sent to the volunteer responsible for that item, and not to the Membership Secretary. Branch memberships must not be sent to any International Membership Secretary. Pay your branch membership dues direct to your local Branch Secretary or Treasurer. Branch memberships cannot be paid by way of a credit card charge.
A Plea from the Membership Secretaries re: cheque payments
Several members, when renewing their subscriptions, make their cheques out to the Membership Secretaries which cause problems at the bank. Please excuse the following doggerel. [MWPark]
If you write a cheque to Mervyn Park, The bankers say "What is this lark?" The cashier she's a real honey, But still we do not get our money
To all my friends the whole world over, When writing cheques your fees to cover, I beg of you with all sobriety, Make cheques out to ‘World Ship Society’.
This also counts for U.K. member, When writing cheque please do remember, W.S.S. — not personal nomlinson, (It had to rhyme with Andrew Tomlinson)
8. How to apply for membership. If you are living in the United Kingdom, and your magazines are to be mailed to a UK address, please forward a completed Application form to our UK Membership Secretary, John Williams, 17 Birchdale Road, Appleton, Warrington WA4 5AR, U.K. — or another option is to scan the completed application form and e-mail as an attachment to john.williams@worldshipsociety.org (Keep in mind that an ORDINARY UK membership for the calendar year 2013 will cost a total of £20.)
If you are living anywhere outside the United Kingdom, including all of Europe and Ireland, please forward a completed Application form to our Overseas Membership Secretary, Mervyn Park, 6 King John Avenue, Gaywood, King's Lynn, Norfolk PE30 4QA, United Kingdom — or another option is to scan the completed form and e-mail as an attachment to mervyn.park@worldshipsociety.org (Keep in mind that an ORDINARY OVERSEAS membership for the calendar year 2011 will cost a total of £20.)
Alternately, any application can be sent to the webmaster -- Glenn Smith, WSS Overseas Branch Liaison Officer, 701-1011 Beach Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6E1T8, Canada, or glenn.smith@worldshipsociety.org (ORDINARY category membership requires a payment of either £20 plus £33 for magazines mailed to a UK address, or £20 plus £41 for magazines mailed to an address outside the UK.)
Please ensure that all the details are completed, preferably carefully printed or typed. If we are unable to read the information, it means that your application will be delayed until such time as the necessary information is in our hands. Be especially careful with your charge card details and indicate the information exactly as it is embossed on your card. We do not recomend sending credit card details in an open e-mail, but a scanned JPEG image of the Application Form as an attachment, has so far not caused any problems.
9. If you are not sure if the World Ship Society is the right one for you, ask us for a sample of our Marine News magazine. Send your request to newmembershipenquiries@worldshipsociety.org. If you want any further general information about the activities of the Society, send a request to the webmaster at webmaster@worldshipsociety.org
10. The World Ship Society is, in most cases, unable to provide individual prints from our Photo Library except to current members. The World Ship Society has no connection to any employment services, and does not entertain requests for crewing on ships. The World Ship Society does not have the resources to undertake geneaology studies. Research on ships and shipping companies is restricted to members only.
COSTS
All memberships run for a calendar year basis only. If you are applying in the mid to late part of the calendar year, please specify if you wish to start your membership back-dated to the past January 1st, or if you wish to start your membership as at the beginning of the coming year. The following costs are relevant to the calendar year 2013.
BASIC COSTS
BASIC ORDINARY membership (includes a free monthly subscription to our e-Journal version of Marine News - regardless where you live) £20
ORDINARY membership to an address in the United Kingdom — £20.00 (+ postage surcharge of £33 only for those requesting paper format of Marine News) for a total of £53.00.
ORDINARY membership to an address outside the United Kingdom — £20.00 (+ postage surcharge of £41 only for those requesting paper format of Marine News) for a total of £61.00.
FAMILY membership to an address in the United Kingdom — £20.00 (+ postage surcharge of £33 only for those requesting paper format of Marine News) + £1 for each family member included, for a total of £21.00 (minimum)
FAMILY membership to an address outside the United Kingdom — £20.00 (+ postage surcharge of £41 only for those requesting paper format of Marine News) + £1 for each family member included, for a total of £21.00 (minimum)
BRANCH membership is entirely optional and the cost (if any) depends on the policy of the local branch. Local Branch memberships cannot be paid to the Membership Secretaries - these must be paid direct to the branch.
OTHER DETAILS
Membership in the World Ship Society, Ltd includes a free PDF subscription to our monthly magazine, Marine News . FAMILY memberships receive only one copy of Marine News per month per annual membership.
All international memberships are based on a "base" cost, (currently set by Council at £20 per annum), plus a postage surcharge. The same policy applies to most book sales, binder sales or calendar sales.
Membership Secretaries also accept annual payments for subscriptions to our Warships magazine, or for the purchase of binders for Marine News or for our annual WSS Calendar.
Warships magazine subscriptions — £12 base cost, plus postage surcharge of £2.00 to addresses in the United Kingdom, or £4.50 to addresses outside the United Kingdom, for a total of £14.00 or £16.50 (depending upon where you live). Subscriptions are annual and include 3 issues.
2013 Classic Calendar — Member price is £7.50 if mailed to a U.K. address or £8.50 if mailed to any address outside the U.K.
Binders for Marine News — £10.00 to U.K. address, £11.50 elsewhere (which includes surface post and packing costs)
LIFE members will be supplied free of charge, with a monthly PDF version of Marine News (providing they supply an e-mail address to the Membership Secretary). LIFE members requesting a paper version of Marine News will be required to pay a postage surcharge of £33 (if the magazine is mailed to an address in the U.K.) or a surcharge of £41 (if the magazine is mailed to any address outside the U.K.)
APPLICATION FORM
In order to print out a copy of the application form, click on one of the following links:
