Campaigners new vote on affiliation fee

A general meeting of Scottish Golf has been called to vote on a fresh proposal to increase the annual affiliation fee paid by around 170,000 club members.

The meeting, which will be held in Stirling on 4 October, has been driven by a group of seven Area and County associations around the country calling itself “The Requisitionists”.

Having received sufficient support from Scottish Golf ’s stakeholders to call the meeting, the group has now tabled a proposal for the affiliation fee to increase from £11.25 to £14.50.

That is 50p lower than the figure that was rejected by stakeholders at an annual general meeting in March, a decision that was met with “deep disappointment” by Eleanor Cannon, the Scottish Golf chair.

The new figure would raise an additional £552,500 and, if approved, the affiliation fee will be frozen by the governing body until 2022.

The Requisitionists are particularly keen to give Scottish Golf a chance to look at how it can raise income from “nomadic” golfers who pay-and-play at courses at cut-price rates at a time when club membership is declining.

In recognising this, Scottish Golf has vowed to invest around £150,000 annually on providing a new non-compulsory free-of-charge IT system to assist clubs with an emphasis on nomadic golfers. Other areas of investment if the new figure is approved include a potential £100,000 per year on a “national junior programme” that would aim to build on current initiatives for youngsters.

On the club front, it is being predicted that £75,000 could be used to build on the success so far of a “buying group” with the same figure going towards improving Scottish Golf’s “education offering”.

As well as limiting cuts that are in the pipeline if the figure stays the same, the additional money would allow approximately £50,000 per year to be spent on the governing body’s marketing and communications budget.