Club membership requirement

[Freedom Rider 209]

Does your club have mandatory NHSA Membership included in it's bylaws or Articles of Agreement?

If so you cannot be involved in the NHSA Online Membership Program. As anybody joining your club through this program is not a member of NHSA. What does your club do? Pay the $10.00 to NHSA so your club can be a legal member of your club? Or does it tell the person thank you for joining us but you are a low grade member and cannot participate? Make sure to tell them no insurance for them if they are hurt doing anything for the club.

What will your club do now about it's bylaws and Articles of Agreement with regards to ruling made by NH Attorney General regarding no one can be forced to join NHSA nor can NHSA force 100% membership? Make changes, make believe it never happened, or stick their head in the sand and hope they don't get complaints by Anti Trust part of AG's office.

One piece of advice. Don't ask NHSA or it's leadership for advice.

Trails Bureau $30.00 fee instead of discount for registration is looking better everyday. At least $30.00 goes to Trails Program and GIA and none to the Black Hole of Tilton.

Edited January 18, 2018 by Freedom Rider

[DonSawyer 0]

Whow! I didn't know about this. Thanks for the heads up.

[RK-SXViper 144]

16 hours ago, Freedom Rider said:

Trails Bureau $30.00 fee instead of discount for registration is looking better everyday. At least $30.00 goes to Trails Program and GIA and none to the Black Hole of Tilton.

As much as I agree that the $30 to GIA is a good thing the clubs that make it ALL happen will be the ones that really lose! Without the clubs the state would have no way to handle 7000 miles of trails.

[smthopr8r 24]

Am I understanding this correctly that there is a snafu with the association charging $10 per member as well as the $30 club membership fee. I may be way off base on this but the wording on item 24 of the states discontinuance order has me confused. The order seems to apply to the online side of the portal. What about the tons of members I have entered into the portal that are not from the NHSA online system. Not trying to create a war here but I need some clarity for our club.

[jhwentworth 307]

First: I'm reading this agreement as a layman with a "plain English" understanding, and that could be a mile wide of a legal reading. I've previously explained that my legal training was watching Matlock reruns, and nothing much has changed there.

 

With that understanding..

Reading the Assurance of Discontinuance paragraph 6 under Parties it seems clear that the agreement is limited to the "Matters Investigated."

The subject matter of the Bureau’s investigation included alleged price
fixing conduct, and related unfair method of competition and unfair or deceptive
practices in facilitating and securing agreements from NHSA member clubs to set
uniform club dues for consumers when selling club memberships through NHSA’s
online club membership sales portal, and in requiring consumers who use NHSA’s online
club membership sales portal to also become individual NHSA members without
sufficiently informing of, or providing an option regarding, a dual membership purchase.
(“Matters Investigated”). The scope of this Assurance is the Matters Investigated only.

I'd say that this document applies only to sales when the consumer uses the NHSA online portal. The AG claimed the NHSA online portal didn't offer the consumer a chance to join only a club, or tell them of a way to do so. The online club membership bundled the club fee and the NHSA fee into a single package. I believe that paragraph 24 focuses on a remedy for issues with the online portal when it's used by a consumer. The clubs use of their online portal to enter membership data isn't discussed. Maybe something will come later.

We have to remember that this agreement is between the AG and the NHSA, not the clubs, and that the agreement concerns only any future violations of RSA 358A and RSA 356.

RSA 358  A:2 XIV. Pricing of goods or services in a manner that tends to create or maintain a monopoly, or otherwise harm competition. 

RSA 356:2 Restraints Prohibited. – 
    I. Every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade is unlawful. 
    II. Every contract, combination, or conspiracy is unlawful which has the purpose or the effect of: 
       (a) Fixing, controlling or maintaining prices, rates, quotations or fees in any part of trade or commerce; or 
       (b) Fixing, controlling, maintaining, limiting or discontinuing the production, manufacture, mining, sale or distribution of any commodity or service; or 
       (c) Allocating or dividing customers or markets in any part of trade or commerce; or 
       (d) Refusing to deal, or coercing, persuading or inducing any person to refuse to deal, with another person; or 
       (e) Fixing or controlling the price quotation of any bid for a public or private contract, submitting sham or complementary bids, or controlling the submission of bids including refusals to bid.

[WINNOCTURN 60]

The extra $10.00 NHSA istaking out of a online Club set Membership Dues goes to the Operating expenses of NHSA. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH becoming a Member of NHSA.

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2018 by WINNOCTURN

[jhwentworth 307]

2 hours ago, WINNOCTURN said:

The extra $10.00 NHSA is take out of a online Club set Membership Dues goes to the Operating expenses of NHSA. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH becoming a Member of NHSA.

 

 

 

That would be what I suspected.

If you don't want to support this plan but still want to support a club, I'd suggest you avoid the online membership and  simply make a donation in any amount you want to your club. If your club offers a club membership-only deal go for it, if NHRA membership is mandatory then go the donation route and pay the non-member rate for registration.  

It's getting to late January, so the sled registrations and club joining are slowing down and there's time to resolve things. There's also plenty of time for the folks who have done neither to send a check to your preferred clubs. They didn't have much to do with this mess, and without our support they might not be here when you want them next December. I'll bet they'd take a $20 donation and make good use of it.

Remember, there's a pretty good chance the trails would open next year without the NHSA, but what do you think the chances would be without the clubs?

[Freedom Rider 209]

On 1/19/2018 at 9:01 AM, RK-SXViper said:

As much as I agree that the $30 to GIA is a good thing the clubs that make it ALL happen will be the ones that really lose! Without the clubs the state would have no way to handle 7000 miles of trails.

I think the whole discount program should be abandoned. It failed to live up to the hype of more money and more volunteers. Yes the NHSA got more money but the clubs did not. Back to the merits of having a good product and the public will but it. Demand they buy it and prepare for kick back. I think a early buy program for clubs and registration would be a more viable option. Getting the money into the hands of the agencies and clubs who do the work would be more beneficial to the sport than to rely on another layer of Bureaucracy just sucking the money dry with little productive showing for it.The trails were maintained before the discount program went into affect.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Freedom Rider