Membership FAQ

Here’s how your membership fee is used to benefit both you and badminton in Scotland.

Participate in regional and national multi-club leagues and competitions 

The individual membership is for everyone in our badminton community. Our membership marks a milestone in the development and modernisation of our sport and will ultimately help us to connect with communities and improve the structure of Scotland’s Badminton clubs.

Through your membership, we aim to create a wider, more diverse offering for all members, as well as invest in club, player and pathway development, better resources and education.

The Badminton Scotland individual membership also caters for experienced players and those looking to take their game to the next level by participating in inter-club league matches and competitions. If you wish to enter and play in Badminton Scotland tournaments, you will be required to purchase an individual membership.

Play it safe! 

We want to ensure that everyone who plays badminton in Scotland can do so as safely as possible. Our individual membership players are covered with Public Liability Insurance and Travel Insurance.

Continue to grow our game

Your membership fee helps support coach education, club development, performance programmes and resources for schools and education, such as Big Hit Festivals, Young Sports Leaders and Learn2Play which introduces badminton to new players, and to ensure that the sport in Scotland is sustainable now and in the future.

With clubs and communities at the heart of our updated 2023 / 27 strategy, the introduction of an individual membership is key to understanding the demographics of our membership and improving our engagement with you so that we can provide services and products that meet your requirements. This will mean that we can effectively support our clubs, improve competitions and our overall performance for the whole Badminton community across Scotland.

Protect the sport’s reputation and keep everyone safe

Your membership fee will support us in ensuring that badminton clubs are a safe space for all players. We want to make sure that all Badminton Scotland clubs who work with juniors/children have a child protection officer in place. Our team are always ready to help and support with member concerns.

Support the development of elite Scottish Badminton players 

Our elite and youth players are supported by high level coaches. This helps the best players in Scotland challenge for medals at European and World level, as well as at events like the Commonwealth Games.

Represent your country 

Player membership makes elite players at all levels eligible to represent Scotland, and eligible for other programmes and initiatives.

Early access to tickets

Individual members will get early access and discounted tickets for events, like the Scottish Open.

Badminton news

We will send regular communications via e-newsletters, including community news and important updates.

HOW DO I JOIN?

• Purchase an individual membership.
• View club membership information.

Individual membership FAQs

Q. Why is there a “need” for individual affiliation? Around 90% of our club want to play badminton on a club night, socialise and go home, to return the following week.

A.There is a need for two main reasons:

• If we want badminton in Scotland to flourish, we need to generate more income and connect across the badminton community in Scotland. One of the main challenges for the sport is that we have 150,000 players playing weekly however only 4,500 are members of Badminton Scotland. We need to provide more opportunities for them to play competitively at the appropriate standard, and create a model for Badminton in Scotland that is more focused on stronger and larger clubs. There is a need for more coach education at all levels and to profile the good work that clubs are doing and show that our players are working hard to achieve great results. All of this takes money and unfortunately our public funding does not cover all of these costs.

• We need to improve the data on who is currently playing badminton in Scotland. We believe that we have a very inclusive sport, but we do not have the data to prove this to public funders and potential sponsors. One of the main drivers of public funding and sponsorship/donations is demonstrating the impact that the sport is having on communities. We need better information to be able to show who is currently playing and more importantly the difference that we make by getting more people to join Badminton Scotland as individual members.

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Q. Why is the individual membership important for the future of badminton?

A.The launch of Badminton Scotland’s individual membership marks a milestone in the development and modernisation of our sport, focusing on investment, growth and improving the structure of Scotland’s Badminton clubs and communities.

With community at the heart of our updated 2022 / 2027 strategy, the introduction of an individual membership is key and means we can begin to improve coaching, competitions, education and overall performance for not only players, but the badminton community as a whole.

In addition to the personal benefits the membership will be supporting the wider development of the sport in Scotland. It will allow us to provide additional support to the other Groups / Associations with their league competitions by promoting these so that we can create a co-ordinated and well-structured competition framework across the whole country.

We want to help local clubs and organisations promote what they are doing and make more people aware of the opportunities to get involved. As a small team of staff at Badminton Scotland, we can only do so much and we need to work closely with the clubs and local associations to add more value for their players.

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Q. How do I become an individual member?

A.As all Badminton Scotland memberships are managed online, simply follow this link to access the sign-up/login page of our online membership portal, JustGo. Here, you can register your details with us, gain access to the portal via your own personal member profile and purchase membership with us to become an official individual member of Badminton Scotland.

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Q. When does the membership begin/end?

A.Your membership will begin the day you purchase it and lasts for the badminton season it is purchased in, normally from the 1st August of one year until the 31st July the following year.

For example: The 2023/2024 badminton season begins on 1st August 2023 & ends on 31st July 2024. Your membership should automatically renew (unless purchased for you by your club secretary) for the next season once the current one expires, however, should you choose to cancel/halt a membership subscription, you would need to manually renew your membership for the new season.

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Q. What benefits will I receive as an individual member?

A.There are numerous benefits to becoming an individual member of Badminton Scotland, some of these include:

• Entry into Badminton Scotland sanctioned events
• Public Liability Cover (PLC) for non-club badminton activities
• Access to discounted places on Badminton Basics Award and other coaching courses, including CPD
• Access to discounted court hire at Sir Craig Reedie Badminton Centre (SCRBC)
• Access to early bird and discounted tickets to the Scottish National Championships and Scottish Open
• Discount on selected products found on the Badminton Scotland website

Individual member insurance (PLC) is extended to all Badminton activity even if it’s not part of the club’s activity.

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Q. How much does it cost?

A.The cost of membership is £10.00 for juniors (those under the age of 19) and £15.00 for adults (anyone aged 19 years or above).

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Club membership FAQs

Q. How do I become a Badminton Scotland member when I am part of a club?

A.For the season 2023/24, we are asking clubs to register and affiliate individual members to make the process easier and more streamlined for your club and members – It will also reinforce a strong relationship between your club, your members and Badminton Scotland.

When launching the membership last year, we took on the responsibility of signing up individual members but it was clear that this was not effective.

On an individual basis, it is on average £1 a month for an individual to join Badminton Scotland which is significantly cheaper than most other sports in Scotland and less than other Home Nations all of whom have been making these charges for many years now.

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Q. How does JustGo improve the administration of my club?

A. ‘Club+’ is a feature of the JustGo membership system which gives club secretaries greater admin access & makes managing club details, member information, club affiliation to Badminton Scotland, as well as other administrative tasks much easier.

Clubs are also able to easily analyse their members’ data via downloadable reports and have the ability to create their own fully branded website, using JustGo.

There is also a “Rewards” benefit, provided by a 3rd party. This benefit provides financial discounts and other offers from major retailers that will more than pay for the additional individual and club affiliations. By introducing this, clubs can generate their own income and reward their members with discounts.

Membership Management and Communications

• Viewing all your member’s data in one secure area, accessible only to those who fill member administrative roles at your club.
• Create and manage your own branded memberships, catering to single members or entire families who play with your club.
• Access to personalised messaging, which you can use to reach all or certain club members via JustGo.
• New member alerts which will ensure you never miss when a new member requests to join your club.
• Automated emails that trigger when specific requirements are met, i.e. when a member’s fees are overdue or when a membership is about to expire.
• Confidence that the information that you have on your members is GDPR compliant

Event & Course Management

• Access to all-inclusive event & course management, allowing you to create event information pages of any kind as well as ‘event templates’ which can be saved and re-used for future event pages.
• Smart purchasing, where you can apply discount, restriction and surcharge rules to ticket purchases.
• Upsell products alongside event tickets, increasing revenue.

Control of Online Finances

• The system upgrade will enable you collect your members’ club fees directly via JustGo, by setting up membership option/s linked to your club, as well as apply discount, subscription & payment instalment options where you wish.
• Access to your finance dashboard to account for all payments made to your club and easily update payment information.
• All payments made on JustGo are secure and instantaneous, saving you having to handle money or making trips to the bank.
• Complete or partial refunds can be applied to any purchases made by members.

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Q. How does JustGo benefit the badminton community as a whole?

• It is an important step toward developing, connecting and modernising clubs and communities within Scottish badminton.
• Makes the sport as safe as possible, ensuring those who work with children and/or protected adults are PVG checked for any regulated work roles they may occupy, and that the appropriate information is made available to relevant club secretaries.
• Better accuracy regarding data capture, which greatly improves reporting capabilities of Badminton Scotland. It is important to have a single system for the sport so that we can understand how we are growing and where we need to make investment in coaching, performance, competitions and many other areas. We also need to be able to promote what the sport is achieving and without reliable statistical information this is not possible. This will help everyone across the entire Badminton community.