New Membership System – Update

Posted: 16 September 2026

With the implementation of the new Membership system, we are taking this opportunity to attempt to simplify and standardise the membership format. We are also implementing some changes that were agreed at the last AGM.

Membership Types and Categories
Memberships will fall into the following types:

• Adult Member – for shooting members 18 years and older the cost of the membership for 2027/28 will be £25
• Junior Member – For shooting members under the age of 18, the cost of the membership for 2017/28 will be £0
• Adult Associate Member – This is for any, non-shooting, adult member, and the cost for 2027/28 will be £7
• Junior Associate Member – This is for any, non-shooting members under the age of 18, and the cost for 2027/28 will be £0
• There will also still be a provision for NFAS Life members, that is awarded by the society, and allows for additional membership flexibility if required
Each of the above types will have the following, required, membership category

• Full – this is a member that has correctly completed and submitted a NFAS Declaration of Competence (DOC), Archer or Associate, and has been accepted as a full member
• Provisional – this is a member that has NOT correctly completed and submitted a NFAS Declaration of Competence (DOC), Archer or Associate, and will need to abide by the “Provisional Member” rules

Note 1 – this means that the Unconfirmed Associate membership has been renamed to Provisional Associate for standardisation
Note 2 – We are aware that the Family Membership has helped to support young families by reducing the cost of membership. However, upon review the committee has decided that, because of the criteria to qualify for family membership, there are families who miss out. Therefore, using some of the cost savings that the new membership system will provide the committee has decided to expand the family membership to cover all junior members and that from the 2027/28 membership year ALL junior memberships will be free of charge.

You will not need to select a specific membership to qualify as any junior membership selected will come with a cost of £0
The new system allows for families to create different members using the same email address, if the member names are different, which means that multiple accounts can be managed by a single member.

Provisional Members
We are making some changes to how the Provisional Membership category works to remove some ambiguity. Provisional Members will no longer be able to be Independent but must be associated to an NFAS club to remove any uncertainty on how the member is undergoing coaching and progression towards completing a DOC.

Note 3 – Any current members that fall into this category will be contacted by email and will have until their current membership expires, 31.03.2027, to join a club or they will not be able to renew until they do so.

Membership Cards
The cost of producing and sending out membership cards has increased significantly so the membership year 2026/27 will be the last year NFAS will issue paper membership cards to members.
We are moving to digital membership cards with the new system; additional information can be found in the renewal section of this communication

Membership Forms and Payment Methods
One of the main reasons for implementing the new system was to improve our ability to manage members data and removing “paper” is a large part of that, so moving forward, there will be no paper membership forms. All membership applications will be via the Membership system. This means that having an email address is now a mandatory requirement but there a numerous, free, platforms (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc) that will provide a free email address that is accessible from a browser or mobile phone.
We are also stopping accepting payments by cheque and postal orders as it is becoming harder, and more expensive, to process them and we are seeing more than ever getting lost in the post.
We will continue to accept card payments, which are processed almost immediately, and will be accepting Bank Transfers but these will be subject to delay whist they are processed and confirmed.

Renewals
When your personal data is initially uploaded to the new system and your current membership becomes active you will receive a “Welcome Email” from NFAS. This email will contain the following information, some as attachments:
• A link that will enable you to access the new membership system, you can set a password, on initial access if you wish, but you can just use your email as validation for access
• A digital copy of the current NFAS Shooting handbook
• A digital “phone wallet” membership card for the current year’s membership, this is a card suitable for Apple and Google Wallets available on many smart phones
• A membership card image or PDF. This image can be printed and be viewed from the member’s Your Membership page.
To assist in reminding members to renew the new system will prompt by sending various emails both before the expiry, and after expiry.
Renewals will be available from two months prior to the membership expiry date. Membership documents will be delivered by email, usually within hours, upon the successful payment and / or approval of the renewal.
The renewal email will contain the following information, some as attachments:
• A digital copy of the current NFAS Shooting handbook
• A digital “phone wallet” membership card for your new year’s membership, this is a card suitable for Apple and Google Wallets available on many smart phones. Please remember to update the version in your phone wallet to the latest version
• A membership card image or PDF. This image can be printed and be viewed from the member’s Your Membership page.

Note 4 – Existing Full members, who have already had a Completed DOC, a copy of their current DOC will be preloaded onto the system. For Full members, whose sign-off preceded the introduction of the DOC, a substitute document will be preloaded to allow for normal renewals to take place.

New Members

All new applications will require approving by the NFAS Membership Secretary, which is to ensure that all relevant information has been supplied and is in good order, before payment for membership can be made. This information will include:
• For any NEW Full member, a check will be made to ensure that they have uploaded a digital copy of their completed DOC with their application
• For Provisional members, a check to ensure that they have selected an affiliated NFAS club
Once approved, if payment is made by card, then the application should be processed very quickly however, if the member has chosen to pay by bank transfer, then additional time will be required for this to clear and be accepted by NFAS

Moving from Provisional to Full member
Provisional members will need to upload a digital copy of their completed DOC to their membership by using the “View or Upload File” function within the member’s Your Membership page.
Once uploaded they should email the NFAS membership Secretary on, membership@nfas.net, advising of the file upload. This will then be reviewed and, providing everything is in order, their membership will be updated to Full member, and an updated welcome pack will be emailed containing their updated membership cards

Magazine
A digital copy of the NFAS magazine is included within the memberships, however, as discussed at the last AGM the increasing costs to produce end distribute the paper copies of the NFAS magazine has prompted the decision to charge members an additional £20 when renewing should they choose to have a printed version of the magazine. This charge will start for the 2027-28 renewals.
Members will be able to purchase the paper copy as either part of their application or renewal by ticking the relevant box on the membership form where the cost will be added at checkout.
This can also be ordered, at any time, from the membership system store, which is an available function within the member’s Your Membership page.

Note 5 – This will reset every year so will need to be reselected at every renewal

Important Timings
As you can imagine there is a large amount of work to be done to transfer memberships from the old system to the new to ensure that everything is operational for the 2027/2028 membership year. Therefore, the membership service will close on the 30th November 2026 with a planned reopening date of the 1st February 2027.

We appreciate that this may seem like a large window but as the new system will provide automated renewals that, if paid by card, will be completed within minutes rather than days there will be plenty of time for people to renew before memberships expire.

Many Thanks
Mike (Mem Sec)