When and how do I renew my membership?

This question pops up quite a bit, and for obvious reason: we’ve never once asked for members to renew their membership and pay the applicable fee ($20). The first of these membership renewals were due in January 2014, as it was 12 months since the beginning of formal membership terms due to the registration of the Party.

Short answer:

in order to streamline the creation of state branches, renewal has been delayed. You will receive an email when it’s time and backpay the period.

Long answer:

As the focus has been placed on forming state and territory branches now that we have completed our first Federal election campaign, we need to create a new application form in order to handle the registration requirements of all the different state legislation involved in each case.

We see no point in launching the new form before we have all the payment gateway stuff set up better, we have the ability to allow members to update their details (important as electoral requirements are soon going to change) and be able to more easily check if members are enrolled during the signup or update process. If we did this in segments, that would only serve to annoy our members with a confusing segmented barrage of loosely associated emails.

Once the new form is launched, renewals will begin, backdated. The renewal will ask you to confirm your details are accurate, accept the relevant state branch declarations, and pay your fee. Simple!

A lot of work goes into making a form work in a very simple and effective manner that also looks pretty. :smile:

Really long answer (and life story):

I had intended to have this completed by December last year, however, I caught the Epstein-Barr Virus, which causes glandular fever, and was effectively unconscious for 6 weeks immediately after the conclusion of the election. Yes, I was stressed and exhausted from a long election campaign, of which I worked full time the whole way through, to then immediately catch glandular fever. What a lucky guy! haha.

This obviously set back the development quite significantly. As soon as I was recuperated enough that I could work on this, other priorities of course had piled up, so those had to be completed first. The by-election was announced for the seat of Griffith, Qld, so I had to assist with the organisation of that, which delayed me further.

That month then ends, it’s now March and university begins again (I decided to go back to full time studies) while also working full time. Limited time for Pirate activities beyond what was priority.

I quit my job at the end of May to focus on my studies and my activism. I’m currently working on getting the voting system frontend up to a working level so Congress ballots run significantly more smoothly than previous years (not that they weren’t smooth, but they consumed quite a bit of my personal time).

I hope to have the new application form complete before the new financial year, or at the very least before the Congress. This will probably not happen due to things constantly popping up, but one can hope! :smile: </rant>

4 Likes