Club Membership

Updated 21.02.2023

Affiliated Club Membership Benefits

• Public Liability (typically a pre-condition of venue hire)
• Promotion of sessions and activities through BF Activity finder
• Access to training opportunities for welfare officers and coaches
• Fencers may affiliate to the club and represent the club in BF/HC competitions
• Fencers participating in a registered clubs beginner courses have access to the free Introduction category membership.  Fencers must sign up to Introduction Membership to be covered by the insurance.
• Beginner fencers can participate in single taster sessions run by the club of up to 3 hours.
• Access to BF club membership and event entry platform to allow you to manage club members and competition entries and remain fully compliant with GDPR regulations
• Bulk registration of members, with discounts of up to 10% on membership fees even if auto renewal is not used.
• Support for grant applications (typically NGBs are required to endorse applications for local public funding – a pre-condition to this is that the club is a member of the NGB)

Membership Terms

Community clubs must check all fencers participating in a club hold individual membership of BF. (A community club is a club that accepts members from the community – rather than a club that is solely run for pupils of a particular school)

Community Clubs are expected to ensure that all fencers and volunteers participating in a club to hold individual membership of BF.

Individual non-members, even if they are fencing in member clubs or under the instruction of registered coaches are NOT afforded the insurance benefits of members except in specific circumstances. Permitting non-members to participate (other than as described in the Membership Benefits) may invalidate the public liability insurance of the club.

Club secretaries can access an online lookup facility to check memberships.

Clubs running community events must ensure that the events are licensed (for many events this is free of charge) and BF membership rules followed as appropriate.

Clubs must run all their activities within the rules, policies and procedures of British Fencing.

For more information please visit the Club Zone.

Prices

Registration for club membership of British Fencing costs from £40 if the club signs up to auto renewal and £45 for non-auto renewal. There is an additional £5 charge for both options for clubs that affiliate to Northern Ireland.

Prices for club affiliation are deliberately low as the sport operates on an individual membership system, where all individuals participating in the sport at all levels are expected to join the National Governing Body. In doing so, they contribute to both the benefits that they receive (eg individual and club insurance) and the services that support the sport (eg safeguarding, coach and club development).

Minimum Operation Standards

All clubs must have a named Welfare Contact, independent of the coaching structure. This can either be a BF member trained as a Welfare Officer, currently being trained as a Welfare Officer.

In the case of clubs of Education Institutions (eg Schools) exclusively for pupils of that institution, the welfare contact can be the institution’s Designated Safeguarding Lead (who does not need to be a BF member). For more information click here.

In line with the NSPC Child Protection in Sport minimum standards, the Club Welfare Contact must be clearly identifiable on any club website and be listed in the club profile on the BF membership  platform and Fibodo profile.

All club coaches must be on the BF Coach Register. Coaches giving lessons must be Level 2.

Clubs are expected to list their coaches on their website and these coaches MUST be on the BF Coach Register.

Insurance

(3rd Party Liability & Personal Accident)

For full information click here