Current Year II student members who joined before the end of March 2018 are reminded that, in accordance with the rules and legislation at the time, they were opted into the Political Fund. For more information about the fund please visit https://www.sor.org/trade-union-support/sor-political-fund. Fund contributions of 60p every three months will be collected from the same direct debit as ordinary membership fees, so please be aware of the extra payments taken from your bank account for this. If you do not wish to subscribe to the fund you can easily opt out at https://www.sor.org/politicalfund_optout.
Please don’t try to opt out by simply cancelling your direct debit as this will also cancel your membership subscriptions. If this happens you then run the risk of lapsed membership which can impact on your free period of membership on qualification and the issuing of any professional indemnity insurance (PII) certificates you might need for elective placements.
Background
A ballot of members in February 2016 authorised UK Council to establish a Political Fund to ensure that changes in legislation did not and will not restrict the Society's campaigning voice in the run-up to General and other Elections. Full details of the approved Rules of the Political Fund can be found in the Society Handbook. These Rules and other information and briefings communicated to members during and after the Ballot process made it clear that contributing to the Political Fund financially is entirely voluntary via a separate levy distinct from the annual membership subscription.
The level of voluntary contribution has been set at £2.40 annually, to be collected quarterly from those members operating a direct debit in amounts of 60p in January, April, July and October.