Membership Information
Meetings
We meet on the first Friday of the month (unless otherwise specified) at Alves Village Hall. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start.
Membership
Membership of SIGMA is open to all interested individuals, parties and bodies.
Ordinary Membership for individuals over 18 who are not a student in full time education.
Student Membership for individuals 18 and over who are in full time education.
Under 18’s
Any SIGMA member is entitled to bring a child/children to a SIGMA meeting or activity. Under 18’s may attend meetings and events for free subject to the following conditions:
- Under 16’s must be accompanied to all SIGMA events by a parent/guardian or an appointed adult proxy. The parent/guardian/proxy is responsible at all times for the child/children
- Children between 16–18 years of age can attend the regular monthly club meetings and workshops unaccompanied; these include any extra meetings which may be organised from time to time. Their parent/guardian/proxy is to ensure that they are provided with transport to/from all SIGMA events/meetings. For any other event they must be accompanied by parent/guardian/proxy who will be responsible at all times for the child/children
- The parent/guardian must be a member of SIGMA
Any person over the age of 16 may apply for Ordinary or Student membership but requirements for a parent/guardian must still be met.
Club/Public Events
In addition to our monthly meetings, we offer occasional club and public events eg solar or night observing sessions, meteor watches and astronomy workshops. All under 18s must be accompanied by a parent/guardian (or proxy).
Membership Rates
Membership starts in January, with a pro-rata rate for anybody joining throughout the year. Your first meeting is FREE.
| Joining Month |
Ordinary | Student* | Under 18 |
| January – March | £28.00 | £14.00 | FREE |
| April – June | £21.00 | £11.00 | FREE |
| July – September | £14.00 | £8.00 | FREE |
| October – December | £7.00 | £4.00 | FREE |
* Student membership is for those aged 18 or over in full-time education
SIGMA Members re-joining each year pay the full year’s rate whenever they re-join, unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Further information can be found by contacting the Membership Secretary.
As a SIGMA member you also get membership to our affiliated astronomical societies of Highlands Astronomical Society and North Ronaldsay Astronomy Club
Affiliated members may attend each other’s monthly meetings and events. (Note this does not confer voting rights unless you are a Club/ Society member).
DATA PROTECTION
Your privacy is important to us, and we want to communicate with SIGMA Club members in a way which has their consent, and which is in line with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). We will only ever use your details for Club business.
This includes keeping you informed about meetings, activities, events and other important club news, and to inform you when your membership is due for renewal or similar requirements.
Your details will be securely stored in Google Drive to which only selected SIGMA Committee Members have access.
We will never share this information with any third party or use it for the promotion of products and services that are not specific SIGMA business.
We will mainly contact you using the email address you have provided and only use your phone number to call you or text you where there’s a need to provide you with important information and your email bounces, or if the message is urgent.
If any of the information you have given us changes, then please email membership@sigma-astro.co.uk with these changes to that we can keep our records up to date.