Hi, I have been answered by the Membership staff. All I wanted was the yearly cost for Canada, as there are members who are on the list. By helping one another, this can take the strain off the SOG. With appreciation, Edna - Ottawa ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Hardy" <frank@fchardy.freeserve.co.uk> To: <SOG-UK-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 2:48 PM Subject: [SoG] Membership queries Please remember that this list is not the place to send questions about membership. The membership secretary does not monitor this list. Jackie does try and answer as quickly as she can, but for the next couple of months there is a very marked surge of queries coming to her by telephone, personal visits, letters and e-mails. She deals with things as far as possible in the order of receipt and as fast as possible. Other office staff do help her as far as possible, particularly in processing the routine renewals when the remittance received by the Society is the correct one, but there are many items where the two figures do not match. There are also the cases like the one I dealt with last year where the member concerned had blithely continued to pay by Direct Debit and by Standing Order for several years and expected the SoG to cancel the Standing Order. SO's can only be cancelled with the bank by the account holder. This took a couple of phone calls by Jackie, thus delaying replies to other queries. We could employ extra staff, but they would need training and would cost us, the members, about ukp2 per member per year to have the luxury of quicker replies. Oh, yes, and a small point, where would they sit? Frank Hardy