The KOSB Association exists to promote and maintain a bond of friendship between its members regardless of rank, time served, or locations and operational theatres served in. It will only survive with the support of all those who served as or with Borderers.
As you will have read in AGM minutes and in the recently-updated Constitution, it has been necessary to amend the annual subscription to £25. This increase reflects rising costs over many years, including amongst others staff costs that used to fall to the MoD, the production costs for the Chronicle, and providing for the Minden Day parade in Berwick. These costs have up to now been largely absorbed from investment income, and subscriptions have not kept pace with them. However, this income can no longer sustain the costs in the medium-term, and steps need to be taken now to help reduce the burden on this single source and ensure a healthier future for the Association and its members.
The Officers’ Club is treated as if a separate branch of the Association, so membership of the Association is necessary in order to be a member of the Officers’ Club. A separate subscription applies.
At present there is quite a wide difference in what Borderers are paying every year to support the work of the Association; the Trustees, and the members at last year’s Association AGM, considered that it is only fair that we all pay the same minimum rate where possible.
The benefits of membership of the Association are outlined in the attached information note. A large element of our annual Association expenditure is on welfare and support for those Borderers in difficulty, and these are coordinated through SSAFA and RHQ SCOTS. It may be that hopefully most of us will never need help but it is important to know there is a safety net for those who do. Welfare aside, the Association does a great deal in addition to support, enable and enhance the promotion of the comradeship of its members and the long and distinguished history and heritage of the Regiment. But this cannot be achieved without cost.