METRO SEATTLE GAMERS

Metro Seattle Gamers Membership Credit and Refund Policy

Metro Seattle Gamers exists to support those gamers who value the increased space, privacy, storage, control over one’s playing environment, and other amenities that the club provides. In business terms the club is a volunteer managed activity that must compete for physical space against more substantial businesses that set the demand for space. This is a challenge for the membership: regardless of whether a member is using the club, the rent is implacably due at the beginning of every month. Accordingly, the club is limited in its ability to issue refunds for membership dues.

Membership dues in Metro Seattle Gamers (the club) are assessments to those members of Dragonflight who elect to use the club (members of the club). Unless stated otherwise, the terms “member”, “membership,” and their derivatives on this page refer to a member of the club, not just a member of Dragonflight. As with memberships in many organizations that incur significant fixed costs, memberships in Metro Seattle Gamers renew automatically until the membership is suspended.

Membership levels in the club (Associate, Key, Group of x, etc.) are for specific terms (monthly, quarterly, semiannual, annual).

Membership Terms. Membership terms are set rigidly to the calendar year and employ calendar months. Monthly terms commence on the 1st of the month. Quarterly terms commence on 1 Jan, 1 Apr, 1 Jul, and 1 Oct. Semiannual terms commence on 1 Jan and 1 Jul. Annual terms commence on 1 Jan. This is to simplify the club’s accounting and to synchronize club memberships with the Dragonflight fiscal year.

1. Months and Terms Passed. The calendar months passed during a membership term will be regarded to have been consumed by the member, regardless of whether the member or the member’s guests attended the club during that time.

a. For calculating a change where the term of the membership remains the same or is extended, including inaugurating a new membership, a month is considered to have passed if notification to change the account is sent within ten days of the 1st of the next month. For example, if a new monthly membership is purchased within ten days of the 1st of the next month, then the purchase will include those days, at no extra charge, to the charge for the next month.

b. For calculating a shortening of the term to a membership, including when suspending the membership, a month is counted as having passed if the member has not sent notification to suspend the membership by the 1st day of that month, or earlier. For example, if notification to suspend a monthly membership is sent by the 2nd day of a month, that month is regarded to have passed and will not be refundable.

c. A membership term that is longer than monthly is considered to have passed when all of the months in that term have passed, using the same pattern as in cases a. and b. above.

2. Used Balance Charge. The used balance charge is the implicit charge for the months of a membership term that have already passed. It is used to calculate financial adjustments to an account. The used balance charge is calculated in one of three ways:

a. If no month has yet passed in the membership term, then the used balance charge is $0.00. Up to the 1st day of the membership term, the entire charge may be voided and any settled funds applied against it may be released as a credit to the account.

b. If a membership term is shortened, including by suspending the account and even if the membership level is upgraded, then the used balance charge will be a combination of the next shorter equivalent passed membership terms for the original membership term to date or, if the entire original term has passed, the original charge for the membership term. The used balance charge will use the club rates for the equivalent shorter membership terms that were available when the original membership term was purchased. At that membership level, this might be a combination of different length membership terms that have passed. For example, the used balance charge for a shortened semiannual term might be calculated as the sum of the charges for the combination of passed monthly terms and, if a complete quarterly term has passed, one passed quarterly term for that membership level; this charge would use the rates for these terms at the time when the semiannual term was purchased.

c. If the membership term remains the same or is extended, then the used balance charge will be the pro rata charge for the months passed at the membership’s current (paid in) rate or, if the entire term has passed, the original charge for the membership term. For example, one month passed for a quarterly membership term would generate a used balance charge of 1/3 of the quarterly rate when the term began.

3. Unused Balance. The unused balance for the membership term is the difference between the original amount charged for that term and the used balance charge during that term. If the used balance charge equals or exceeds the original amount paid in for the membership term, then the unused balance will be $0.00. If the membership is being suspended, then the unused balance is the amount of the credit that will be issued to the account.

4. Remaining Term Charge. If, during a membership term, a membership level is being changed or the term is being extended (in other words, the change is not a renewal for a completely new membership term), then the remaining term charge for that upgrade will be the pro rata charge for months not yet passed for the remainder of the new membership term. For example, if the new membership term is semiannual and the upgrade is happening during the fifth month and more than ten days from the 1st of the sixth month, then the remaining term charge would be for 2 months not yet passed. The remaining term charge would be (6-4)/6 = 2/6 = 1/3 times the semiannual rate at the time the change was instituted.

5. Net Charge or Credit. When a membership level or term is changed, the amount of the new net charge or the new credit to the account will be the difference between the remaining term charge and the unused balance for the old membership term. A positive difference will be the new charge to the account; a negative difference will be issued as a credit to the account.

Once it has begun, a membership term may be renewed, extended, shortened, or suspended, but not postponed or interrupted. The nearest option to postponing or interrupting a membership term would be to shorten or suspend the membership, but to leave the unused balance in the account for the later commencement of a new membership term.

Membership in Dragonflight, valued at $10.00 per calendar year, is deducted from the calendar year’s first billed month of a club membership term; this is an internal accounting transfer, not an extra charge to the account. The club’s membership management system only supports the club itself, not the rest of Dragonflight. If a club member participates in another Dragonflight activity where the Dragonflight annual membership is similarly included in the price of that activity, or purchases a Dragonflight membership separate from the club or other Dragonflight activities then, after performing an annual reconciliation near the turn of the year, the duplicate membership fees will be credited to the MSG member’s club account.

Notification of Change to or Suspension of a Membership. Other than a verbal conversation that is remembered by the General Manager or the Secretary, a member may notify the club of a change to or a suspension of a membership by the following means:

1. Using the club’s management web system at www.metroseattlegamers.org login to the membership account. Select ‘View profile’, in the ‘Membership details’ area of the profile page select the hyperlink labeled ‘Change’, and on the next page select the new membership level or term from the list of options (notification of suspension is on the bottom of the list). The system will record the date of the latest change (the ‘sent’ date). If an option is not presented it will be necessary to contact the General Manager or the Secretary to institute the adjustment administratively.

2. The member may contact the club General Manager or Secretary by using the club’s personal message system. This is found by logging into one’s membership account on the club web system, going to the Members Only Content section of the website and selecting the club’s Membership Directory web page, finding and choosing the officer’s name in that directory, and then, on that officer’s resulting public profile page, pressing the ‘Send message’ button and sending a completed message from the resulting message web page. The sent message will reach the officer as an ordinary dated email.

3. The member may contact the General Manager or Secretary by email.

4. The member may send a postmarked (the ‘sent’ date) letter to the club’s mailing address, which is a P.O. Box, not the club’s physical address; see the club’s Location and Contact web page.

Until they are settled against other club or Dragonflight services, credits to a membership account are refundable. Once established as a credit in the account, the funds may be applied to a membership upgrade or a future membership term, transferred to another membership account, issued as a refund check, or issued as a refund payment via PayPal. Contact the General Manager or the Treasurer to specify the disposition of the credit.