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Value and cost of Membership
As a Member of the Association, you are entitled to certain benefits, which will help to further enhance your career, business and professional profile. The benefits of Membership make both commercial and financial sense.
There is commercial value in being a Member of the Association:
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As the IT industry becomes more regulated, Members of the Association will certainly benefit. Clients will begin to demand accredited IT professionals, with ACET being the only accredited IT Association in the UK. |
There is financial value in being a Member of the Association:
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If you analyse the cost of Membership, it is evident that the total value of the benefits provided, far exceed the cost of Membership. |
The actual benefits are as follows:
Promotion, Managed Referral and Advertising
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The Association advertises and promotes Members on a national basis through the directories of Thomson Local with a distribution of over 22 million directories. |
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All incoming calls are answered and dealt with by Association staff, not a call centre, then referred directly to Members in their regional area and specific to their expertise. |
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The value of this advertisement alone to an IT professional on a per regional area basis would be £200 without the referral service. |
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Aside from this, the Association advertises and promotes Members through general media, such as radio, television, along with conference promotions, national BT directory and yell.com. Once again, all incoming enquiries are referred directly to Members in their region and specific to their expertise. |
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Additionally the Association’s newsletter is distributed to over 250,000 informed people throughout the UK. |
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Adding the value of the Thomson Directory (£200) to the value of the other means of marketing accredited Members in their area, (conservatively estimated to be £1500) a total marketing referral value of over £1700 per area is conservatively assessed. |
Insurance
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Through Membership all Members are automatically insured under the Association’s Public Liability and Professional Indemnity cover for £2 000 000 and £1 000 000 respectively. |
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An IT Consultant would normally expect to pay between £800 and £1400 for this insurance cover. |
Legal Support
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The Association operates a 24-hour legal support line for Members assisting them and giving directional advice as to appropriate solicitors where applicable. To evaluate the actual value of this service is obviously difficult, as few Members would require this as a stand-alone service. However it does exist for Members and we estimate the value of this service on a one off basis to be £250 per annum. |
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Financial benefit
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As a stand alone costing, not via the Association, the likely expense an IT professional would incur for the type of Promotion, Managed Referral, Advertising, Insurance and Legal Support provided by the Association, would be £2750 - £3350 per annum. |
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The Association has ensured that the Membership fee charged is far less than the value of the benefits afforded to Members. |
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The Value of Membership is the committed support of the Association and the saving for an IT professional of more than £2000 a year, allied to which Membership is tax deductible. |
Cost of Membership
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Membership of the Association is retained by payment of an annual fee of £765, subject to the continued meeting of the standards required for Membership. |
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There is no initial joining fee and annual Membership can also be paid by standing order of 12 monthly payments of £68.25. |
By Special Agreement - Cost of Membership for Applicants Currently Insured
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| Applicants with existing insurance arrangements, current and in force may join the Association for a fee of £175.00, providing that; |
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The insurers are European Union Insurers and/or FSA approved Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurers. |
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The limits of Professional Insurance are not less than |
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£2,000,000 Public Liability
£1,000,000 Professional Indemnity |
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A copy of the Insurance Certificate has been evidenced to the Association. |
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Upon acceptance, the Member must maintain the insurance coverage in accordance with the terms and limits of 1 and 2 herein or the Association Member may subsequently transfer to the insurance coverage provided through the Association, in which case the annual Membership fee will be £765 per annum. |
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At all times a Member of the Association must be insured in accordance with provisions 1 and 2 herein. |
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The Association reserves the right to refuse an application for Membership. |
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