Membership Terms and Conditions
M2: Membership terms and conditions
1. Purpose
The purpose of this document is to describe the Terms and Conditions that apply to VFF Membership.
2. Background
Pursuant the Corporations Act, 2001 and the requirements and guidelines of the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the VFF Constitution, the Board of the VFF has the function to fix Membership Terms and Conditions.
3. Policy
The following policies apply to members as terms and conditions of membership:
3.1 Members may access benefits prescribed by the CEO for each membership type;
3.2 Detailed benefits linked to a membership class shall be determined by the CEO and published on the VFF website;
3.3 The VFF provides its members with a range of services and entitlements as part of their membership offering for the duration of their membership. The provision of such services and entitlements is always at the absolute discretion of VFF and may be subject to change, variation, revocation, or cancellation at any time.
3.4 The VFF makes no representation or promise that services and entitlements offered at the time of joining of membership will continue to be provided to members.
3.5 Membership fees
3.5.1 All VFF membership fees are exclusive of GST, unless otherwise stated.
3.5.2 VFF membership fees are non-refundable.
3.6 Payment
3.6.1 An applicant or member has the option to pay the VFF membership fee via direct debit, either monthly instalments in advance or, on a yearly basis, or yearly via BPAY or cheque.
3.6.2 By providing your payment details to the VFF and selecting direct debit as your payment method, you accept and acknowledge that these terms apply to payment of your membership and you are authorised to establish this payment arrangement.
3.7 Primary contact
3.7.1 At the time or purchasing your membership, you will be required to nominate a primary point of contact and provide a valid email address and mobile phone number.
3.7.2 It is the account administrator/members responsibility to promptly notify the VFF of any change to the status or contact details of the primary contact.
3.8 VFF contact details: If you have any queries regarding your membership, please contact the VFF directly on 1300 882 833 or [email protected].
3.9 Membership period: The membership period will commence on 1 October each year and expire on 30 September the following year.
3.10 Should a member join after the commencement of the membership period (1 October) a pro-rata payment for the remaining months will be calculated, until 30 September the following year.
3.11 Member benefits – Workplace relations and HR advice. Members may have access to VFF’s workplace relations and HR advice line as part of a membership (advice line). By using the advice line service, you thereby agree to the following terms:
3.11.1 Information provided by VFF (and any of its employees, officers, and agents) is of a general nature only and does not constitute legal, accounting, or other professional advice.
3.11.2 While all reasonable endeavours are made to ensure the accuracy of information provided, VFF accepts no liability for any action, or non-action, error or omission in the information provided by VFF, or any loss or damage caused to you or any other person (whether a member of VFF or not), as a result of information provided by VFF being inaccurate.
3.11.3 The member is solely responsible for providing correct facts and information to VFF when seeking human resources or workplace relations advice whether over the telephone, in-person or via email. Accordingly, the Member acknowledges that incomplete, inaccurate or changes in facts or information may change the advice or information provided by VFF.
3.11.4 Where a member requests additional services for workplace relations matters, outside of the scope of the advice line, those additional services will be subject to further terms and conditions and additional legal documentation may be required to be executed to formalise the additional services.
3.12 Promotions
3.12.1 VFF may introduce limited promotions and offers to members which may include additional terms and conditions.
3.12.2 Any promotional offers are exclusive and non-transferable.
3.12.3 Sometimes we agree with sponsors, partners or other third parties to offer some or all of our members special offers. These are usually only available for a limited time and may require you to meet eligibility requirements (including agreeing to third party terms and conditions, to which VFF is not a party to).
3.13 Drawing arrangements
3.13.1 VFF will arrange for funds to be debited (by your financial institution or other payment service provider) from your relevant account in monthly or yearly payment of amounts you owe to VFF for your membership.
3.13.2 Where you have chosen monthly direct debit, the first monthly payment will be debited upon signing up as a member and payment will be debited for the full month. Each payment following the monthly debit will occur on the first of each month.
3.13.3 We reserve the right to cancel your direct debit arrangement at any time if any direct debit transaction is dishonoured by your nominated financial institution or is otherwise unsuccessful. You must pay your outstanding fee using another payment method that is approved by VFF within five business days.
3.13.4 Where there have been one or more unsuccessful attempts to take payment, you may be charged a dishonour fee by your financial institution and/or VFF to cover reasonable administration and processing costs.
3.14 Your rights
3.14.1 Subject to the below, you may terminate your direct debit arrangement at any time by giving written notice directly to us and to your nominated financial institution no less than seven business days prior to the next due date.
3.14.2 The balance of all outstanding fees will be due and payable within seven days of terminating the direct debit.
3.15 Member responsibilities
3.15.1 You should check with your financial institution that direct debiting is available through the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BEC), from the account you have given us. You should check that the account details which you have provided to us are correct by checking them against a recent account statement.
3.15.2 It is your responsibility to ensure that the authorisation given to us to make direct debits is in accordance with the account signing instruction held by the financial institution where your nominated account is based.
3.15.3 If you are uncertain as to when a direct debit for your Membership will be processed by your financial institution or any other payment service provider, you should contact them directly.
3.15.4 It is your responsibility to ensure that sufficient funds are available in the nominated account to meet a direct debit on its due date.
3.15.5 You should check your account statement to verify that the amounts debited from your account are correct. If the designated amount is not debited from your account, it is your sole responsibility to contact us.
3.15.6 It is your responsibility to advise us if the account nominated by you to be debited has changed, is transferred or closed.
3.15.7 It is your responsibility to arrange with us a suitable alternate payment method if you cancel your direct debit arrangement.
3.16 Insufficient funds
3.16.1 If there are insufficient cleared funds in your account to meet a direct debit payment, we will retry in 48 hours.
3.16.2 If a direct debit payment is dishonoured by your financial institution and not paid within five business of its due date, your Membership will be suspended.
3.17 Dispute
3.17.1 If you believe that there has been an error in debiting your account, you should notify VFF directly on 1300 882 833 and provide notice in writing via [email protected] to us as soon as possible, so that we can resolve your query quickly.
3.17.2 Any queries you may have about an error made in debiting your account should be directed to us in the first instance so that we can attempt to resolve the matter. If we cannot resolve the matter you can still refer it to your financial institution.
3.18 Confidentiality, disclosure and privacy
3.18.1 We will keep any sensitive information regarding your direct debit arrangement (including your account details) confidential. We will make reasonable efforts to keep any such information that we have about you secure and to ensure that any of our employees or agents who have access to information about you do not make any unauthorised use, modification, reproduction, or disclosure of that information.
3.18.2 We will only disclose information that we have about you: (a) to the extent specifically required or authorised by law; or (b) for the purpose of these Terms and Conditions (including disclosing information in connection with any query or claim); or (c) with your express written consent.
3.19 Compliance
3.19.1 Membership is at all times governed by the Corporations Act 2001 and the VFF Constitution. – For further details please visit the link: https://www.vff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Victorian-Farmers-Federation-Constitution-last-amended-21-July-2016.pdf
3.19.2 Compliance with VFF Board internal policies including the Member Code of Conduct as amended from time to time and published on the VFF website is a condition of VFF membership and each member associated with each membership.
3.19.3 By accepting these Terms and Conditions and paying a membership fee, you and each member associated with each membership agree to comply with the Board internal policies and agree that substantiated non-compliance by you or another member related to your membership may result in sanctions against you, and/or each member associated with each membership, up to and including member termination and membership cancellation.
4. Accountability
VFF Chair
VFF CEO
5. Related policies / procedures
Policy G1; VFF Strategy and Policy Framework
Policy M1; VFF Membership
Policy M3: Member Code of Conduct
Policy G2: Grievances
Policy M4: Member Sanctions