Types of membership
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A member of The Vikings is any person who has paid his/her annual subscription to the Society for the current year and who has been granted a membership card. Only those whose dues are fully paid are entitled to the privileges of membership. The Vikings reserves the right to refuse membership without explanation. The Vikings has the right to withdraw membership from any individual or group should it consider this action to be in the best interests of The Vikings. All membership applications must be submitted to the Membership Thegn and will be not be effective until the date of issue of a membership card.
Adult Membership
Adult membership is available to anyone who wishes to join the UK Society. Adult members may be a member of a group or take out Provincial membership. The minimum age for adult membership is 18 years. A voting member is any adult member (i.e. over 18 years of age) who has 18 months of continuous membership within the Society.
Junior Membership
Junior membership is available for any child under the age of 18 years old. All Junior Members must have signed parental consent before being accepted into The Vikings. All children wishing to take an active part in events, must be registered with the Membership Officer as Junior Members and have a membership card issued. A nominal fee will be charged, to cover the cost of running this branch of The Vikings. Children who are not Junior Members will not be allowed to take part in events, irrespective of the standard of their kit or their craft/acting abilities. Activity consent forms should be signed by parents at the start of each season. These consent forms are often held by the group leader. There are specific Rules applying to children at shows.
Youth Membership
Youth membership is optionally available to children aged between 13-17 years old. All children aged 16+ taking part in combat must have signed parental consent and take out youth membership. Any 16-17 year wishing to take part in combat at an event must have a family member who becomes an adult member, as detailed on the activity consent form. Expenses may be claimed at Major events for Youth members, provided they have played an active role in the event. How a Youth Member may participate in an event is described here.
Companion Membership
Companion Membership is available for those who, for various reasons, do not take a full part in our activities but wish to attend events to maintain long friendships etc. This is available to any member with 25 years cumulative adult membership and whilst Companions retain their rank and the right to be included on all mailing lists which that rank entitles them to, and to freely comment on Society activities, within the limits of behaviour accepted by the moderator of that list, they may no longer hold any officerships or vote on Society issues.
Companion members may revert to full membership, on payment of the outstanding balance, with immediate effect and must do so if they wish to actively participate in an event.
International Membership
An international member of The Vikings is anyone who lives outside of the UK and therefore cannot normally get to UK based shows. The member may be an individual or part of a group depending upon circumstances. They may be part of a Felag or a member of the UK Society.
Guest Membership
Every person at any Vikings event must be a member; any person who is not a full member of the society must join as a guest for the duration of the event that they wish to attend. To be considered as a guest member a person must complete a guest membership application form and pay a guest membership fee. Guest members must be sponsored by adult who is a full member of the society. The sponsor must be at the event attended by the guest and is deemed to be responsible for their guest. Guest members wishing to attend any public show, or Society-level event, must be granted permission to attend by the Konungr or an appointed deputy. Attendance at group-level events may be granted by the Group Leader. Guest members do not normally qualify for any show expenses or attendance payments.
To be allowed to participate in any public Shows, Society Training event or a Vaetfang, the guest membership fee is normally £5 for an adult, 50p for a Junior. This may be off-set against full membership if taken out within 1 month of payment. Family members wishing only to stay in the plastic campsite may pay £1 only, but must then pay any entrance fee levied by the organisers. The cost of attendance at a local training event may be set by the local group, but must be a minimum of £1. This fee is non-refundable.