Borders Family History Society

Join our 50-50 Club

The 50-50 club is a common concept in Britain, used by lots of charities, schools and community associations, to raise money towards projects.

Our 50-50 club is a monthly prize draw run by the Society where half (50%) of the receipts makes up the prizes and half is a donation to the Society which will be used to buy, rent, refurbish or furnish premises (apart from administration costs like postage and collection costs, which are expected to be very low).

The first draw took place on 26th September 2010. There have been no winners in the first prize fund, as yet.

The total in the first prize fund is £143.75.

The total in the second prize fund is £88.50 (a prize of Ł55.25 having been won in August 2011).

50-50 club subscriptions cost £9 for the remainder of 2013 and are different to subscriptions to the Society; a 50-50 club subscription does not confer membership of the Society. You can join the Society at the same time using the Joining Borders Family History Society page.
When you subscribe, you choose 3 letters from the normal English alphabet of 26 letters.

The letters you choose will be the same for that year, you cannot have different sets of letters for different months.
You can make more than one subscription to the 50-50 club, and choose a different set of letters for each subscription. After a letter is drawn out of the bag it will be replaced, so each letter has an equal chance of being drawn as the first, second or third letter. You can thus choose a set of letters containing two or three the same, if you wish, for example, 'CFF' or 'AAA'.

Subscriptions can be made online using this page.

For months in which we have a public event, the draw will be made at that event in the presence of at least 2 Council members and two other people; if we don't, the draw will be made at a Council or Committee meeting in the presence of at least 3 Council or Committee members. The draw results will be announced in the magazine, on the website, and for those participants who have email, by email.

There will be two prize funds: the first prize fund and the second prize fund. Each month a quarter of the income received for that month will be paid into each prize fund.

The total balance in the first prize fund will be shared by all tickets who have the same permutation of letters as are made in the draw, that is whose letters were stated in the same order as the letters are drawn. If there are no winning tickets, the balance in the first prize fund will remain there, to be won in a subsequent monthly draw, and thus will be more valuable in the next draw.

The total balance in the second prize fund will be shared by all tickets who have the same combination of letters as are made in the draw, that is the order in which the letters are drawn does not matter; and which have not won the first prize or a share of the first prize. If there are no winning tickets, the balance in the second prize fund will remain there, to be won in a subsequent monthly draw, and thus will be more valuable in the next draw.
As the number of subscriptions has been well below expectations, we are expecting to close the 50-50 club on 31st December 2013. Any un-won prize funds when the 50-50 club is closed will be transferred to the Society's Premises Fund.

It's possible for the winners of the second prize fund to win more than the winners of the first prize fund.

This illustration may help.
Jack joined Borders FHS in January and bought two 50/50 club subscriptions, choosing as his letters 'JPT' and 'ABC'.
Jill renewed her membership to Borders FHS in February and bought one 50/50 club subscription, choosing as her letters 'JTP'.
There were first prize and second prize winners in December, thus the balance left in each prize fund was nil.
In January, February, and March there were 20 subscriptions to the 50/50 club, and thus £5 was put into each prize fund each month and there were no winners in any of those months, so at the beginning of April, each prize fund had a balance of £15. In April there were 40 subscriptions to the 50/50 club, and thus £10 was put into each prize fund. The letters drawn for the April draw were 'CAB', and two subscriptions had chosen 'BAC', one 'ACB', one 'CBA', and Jack, who had chosen 'ABC'. There were thus no winners for the first prize, so the balance in the first prize fund at the end of April was £25. There were 5 winners for the second prize fund, so the balance of £25 was shared and Jack and the other 4 winners each got £5, leaving a balance of nil.
In May there were 60 subscriptions, thus the balance was £40 (£25 + that month's subscription of £15). The letters drawn were 'JTP'. Apart from Jill and Jack, there was only Patrick who had that combination of letters, his being 'PTJ'.
So Jill received the whole of the first prize fund of £40, leaving a balance of nil.
Jack and Patrick shared the second prize fund of £15, so they got £7.50 each.

Additional Rules If you are under the age of 18 years, or if you are resident in a jurisdiction which does not permit this form of gambling, you must not subscribe.

If a member dies, his or her 50-50 club subscription(s) will remain valid for the remainder of their subscription period, and any winnings will be paid to their estate.

In the event that your payment is invalid, or reclaimed by the bank or credit company, your entitlement to any winnings will be forfeited for that month(s), and you will not be eligible for a prize until funds are validly received.
Membership is non-transferable. No refunds of partly used subscriptions will be made.
There will be 12 monthly draws every year.

Winning members will be notified by email or by post and the letters drawn announced in the next available magazine and an announcement will be put on the blog.
Borders FHS 50-50 club will take no responsibility for non-received or late subscriptions, or non-received reminders to renew expired subscriptions.

Winnings will normally be paid in pounds sterling by cheque but winners may choose to order publications or services or pay for membership in advance or additional 50-50 club subscriptions instead.
Overseas members may elect to have their winnings paid in foreign currency, however the conversion cost and fees will be deducted from their winnings.

In the event that your choice of letters is unclear, we will write to you to check; and your subscription will start when the matter is clarified.

All decisions made by Borders FHS Council will be final.

50-50 Subscription Form

We accept payment by cheque drawn on a UK bank in £ sterling please, made payable to Borders Family History Society.
Alternatively, you may pay by debit or credit card.
Please provide your full card number, name (as printed on the card), postal address, card type (Discover, Mastercard, Visa), start date, end date, 3 digit security number, issue no (if there is one).

Joining Form

If you don't want to join the 50-50 Club online, please download, print and complete the 50-50 Club joining form PDF (10 Kb), and send it by post with your payment to
Peter Munro, Old Gala House, Scott Crescent, Galashiels, Scottish Borders, TD1 3JS, Scotland.

You need a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat to print the joining form PDF.
Click the Adobe logo to download it free.

Link to Adobe's website to download Adobe Acrobat reader

Individuals - Join the 50-50 Club Online

Forename*				Surname*
Your address and other details will be taken when processing payment.
Number of Subscriptions (max 5)*
The cost is £9 for each subscription.
Letter Sets (one per subscription)	1:	2:	3:	4:	5:

I have read and accept the Rules of the 50-50 Club

I am over the age of 18 years.

If you pay income or capital gains tax in the UK, the Society can reclaim tax on your subscription from the taxman at no cost to you (you can't reclaim the tax), so please select the appropriate option below:

GIFT AID DECLARATION

I would like Borders Family History Society to treat all payments I make on or after 6th April 2012 in respect of the donation part of my 50-50 club subscription as Gift Aid donations.

Notes:
We ask that UK/EU members agree that the donation part of the subscription (£4.50) be regarded as a Gift Aid donation and sign to say that. It costs you nothing to do this, as you can’t reclaim the basic rate tax, but it does provide extra income for the Society. The Gift Aid scheme says that you must have paid at least the amount of tax that we reclaim as income or capital gains tax, which is £1.08 per £9 subscription. In the extremely unlikely event that the Inland Revenue seeks to recover £1.08 from you, you can reclaim it from the Society.
Please notify us if you change your name or postal address.