Membership Registration
What’s on this page?
1. Introduction to LYC membership and fees
2. What do our fees look like in 2023/24?
3. Start Membership Registration – Pay your fees or apply for financial assistance
4. Donations
5. Frequently asked questions
If you have any questions about anything on this page after you have read through it, you can always email [email protected] or message or call 07388 623178 and a member of our membership team will be there to help.
1. Introduction to LYC membership and fees
Membership at LYC is annual and ongoing. This means that, unless there are exceptional circumstances, we expect all members to stay with us for a full year (and hopefully beyond).
- LYC has an OPTIONAL tiered fee payment structure – if finance is a barrier to participation, we can also fully or partially cover the cost of memberships (this is called Financial Assistance).
- You can pay monthly (over the course of 12 months) or annually via direct debit or card payments.
- We offer discounts of 10% (2x siblings), 15% (3x siblings) and 20% (4x siblings or more) for families with multiple siblings in our choirs.
DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION
Membership registration* must be completed by the 3rd rehearsal of your first term. You will not be allowed to enter rehearsals if you have not completed registration by this stage for safeguarding reasons. Staff will be at the first two rehearsals to support anyone who wants to complete registration offline or needs support doing it online.
*Membership registration means setting up your LYC Membership Management Profile (new this year) and completing your member forms. Instructions on how this will work can be found in the page below.
2. What do our fees look like in 2023/24?
This year, London Youth Choirs have introduced an OPTIONAL tiered payment system – this was made in collaboration with parents, carers and guardians through online surveys and randomly selected consultation groups. We’ve done this so we can continue to engage with young Londoners from all walks of life and to cover rising operational costs. For more information on why we have introduced this optional structure, please click the link at the bottom of this page “why we have updated our fees structure”.
- Partial and full Financial Assistance is open to anyone who wants to apply, not just those with an income below £50,000.
- If you pay standard membership fees, anything more than £350 per year is optional.
Those who receive Financial Assistance (partial or full) are also able to request financial support for:
– Concert Uniform – We will either buy clothes and shoes for you, or we will provide a voucher for your chosen store.
– Travel to and from concerts and events – Unless you already qualify for free travel with TfL, we can provide a LYC Oyster card, which we top up. There is more information about this in the document below.
– Discounted or Free Concert Tickets – We will always try and get free or discounted tickets for our concerts and events (although that is not always possible) for families on Financial Assistance. Generally, this is limited to 1 or 2 free or discounted tickets per LYC family.
3. START MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION HERE
By clicking one of the options below, you’ll see instructions on the registration process. This will involve setting up a LYC Membership Mangement Profile (1-2 min), verifying the account by clicking a link in an automated email (1 -2 min), and finally, completing a LYC Choir Member Form for each member under your plan (6 – 10 mins per member).
If you are applying for Financial Assistance, there will be an additional stage at the start of the process, where you apply for Financial Assistance (6 – 10 mins) – you only need to complete one form this year.
The short youtube series below runs through what to expect during each of the 3 different member registration journeys:
- Option 1 – Pay Standard Membership Fees
- Option 2 – Apply for Financial Assistance
- Option 3 – You Have Multiple Siblings in the Choir
Please choose an option below
OPTION 1 - Pay standard membership fees
Is this the right option for me?
People generally choose this option if they have a household income above £50,000, only have one young person in the choir (or are paying for themselves) and don’t want to apply for Financial Assistance. If you choose this option, to pay standard membership fees, the minimum amount you can pay is £350 for the full year, in monthly payments or all at once.
I’ve decided I want to pay standard membership fees – what do I do next?
You should click the link at the bottom of this box, and choose one of the options on that page. That will take you through to a very short form (name, email and card details) which sets up your LYC membership management account.
Once that’s done, you’ll immediately be sent an activation email – this email will have instructions on how to complete the final stage of registration.
From this year, you will only need to complete these forms once in your time in LYC. Next year, you will be able to see details of each member under your care in your LYC membership management account, which will also include details on your payments. We will simply ask you to review the details annually.
Clicking the link above with take you to a new window, where you will be given the option to select your payment amount.
If you want to apply to pay less or apply for Financial Assistance scroll past this section to OPTION 2. If you have multiple young people / children in the choir, go to OPTION 3.
OPTION 2 - Apply for Financial Assistance
Is this the right option for me?
People choose this option if they feel that finance would be a barrier to participation in our choirs. Each application is reviewed by our finance team. People who apply for Financial Assistance in our choirs usually have a household income of less than £50,000. Sometimes they have more, but have other personal circumstances that make membership fees unaffordable.
I’ve decided I want to apply for Financial Assistance – what do I do next?
You should click the button below that applies to you. This will take you through to a Financial Assistance Form. Once you’ve submitted that form, our finance team will be notified and will aim to get back to you with the results of your application within 5 working days – it may be sooner.
Our finance team will then send you a link to start the registration process for the member in our choirs.
Clicking a link above with take you to a new window, where you will be asked to complete the Financial Assistance Form.
If you have multiple siblings in our choirs, and would like to apply for Financial Assistance, select Option 3
OPTION 3 - You have multiple siblings in the choirs
Is this the right option for me?
People should always choose this option if they have multiple siblings in our choirs.
I have multiple siblings in the choirs – what do I do next?
Please email [email protected] directly. In that email you should let us know:
- How many siblings you have in the choir
- If you would like to apply for Financial Assistance (or) how much you would like to pay per member
A member of our team will get back to you in 3 working days with a personalised registration link and details on next steps.
4. Donations
LYC is a Registered Charity (charity no. 1151714). Our aim is to bring young people together from all over London to sing together, break down barriers to a music education for young people, and improve access and inclusivity in choral music. To do this, along with our 10 choirs, we work with schools and communities to offer free workshops and fun singing sessions, with progression routes into the choirs.
Overall, in 2022/23 we worked with 1,920 young people in London, and this year we will be working with even more!
80% of LYC’s income is through fundraising, and we rely on the generosity of donors and other funders (such as trusts, foundations and corporate sponsors) to keep all of our fees accessible while providing an inspiring music education for young people in the capital.
If you are able to contribute a donation in addition to your fees, we would love to hear from you! You can email LYC’s Development Team, Alice and Amy, at [email protected], call 07708 817 879, or donate directly via Enthuse by clicking below.
5. Frequently asked questions
I can’t afford to pay the suggested amount – If you can’t afford to pay the amount, or it’s too much of a jump for your budgeting, then you can pay any amount which you feel is manageable or you can apply for financial assistance. This new structure really is entirely optional.
I have multiple siblings in the choir and the suggested amount would be too much – We’ve updated our sibling discount scheme to better support you. Also, if the amount is too much, you can pay a lower amount, or apply for Financial Assistance.
My household income only tells part of my financial story – We agree! Household income is a universal and easily understandable metric, but it doesn’t tell the whole story – only you know your own financial situation. If you feel that the suggested amount is not representative of your actual financial situation, you can pay less or more.
If I chose to pay the suggested amount this is a big jump in fees. I haven’t budgeted for it this year – could there be a transitional period? – Yes, there absolutely could be! You might choose to start off paying a lower amount and move up next year, or later in the year – just let us know when you want to do that later in the year.
Will this new fees structure ever become compulsory? – We have no plans whatsoever to make this new structure compulsory at the moment.
Can you accept gift aid on membership fees payments over £350 – Unfortunately not. Quite rightly, one parent proposed that we keep all fees at £350 and invited people to donate any extra, therefore allowing gift aid to be claimed on the donation. Historically, we have tried this every year but the number of people that donate is always very low so we wanted to try something different!
Will this new structure be complicated? – Hopefully not – in fact it should be far more simple than it was before! We’ve introduced a new feature, your LYC Membership Management Portal. From here you can manage payment or Financial Assistance. We’ve also reduced the number of forms you have to fill in. On top of this, you only have to fill in forms for each member under your care (or yourself) once in your time with us. You can then review the data you’ve provided annually in your LYC Membership Management Portal.
Will we get personal support through this process? – Yes, of course! If you have any questions, just ask. Either at rehearsals, in our registration workshops at the start of term, via email ([email protected]) or via text, mobile or Whatsapp (07388 623178).
