Before being able to take part in any competitive events, it is normally necessary to become a member of a club affiliated either to the local centre, in this instance the Eastern Centre, or a club termed a “Non-Territorial Club” where the club is affiliated directly through the ACU rather than via the local centre.

In the Eastern Centre, the vast majority of clubs are affiliated to the ACU via the Eastern Centre and as such, organise events which, in the main, become available for members of other Centre clubs to enter.

There are no hard and fast rules as to which club you should belong. By that we mean that if, for example, you live in Sudbury there is no hard and fast rule that states that you must belong to the Sudbury club. However, the preferred scheme of things is that you should join the club nearest to your place of residence that supports the discipline or disciplines you are interested in. For details of the clubs in the Eastern Centre, please visit the Eastern Centre website where you will find details of clubs in your vicinity and their interests/disciplines. However, it must be stressed that not all clubs who have declared an interest in a particular discipline/s, organises or possesses the necessary land or expertise to organise such event.

It is possible to do a simple check as to whether a particular club organises events of the discipline you are interested in by doing a search of the Fixture List.

Club membership normally requires an annual subscription to be paid, this varying from club to club. However, in most cases it reflects the service the member gets from UNPAID VOLUNTEER members of the club who act as its officers and meeting officials. Some clubs include the cost of the monthly Eastern Centre Gazette, a club newsletter and all postal costs in their subscription fee whilst others don’t and you have to provide stamped addressed envelopes for your mailings. There may also be other various costs to be considered as well.

It is most strongly suggested that you do NOT automatically ‘plump’ for the club with the cheapest subscription rate but rather to join whichever club satisfies most of your own particular requirements.