Reminder: New National Membership Commences Tomorrow

A reminder to participants that as of 1 July 2023, you are going to see some changes to the way your membership with Touch Football Australia (TFA) is managed and the way you pay to play Touch Football.

Since inception, our membership model has been based on team affiliation where a portion of your competition fees are passed on to cover insurance and to help offset the cost administration, amongst other things. One of the downsides to this model is that each time you join a competition you contribute to the sport’s insurance and administration, each and every time. The more you play, the more it costs.

Clearly, a great deal has changed since our foundation and it is important that we evolve to ensure we are meeting the needs of our membership and an increasingly digitalised community. A key benefit of the new membership model is it provides a quick and simple online registration and payment experience for all participants and removes the inconvenience, risk and burden on our sport’s volunteers having to collect affiliation and insurance fees on our behalf.

So, how will it work?

• From 1 July, we will be utilising the MySideline platform to manage national membership including payment. Rather than your competition administrator collecting and passing on your membership fees you will now do that once a year via MySideline.
• When you go into MySideline to register into your first competition, you will be prompted to pay a national membership fee of $22.00.
• Once you have paid your annual membership you will be able to register into as many competitions as you like in that year. Of course, you will still have your competition fees to pay but as you will no longer be contributing to affiliation fees, your competition cost should be reduced.
• On 30 June each year, your membership will expire, and you will need to renew it before registering into a new competition.
• There will also be a State/Territory membership fee of $20, applicable the first time you register after 1 July. This does not include NSWTA and QTF who will continue to collect team-based affiliation fees. Both NSWTA and QTF will provide information direct to affiliates on how this will work.

What is included in your membership?

As part of touch football’s exclusive community, your membership fee includes GST and transaction costs and provides you with access to:

• Exclusive TFA benefits and discounts through a growing range of commercial partners including early access and discounted NRL ticketing and merchandise.
• The purpose-built membership and competition management platform, MySideline.
• A National Insurance Scheme that protects both you and your club through personal accident, public liability and management liability policies.
• Online and face to face delivered education resources for volunteers, players, coaches, and referees.
• Over 300 competition locations to provide you with the best social sport experience in the country.
• The world’s best Touch Football representative pathway.
• Local, regional, state and national events and programs.
• Protection for you and your club through some of the best and most inclusive sport policies.
• And, for those who play multiple competitions, this is a shift from ‘the more you play, the more you pay’ to a ‘pay once, play often’ model which will reduce the cost of your participation.

We understand that this a considerable change and that you may have further questions, so we have a developed a list of FAQs and created a membership hub which we hope covers all of your queries. In the coming months, we will be releasing more information, including instructional videos and guides to provide assistance to members across each state and territory.

If you need additional support, you can contact our team via membership@touchfootball.com.au.