During the last meeting of the Steering Committee of the congregation, it was pointed out that it would be desirable to remind the congregation to a change in the membership fee which entered into force in May last year by adopting statutes of ICNAB and the Rules and Procedure of the Jama’at as well as the last Congregation Assembly held in January.

New Categories and Membership Dues

The Steering Committee would like to draw attention to new categories that were voted during the last Congregation Assembly:

• Retirees and welfare cases whose membership fee is $ 90 per year.
• Single adults who do not have a spouse whose membership fee is $ 200 per year.
• Family whose membership fee is $ 360 per year

 

It is important to note that the treasurer who collects membership dues does not want nor will verify that a member belongs to a particular category. It is the duty of every congregation member to classify  themselves into one of the above categories at the time of payment of membership dues.

Criteria for Membership

One of the changes that should be paid attention to is the criterion that determines when you need to pay for membership. According to Article 15 of the Rules of Procedure of the Jama’at we would like to highlight the following text:

All members of one family shall be considered as members of the Jama’at, if one family member is a member of the Jama’at. The family shall include married couples with children up to entry into marriage of their children. When entering into marriage, the newly formed family shall be bound to become a member no matter whether it lives separately or not. Any person, who wants, may become a member, if he/she has reached the age of 18.

Thus, according to the above rule, it can be concluded that the family is not determined by the place of residence but rather by marriage. If we take the example of a mother or father living together with their child who is married, then it is required to pay two membership dues – one for the family established by the father or the mother and one for the family established by the child that is married. This is just one example and there are others.

Paying Membership Dues in Advance

When paying membership dues, individual congregation members expressed a desire to pay the dues in advance for future years. This process is acceptable but it should be noted that there is a possibility that the membership dues will change during each Congregation Assembly in which case the member is required to pay the difference in dues if the dues increase or will get a refund if the dues are reduced. Bearing in mind that the Congregation Assembly approved higher dues in January, every congregation member that the paid the dues in advance for 2016 or later is also required to pay the difference in membership dues paid for each paid year starting from 2016.

Non-Payment of Dues

If a member of the congregation ceases to pay the membership dues, that person will be notified about the non-payment after six months from the expiration of the paid membership. If the membership dues are not paid within the next six months (i.e. one year after the expiry of the paid membership), that person ceases to be a member of the congregation until they settle all past dues and dues for the current year.

It should be pointed out that if a person who is not a member of the congregation needs Jama’at services such as funeral, Sharia wedding, Imam services, the use of mosque for tawhid or mevlud and the like, that person will first have to settle all past dues. In the event that a person has never been a member of the congregation, then it is needed to pay the membership dues for the past 10 years. On the other hand, if the person used to be a member of the congregation whose membership terminated due to non-payment, that person should settle all the past dues from the last date on which the person was a member of the congregation.

How to Pay for Membership Dues

There are several ways of paying for membership dues. It is possible to make the payment with personal check, credit card or cash in person but the best and simplest way is to pay via PayPal on Jama’at’s website: http://icbnc.org/donate.

Documents

All the above referenced documents such as statute of ICNAB, Rulebook Jama’at etc. can be found on the Jama’at’s website http://www.icbnc.org under the category of documents.