A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon this pizza place in Geelong called "Pizza Bar". I had gone to Pizzeria Adamo several times previously and liked their dough; but Pizza Bar have this beef brisket pizza that's really yummy, and I've been back there a couple of times.
Then last week I ended up back at Adamos and was looking forward to an "Adamo Special", but when I asked to be seated the lady at the front desk told me that they'd noticed that I'd been to Pizza Bar several times, so I couldn't have their pizza anymore.
Yeah. Of course that never happened. And neither should it - and the same is true for any other situation where I pay an organisation to use their services.
When I started playing pickleball 18 months ago, I became a member of the Drysdale Clifton Springs Pickleball Club, as they were the closest to where I lived and where I first found out about the sport. After playing a couple of sessions I was asked to join the club, and was told to register I should go to the Pickleball Victoria website and register as a member there - which I did.
Drysdale offered several sessions a week and I enthusiastically took up their offerings. Then after a couple of months someone told me about a session on a Wednesday in Leopold, and in order to play there I had to join the Ocean Grove Pickleball Club. A further few months down the track and I heard about the Queenscliff Pickleball Club and went to some of their sessions; in order to play there they also asked me to join their club, which I did.
A pickleball club offers a service; I pay the club a membership fee so I can access that service, which in general is pickleball sessions they run for their members. There's nothing exclusive about this arrangment. Just like I get my pizza from Pizza bar one day and from Adamo the next.
One of the reasons why I think clubs have been confusing their role is because clubs that are affiliated with Pickleball Victoria (PV) generally use the Revolutionise software that PV subscribes to register members and collect their membership fees. And when someone is a member of more than one club, only one of these clubs can use Revolutionise to collect their membership fee; the term "primary member" has been flowing around to describe this kind of relationship between a member and a club, when the member picks them as their club on the PV website when registering / renewing.
Yet there is nothing "primary" or special about this relationship - no matter which club I chose to have my PV affiliation registered with - and I can chose to pick none and register directly with Pickleball Victoria - the only consequence of my choice is that the other clubs need to chase my membership fees manually, because they can't use Revolutionise to do that. Simply because Revolutionise can't do it. It hasn't been set up in a way to support the concept of one person being a member in more than one club.
The simplest way to look at this is that your club membership has nothing to do with your PV membership. Because your Pickleball Club is not Pickleball Victoria. They are two completely different organisations, charging you fees for completely different services. In fact there is three relationships at play here that have nothing to do with each other:
1. Your membership with a pickleball club: Your club charges you a membership fee (which is totally up to your club and can range from 0 to whatever they decide to charge) so you can access sessions they offer.
2. Your membership with Pickleball Victoria: If you decide to enter into this relationship, then you get Personal Injury Insurance in case you injure yourself playing pickleball. Your PV membership also gives you a Pickleball Australia (PA) membership, which allows you play in sanctioned tournaments in Australia. And of course you also support the development of the sport of pickleball.
3. Your clubs membership with PV : Your pickleball club is paying a fee to PV to be an affiliated member. That fee gives your club Public Liability insurance cover so that if anyone is injured while attending an event run by your club (can be a member, guest, or just some random person slipping on a banana peel on your courts) your club is covered (it also gives the club several other benefits).
So for you as an individual, you really only need to worry about the first two relationships.
You will want to have a relationship with all the pickleball clubs you want to play at.
And if you decide that you want to use the services that PV offers, then you can enter into a separate relationship with them. And Revolutionise allows you to kill two birds with one stone, and pay for two relationships with one transaction - with one of your clubs, and with PV. That doesn't make your relationship with that club any more special than your relationship with the other clubs though. You still pay your membership fees to all of them so you can access all of their services.