Become a Follower of Rupert Bear - Members' Benefits

As a full member you would receive a host of items that are not available elsewhere. These include:

• A thrice-yearly Nutwood Newsletter packed with Ruperty articles, some serious, some semi-frivolous, as well as news of new products related to the little bear.
  Click here for a sample to view or download
• An exclusive calendar each year  produced by the Followers, solely for the Followers
  Click here for a sample calendar page
• Specially published booklets featuring Rupert newspaper stories that have never appeared other than in the newspaper itself
• Access to the Members Area of our website with downloads of past copies of our Newsletters and booklets from the past decade, scans of virtually every story to appear in the Daily Express
• Entitlement to join the Followers Facebook Group for more Ruperty discussion and exchange of information
• Entitlement to attend the Followers AGM and annual get-together – more familiarly known as the “Annual”
  Click here for a report of a previous AGM
• Access to the Followers Library – we have an extensive library of Rupert-related books ranging from those written by Mary Tourtel to the latest annual together with sets of comics, videos and other Rupert media. As a Follower you are able either to borrow these artefacts or, for those that are irreplaceable, come and view them.
• Ability to purchase exclusive items* from the Followers Shop (on- line or by mail) – much of our merchandise is exclusive to Followers. Items available include:
  Click here for a look at our on-line shop
• Check out our Constitution & Rules here

Memberships

The Followers have three levels of membership:

Associate Membership entitles members to make purchases of exclusive Followers' items from our sales list. These items are not available elsewhere. Associate Members are entitled to participate in the annual Rupert Followers' raffle, with the chance to win exclusive items. They are not able to access the full/E-members' private side of the website, and are not, therefore able to access or download our publications, do not have voting rights and are not eligible to join our Facebook group.

E-membership gives full access of the website including the private members' section, thus enabling them to view and download Followers' Newsletters and other publications. They will not receive any hard copies of these through the post but otherwise are full members with full entitlement to purchase from the Followers' sales list and with full voting rights at the AGM.

Full membership gives as above full access to the private members' part of the website, to the sales list and voting rights at the AGM. In addition all full members receive printed copies of the Nutwood Newsletter and other publications and notifications by post (Air Mail for overseas members). We know many of our Members enjoy receiving 'hard' copies of our beautiful publications.

Special Offers for New Members:

All new full members joining now will additionally receive;
The latest Rupert Calendar, a CD 'In Conversation with Alfred Bestall', a Followers’ AGM badge, a set of Card Coasters, Bookmarks and a Followers' pen.
Offer is to our choice of design and subject to availability.

How to Join the Followers

Click here for our Membership Application Form

You may join by PayPal, online banking or by cheque. Please consider joining by a subscription with automatic yearly payments.
If you have any questions about joining, please contact the Membership Secretary using membership@rupertbear.co.uk

We aim to process online membership applications swiftly but please be aware that it may take up to 48 hours!

Please be aware that creating your membership is a manual process involving a human being who does not work 24/7 on Rupert matters. We try to complete the process as soon as possible, generally within 48 hours and usually much quicker, but please bear with us on this. If you have any concerns do contact the Membership Secretary using membership@rupertbear.co.uk

To join using PayPal

The main options allow you to pay for a single year, 3 years or to take out an automatic subscription. We encourage you to subscribe as it reduces our admin and means that you never forget to renew! The Associate Membership option can only be taken out as a subscription. You can cancel a subscription at any time via PayPal.
You do not need a PayPal account to pay via PayPal as it will allow you to use your credit card.

Scroll to find the grey box below that contains the membership option best suited to you. In the second grey box, enter any details requested – Your full name (both full names for joint membership) and your email address. Make sure you select the correct postal region. Now click the appropriate payment button in that same grey box.

If you are purchasing this membership as a gift for someone else, please immediately send an email to membership@rupertbear.co.uk giving your name and your email address followed by the full name, email address and full postal address of the recipient. It can help us if you include your phone number. We can usually accommodate any special instructions you may have for gift memberships.

When you join online you will be sent an immediate confirmation from PayPal and subsequently a confirmation email from the Followers which will contain your initial password for website access.
Once you have your password you will be able to change it, purchase any of the items from our sales catalogue and, if your class of membership allows, access to the entire Members’ Area of our website.

Joining by Bank Transfer

You may now join by electronic bank transfer / BACS from UK (preferred) or overseas bank accounts. To do this follow your bank’s instructions for setting up a new payee for which you will need some or all the following details:

Bank: Barclays
Branch: Business Direct Support Central
Sort Code: 20-45-45
Account number: 23593940
SWIFTBIC: BUKBGB22
IBAN: GB95 BUBK 2045 4523 5939 40
Account name: The Followers of Rupert Membership
Reference: your email address

Make sure you select the correct amount to transfer using the fees shown in the PayPal options above.

Please consider making this an annual Standing Order payment. This will reduce our administrative overheads and ensure you don’t forget to renew!

Please immediately send an email from the address you used as a reference to membership@rupertbear.co.uk telling us you have made a payment and include your full name (both names for joint membership) full postal address and a telephone number.

Joining by Cheque

If you prefer, you may download and print our joining/renewal form and send it with payment (Sterling cheques and POs only) to the Membership Secretary – details are on the form.

Joining and Renewal Form

- We aim to process online membership applications swiftly but please be aware that it may take up to 48 hours! -

Data Privacy Statement
We do keep limited personal data of members (names, addresses and, if provided, phone numbers and email addresses) which we believe is collected, processed and secured appropriately. This information is used only for the legitimate interests of membership, such as distributing the Nutwood Newsletter and other information to members, maintaining the membership records, processing renewals, communicating to members individually on membership matters where appropriate, and, if the member has requested these services, access to the members’ area of our website and our Facebook group.

Members’ information is shared by certain committee members in order to undertake their duties for the Followers. We supply members’ addresses to our printers to enable them to mail the Nutwood Newsletter, which addresses they will then destroy when that process is completed. Otherwise we do not provide data to any other organisation or individual.

We have, as required under the new regulations, formally appointed a ‘data protection officer’ and ‘data controller’. These roles are now assigned to our Membership Secretary, Chris Hellen. We have also produced a Data Protection policy, which will be reviewed regularly by your Committee. If you have any concerns about any of this, or as a member would like a copy of our Data Protection policy or would like to see the details we hold on you, please contact our Membership Secretary, membership@rupertbear.co.uk.