Historical Association Membership - Terms & Conditions

The Historical Association [HA] is a registered charity incorporated by Royal Charter. We endeavour to make membership as accessible as possible to all, and this in turn enables us to continue to produce resources and campaign for quality history education at all levels, locally and nationally. We are grateful to all of our members for their ongoing support.

By joining the HA as a member you agree to adhere to the terms and conditions of membership outlined below.  This agreement is considered to constitute a membership contract between the HA and the member.  If you have any questions or queries please email membership@history.org.uk or call our membership team on 0300 100 0223. You may also find it useful to take a look at the member FAQs.

1) Membership of Historical Association

1. Applications for membership can be placed over the telephone with a credit or debit card or by Direct Debit, in writing, or through the HA website.
   
   
2. Schools, academies, institutions and organisations covering the cost of membership can request an invoice, which we will endeavour to generate within 72 hours. Payment of invoices must be made within 30 days, and we retain the right to revoke membership if fees are not received within this period.
   
   
3. New memberships will be activated at the point of ordering. If lapsed, renewing memberships will be re-activated on receipt of payment unless exceptional circumstances apply.
   
   
4. Individual and concessionary membership packages can only be offered to a single individual and as such must be registered with the direct name and email address of the person using the membership. The names of school administrators or generic office email addresses cannot be accepted.
   
   
5. Concessionary membership is available for retired, student, trainee, ECT and unwaged members. Proof of concessionary status is not required, but please let us know if your circumstances change.
   
   
6. Corporate/school membership enables additional login access for multiple members of staff (12 at primary schools, 8 at secondary schools, 4 at all other organisations or institutions). The staff linked to the account must be working within the same school or institutional department, and must be based at the same physical site. All logins must be registered with a direct name and email address of the member of staff using the login, and their access is strictly for personal use only. If contacts from outside the organisation or users from different sites are linked to the account, if logins are registered with generic emails, or if contacts are using/accessing materials for more than personal use, we reserve the right to remove these contacts or to revoke membership.
   
   
7. Student Zone login access via corporate membership is only available to schools and not to universities or other institutions. Those requiring institutional access to HA journal content should contact us to arrange an IP access option, which carries its own license agreement. 
   
   
8. Corporate primary membership is only available to primary schools. Other institutions or organisations wishing to gain access to primary materials should contact us directly to arrange this. 
   
   
9. Corporate membership is not available to SCITTs, Teaching Alliances or other training providers, however if you would like like membership for several teachers or trainees in bulk, please contact us to discuss bespoke discounted packages available.
   
   
10. Each membership period is 12 months which is agreed at the time of ordering and at renewal.
    
    
11. International members are welcomed however please note that there is a postage fee attached to print subscriptions overseas, which helps to cover shipping expenses. The price is £10 per subscription for delivery within the EU, and £21 per subscription for delivery outside of the EU. International members can opt for an online-only subscription if they would prefer not to receive print copies.
    
    

2) Trainee & ECT membership

1. Trainee and ECT members are eligible to claim the concession rate.
   
   
2. Trainee membership is valid only to individuals enrolled (or soon to be enrolled) on a full time or part time teacher training programme.
   
   
3. ECT membership is available to teachers who are undertaking their ECT Years 1 and 2.
   
   
4. Trainee membership will automatically transfer to ECT Year 1 membership after 1 membership period of 12 months. ECT Year 1 membership will automatically transfer to ECT Year 2 membership after 1 membership period of 12 monthsIt is the responsibility of the member to inform the HA if they will be training for an additional year or are studying part time over 2+ years.
   
   

3) Payment

1. The HA accepts the following forms of payment for membership and other goods and services:
   
   
1. Cheque (payable to Historical Association)
2. Credit/debit card (excluding American Express)
3. Bank transfer
4. Direct Debit (annual only)
5. Cash at events
   
   
2. All bank and company details can be requested at any time by contacting the HA by emailing membership@history.org.uk or calling 0300 100 0223.
   
   
3. In the case of Direct Debit, payment will be taken on the second to last working day of the month, or the next working day thereafter. If there are any changes to the date, amount or frequency of your Direct Debit, notification will be provided 10 working days’ notice in advance of your account being debited.
   
   
4. If you are a history teacher or academic and take membership as part of your career development, you can claim the cost of your subscription as a professional expense against income tax. The HA is an approved Inland Revenue body for this purpose. This could reduce the cost of your membership by 20% or more if you pay tax at the higher rate. You can claim on your tax return by writing to your tax office. Please speak to your tax advisor if you wish to obtain professional advice; the HA is unable to provide this.
   
   
5. The price of membership includes any applicable Value Added Tax (VAT), which the buyer shall be liable to pay the HA.
   
   

4) Cancellations and Refunds

1. All cancellations should be made to the HA in writing via email, post or fax.
   
   
2. HA membership subscriptions are deemed to be annual commitments, and therefore refunds are not issued if a membership is cancelled part way through the agreed 12 month period.
   
   
3. A refund of membership subscriptions will therefore usually only be made in circumstances where because of lead times e.g. in the case of Direct Debits, it has not been possible to prevent collection of a payment despite having been contacted by the member to cancel or amend their subscription prior to their renewal date.
   
   
4. Any member has the right to have their personal details deleted from the HA’s records at any time (please refer to our Privacy Policy for further details) but in this event there shall be no rebate of any part of the subscription already paid unless exceptional circumstances apply.
   
   
5. Whilst there is no entitlement, in the event of exceptional circumstances the HA’s practice is to allow partial refunds based on the balance remaining, calculated on a pro rata termly rate to the end of the membership year.
   
   
6. If an individual pays directly for a personal membership subscription of the HA, the initial membership order is subject to a 14 day cooling off period in which they have the right to cancel their subscription and receive a refund if they have not already downloaded any digital content. Please note that this is not applicable to invoices. This clause complies with the EU Distance Selling Directive and is part of UK law under the Consumer Protection Regulations that relate to distance selling. These regulations do not govern contracts between businesses. After that time refunds can only be made in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Membership Manager.
   
   
7. Access to the HA website is governed by a unique member username and password.  This login will continue to work if membership is cancelled, however access to the membership resources through the login will be deactivated. Notwithstanding the above 14-day ‘cooling-off’ period clause, no refund will be issued if the HA has reason to believe that a member has benefitted by downloading membership content, obtaining member discounts or registering for events and conferences during the 14-day period.
   
   
8. The HA reserves the right to charge an administration fee (up to 25% of the annual subscription fee) for any refunds issued in accordance with points (f) and (g) above.
   
   
9. Members wishing to cancel their subscription within the 14-day ‘cooling-off’ period should email membership@history.org.uk or write to Historical Association, 59a Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4JH.
   
   

5) Membership and Events

1. Members can save on the majority of events and conferences run by the HA. The scale of discount varies depending on the event, however this normally ranges between 20-40%. Discounts will not be added retrospectively with the exception of errors on the part of the HA. For further information, please refer to our Event Terms and Conditions.
   
   
2. Corporate and school members are only entitled to use this discount against Extra Staff Logins registered to the membership account.
3. Individual members are only entitled to use this discount against a booking made for the named individual to which the membership is registered.
   
   
4. To claim event discounts, members must ensure they book their place during their membership period. This cannot be claimed should their membership expire, or be due to expire imminently. They must also be members at the time of attendance at the event.
   
   

6) Membership and Branches

1. All national members are eligible to attend regular talks at their local HA branch. Some branches may levy a small charge for special trips; however these will still be at a reduced member rate.
   
   
2. Members are normally affiliated to their nearest local branch, but can attend events from any of the other 45 branches across the UK for free.
   
   
3. Corporate/schools members may bring their students to HA branch events free of charge provided they supply fair and due notice to the branch secretary.
   
   

7) Membership and Webinars

1. A selected number of webinars will be made freely available to members on an annual basis. Chargeable webinars may also be offered, however members will be offered a booking discount in this instance.
   
   
2. Membership does not guarantee a place on our webinars. Places are restricted and will therefore be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
   
   
3. Cancellations of webinar places should be made as early as possible to allow the place to be offered to those held on the waiting list. For further information, please refer to our Event Terms and Conditions.
   
   

8) Delivery of publications

1. Provided they have not selected an online-only option, HA members will receive regular mailings from the HA for the duration of their membership. The publication supplied will correspond to the core membership type, in additional to any supplementary journals requested.
   
   
2. Primary History magazine is published on a termly basis and editions are normally sent out in February (Spring edition), May (Summer edition) and October (Winter edition). Teaching History magazine is published quarterly – normally in March, June, September and December. The Historian magazine is also published quarterly – normally in January, April, July and November. The academic journal Historyis published five times a year in January, April, July, October and December. Members’ magazine HA News is published in January and August for all members in the UK.
   
   
3. Please note that the timings indicated in point (b) are guideline only and the publication schedule may be subject to change on occasion. The HA will notify members if it anticipates a significant delay in publication. Online editions of each journal will be available roughly a week after publication and the HA will also notify members when these are available.
   
   
4. Risk of damage or loss of the publication shall pass to the member on delivery or, if the buyer fails to take delivery, at the time when the HA has tried to deliver the goods.
   
   
5. If the member does not take delivery of the resources or give the HA adequate delivery instructions then no duty of care shall apply, and in this circumstance the HA will not be liable for any loss or damage or deterioration of the resources.
   
   
6. If journals are returned to the HA offices as undeliverable the member will be contacted directly to let them know. No further journals will be mailed until a response is received, however copies of missed journals can be sent retrospectively if stocks are available.
   
   
7. It is the responsibility of the member to raise repeated journal delivery issues with the membership team on membership@history.org.uk or 0300 100 0223. This can happen for a number of reasons and we will endeavour to resolve the issue.
   
   
8. In the case of a repeated journal delivery issue, the cost of postage for replacement must be covered by the member according to their postal location.  
   
   

9) Website access and e-resources

1. Members must provide a valid email address to the HA in order to register for online access and to receive e-newsletters. Failure to provide the HA with a valid email address will mean these benefits cannot be delivered.
   
   
2. The email logins must be registered to a specific named user accessing the resources. Names of school administrators or generic office email addresses will not be accepted.
   
   
3. HA e-newsletters are included as a benefit of membership, therefore under the membership contract members will be automatically signed up for email updates from the HA and their local branch.  Members can opt out of these emails or amend their preferences at any time.  
   
   
4. HA corporate/school members are permitted to circulate e-newsletters and downloadable resources to members of staff within that institution. Personal members may access and use the resource in their school but are not permitted to circulate this amongst staff.
   
   
5. Downloadable resources and/or login details are strictly not to be circulated outside of the specific school/organisation that has taken out the membership. If multi-school access is required, a bulk MAT/Federation or chain membership must be purchased to cover each school.  Equally, personal members should not circulate the resources to colleagues at their own or other schools/organisations. Please refer to section 10) below for further information on copyright and distribution of resources.
   
   
6. The HA will not be liable for damages or refunds should the site become unavailable temporarily or access to the site becomes slow or incomplete due to system back-up procedures, regular maintenance, Internet traffic volume, upgrades, overload of requests to the servers, general network failures or delays, or any other cause beyond the control of the HA which may from time to time make the site inaccessible for members, but will use reasonable efforts to correct any performance problem brought to its attention.
   
   
7. The HA provides access only for the term of this subscription, and does not undertake to ensure future access to the online archives once the subscription term has expired. The HA reserves the right to remove all or portions of the archive of resources, or to amend its charges for access in the future.
   
   
8. The HA reserves the right to suspend and/or terminate online access without prior notice if members violate any term of this Agreement.
   
   

10) Copyright

1. All materials received via HA membership remain © Historical Association unless stated otherwise. Members agree to be bound by copyright law with respect to use of HA materials.
   
   
2. Moderate downloading, printing, or saving of material for personal, scholarly, or educational, non-commercial use is permissible, only to the extent consistent with the "fair use" doctrine. Downloading portions of membership materials for the purpose of creating systematic and persistent local copies for redistribution is prohibited.
   
   
3. Recompiling, publication or republication of the data, or any portion thereof, in any form or medium whatsoever, may be done only with specific written permission from the HA.
   
   
4. Corporate/school members are permitted to photocopy or distribute materials for use within that school only. Personal members may photocopy resources for use within their classroom only.
   
   
5. Any other use of materials requires the written permission of the Historical Association. To request this please email enquiries@history.org.uk or write to Historical Association, 59a Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4JH.
   
   
6. Where copyright is not outlined within resources supplied by the HA, members may assume this can be used as above.
   
   

11) Privacy

1. The HA operates in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 1998 in the collection, processing, holding and transmitting of your personal information. We promise to use your data in a fair, transparent and ethical way.
   
   
2. We collect your personal information in order to fulfil your membership contract with us, and provide you with the services you have signed up for. We have procedures and security features in place to keep your data secure. We will never share or sell your information with third parties, and only share it with organisations we work with when it's necessary for the fulfilment of your membership, and when the privacy and security of your data is assured. You can ask to see what information we hold about you, request changes to the data, or instruct us to delete it, however this may mean we are no longer able to deliver the benefits you have paid for. If your membership lapses we will retain your information for a maximum of 3 years in order to let you know about the organisation and how to re-join. You can opt out of these communications at any time. We will retain basic information about you for a maximum of six tax years to comply with UK tax law.
   
   
3. Our full privacy policy can be viewed at history.org.uk/go/privacypolicy
   
   

12) Service Level Agreement

The HA is committed to providing an exceptional level of service and support to its members and users. We endeavour to resolve all enquiries from members within a maximum of 72 hours, or to provide an estimated turnaround if we are unable to resolve a query within that time frame. There may be some instances where this is not possible, for example during bank holidays and during the Christmas break.

13) Comments and Complaints

Feedback from members is warmly welcomed – we are always keen to hear your thoughts and suggestions on how we can improve. Alternatively, if you have been unhappy with the service provided you can make a complaint. We take all complaints seriously and endeavour to respond within 72 hours of receipt. Please send all comments and complaints to membership@history.org.uk or write to Historical Association, 59a Kennington Park Road, London, SE11 4JH.

14) Changes to Membership Terms & Conditions

The HA reserves the right to make changes to these Terms and Conditions when necessary. You will be consulted and notified if there are any significant amendments which alter the nature of the agreement. These Terms and Conditions do not affect your statutory rights.