Thank you again for all your interest and support. Thursday morning at 8am, HFAC’s new software system will be ready to accept enrollments, and our on-site team members will be trained and ready to address all your questions. I’m sorry, we are unable to accept enrollments prior to the 2nd.
Our team is committed to making your enrollment process as quick and easy as possible. You can download, review and print the Membership Application Paperwork here:
Here are some additional details –
MEMEBERSHIP APPLICATION CHECKLIST:
• Primary Member must apply in person.
• Monthly Membership Dues may be paid with Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) – or by Cash or Check for an additional $5 bookkeeping fee. We do not accept Credit or Debit cards for Monthly Membership Dues.
• You will need to fill out a Membership Agreement Form and sign the Rules and Regulations form (PRINT IN ADVANCE BY CLICKING ON THE LINK ABOVE)
• Please bring current photo ID and a cancelled check if you are electing for EFT payment.
THANK YOU AGAIN! Please come on by after April 2nd at 8am so we can answer all your questions and show you around!
Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club BLOG 
Can we transfer our payment to you every month to avoid the 5.00 fee? There has been problems in the past with billing with various owners. I think you should reconsider. Thanks,
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Good morning! I’m not sure what you mean by “transfer our payment”. Overall I imagine several people will have questions about payment and billing and I’d like to invite each of you to come in once the club is open April 2nd, or call once we have staff answering the phone tomorrow, and speak to someone in person so you can get all your questions answered correctly and tailored to your individual concerns. Thanks so much for your interest!
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Also related- several people may have their employers or family members pay for their membership. Although I am not one of them, having billing through credit or debit cards is really *MUCH* easier.
I do hope that you will reconsider not taking them- even if you had to add a 2% credit card processing fee, etc. to it.
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What is your reasoning behind not accepting credit or debit cards?
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Thanks for asking. Charge cards can be used for purchases in the club including at the spa and café as soon as they open.
The new club’s dues rates are very close to what we offered at the original business some 10 years ago. In order to accomplish that for the membership as a whole, it requires carefully looking at some opportunities to manage costs. This is especially true now that we will be operating as a single location rather than Hawthorn Farm being part of a bigger organization and during the early start up period. Fees for “card not present” auto-charges are particularly high and can be difficult for small businesses to absorb. There is an increasing trend for independent clubs like Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club not to offer this option for monthly dues. When you start to look where else that money could be invested rather than paying fees to big credit card corporations, investing in our team members, equipment and the overall member experience was a higher priority.
I hope that helps answer your question. I welcome any interested parties concerned about this to come into the club, speak with the team, provide your feedback and explore your options. Again, we talked to other well-established businesses who have done this very successfully, but we always welcome the communities input.
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I believe that Jo is asking if they can do an ACH transfer initiated from the members side instead of
from the HFAC side. For example, with my credit union bill payer system, they can either send an check or an electronic payment to a vendor. (Once the vendor provides the ACH routing info to the credit union,
it is electronic ACH transfer.) The difference is that the member is in control of the funds going to the vendor.
That’s a pretty good April Fool’s joke about not accepting debit or credit cards!
In case you’re serious: if I give you my bank account info, I have absolutely no recourse if the relationship with HFAC goes awry, and it is a lot harder to close my checking account than to cancel my credit card when it is being incorrectly charged.
I have to admit in view of the difficulties with the previous two operators of HFAC I am very wary of
giving out unfettered access to my accounts. To their credit I have never had any problems with
the original operators, but once (or twice) burned, a few times careful.
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Thanks so much for your feedback, Jim. We hear your concern about ACH transfers. I invite you to come into the club or call 503.640.6404 and speak to a team member to learn about all the options available to you and how that might work and share with them your thoughts.
We have spoken to other independent clubs who have had great success with not using credit cards for “card not present” automatic monthly dues charges, and there are good business reasons for this approach. We are a local, family owned business with a long history in the community, and I appreciate those who have stood behind our reputation for fair dealings. Having said that, the feedback of our community really matters and we want to hear from you. I appreciate the investment of your time.
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I am very concerned about business misuse of EFT’s. They are great for the business but not safe for purchasers, as has been shown to be true with previous management, not to mention the possibility of security leaks of bank acct information.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts Carolyn. I welcome you to come into the club or call and speak first hand with the team members to learn all your payment options and also to share your thoughts on EFT’s. There are solid business reasons behind the payment options and similar independent athletic clubs who operate this way very successfully, but we care very much about our community’s input. We are listening!!
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