Membership Fee Regulations

1.  Regular members

pay an annual membership fee that corresponds to the impor­tance of the company for the production and development of combustion  engines and/or their technical accessories.

The minimum membership fees for regular members are staggered as follows depending on the size class of the work force (SME criterion):

When new members with a workforce of more than 1,000 employees (outside of the SME crite­rion) are admitted, the Executive Committee shall, in response to a proposal of the management of the association, reach a decision regarding the ade­quacy of the membership fee, in particular in relation to comparable member com­panies (work force; turnover; product spectrum).

2.  Extraordinary members

pay an annual membership fee that corresponds to the importance of the company for the production and development of combustion  engines and/or their technical accessories. The Executive Committee decides regarding the adequacy of the contribution.

The minimum membership fee for extraordinary members is EURO 6400,-.

3.   The membership fees

are subject to an annual adjustment (dynamic adjustment), coupled to the development of sales of the corresponding member company.

Determining the membership fee is carried out in accordance with the formal proce­dure stated below on the basis of a company-specific constant (membership fee reference factor); the membership fee reference factor F is arrived at as the quotient from the membership fee paid by today’s members in the year 2000 and the averaged turnover value of the reference years 1996 - 1998 and remains constant for each member company until revoked.

For new members joining the FVV, the company-specific reference factor F for the membership fee is determined by analogy on the basis of the membership fee paid in the first year of membership and the 3-year average of sales in the corresponding preceding years.

The annual change in the membership fee (dynamic adjustment) may amount to max. +10 % and -5% p.a. (upper / lower cut-off limits).

Special cases such as mergers, expansions and/or cutbacks in fields of business as well as the influences of extreme developments of sales and the like with reference to the FVV shall be individually regulated between the member and the FVV.

4.   New members

pay a once-only admission fee in the amount of the minimum member­ship fee of the corresponding size class in accordance with the SME criterion of the Membership Fee Regulations; by doing so they acquire the right to share in all earlier research results (research reports, user software) of the FVV.

5.   The annual membership fee

must be paid after receipt of the membership fee invoice but not later than the 31st of March of the current calendar year.

Members who join the research association by the 30th of June of the current year pay the full annual membership fee; members who join after the 1st of July of the current year pay half the annual membership fee.

The membership fees are calculated by the FVV management. For this purpose the member companies report their turnover figures of the corresponding reference year(s) to the FVV management by the 31st of January of each year for confidential treatment in accordance with the formula stated above. Insofar as the business year of a member is not identical with the calendar year, the turnover achieved in the business year shall be assigned to that calendar year in which the business year ends.

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