Joining the Guild of Motoring Writers
Membership of the Guild is open to automotive editorial professionals (eg journalists, photographers, authors, broadcasters) who fulfil the criteria below. There are two membership categories – Full and Associate.
Full membership
Full membership of the Guild is intended for motoring writers and other editorial professionals working largely or wholly in automotive media.
- Must have been working in automotive editorial for at least one year
- Role must be solely concerned with motoring, or to a sufficient extent that in the committee’s opinion full membership is appropriate
Associate membership
Associate members may work only partly in the sphere of motoring editorial, or have less experience in the industry.
How to join
- Email Guild general secretary Melissa Chadderton for an application form. Fill in the form, which should be submitted with samples of motoring editorial work, a scan of your driving licences, a head-and-shoulders picture of you and the names of two referees (see below).
- Membership applications are considered by the Guild committee to ensure they meet the criteria.
- Once the application is approved in principle, details are published in the Guild’s email newsletter and comments from members are invited.
- Assuming there are no objections, the member is duly elected to the Guild at the next committee meeting, and invited to pay their membership fees (see below).
Referees
Applications must be accompanied by the names of two referees. Ideally these will be Guild members, otherwise they should be senior editorial people and should not work in PR.
Applicants seeking referees from the Guild may not realise that people working with them might already be members, but general secretary Melissa Chadderton can assist in identifying such members.
Membership fees 2024
| Annual fee | Early bird | |
| Full Member | £96.00 | £85.00 |
| Full Member (under 30) | £20.00 | |
| Associate Member | £66.00 | |
| Overseas Member | £60.00 |
Rates for new members
| Joining between January and April |
Joining between May and August |
Joining between Sept and Dec* |
|
| Full Member | £96.00 | £64.00 | £117.00 |
| Full Member (under 30) | £20.00 | £20.00 | £20.00 |
| Associate Member | £66.00 | £44.00 | £88.00 |
| Overseas Member | £60.00 | £40.00 | £80.00 |
* New members joining between September and December each year pay a small fee to cover the remainder of the year in which they join, plus the renewal fee for the following year
Previously new members were charged a £25 joining fee, but this was scrapped in September 2014.