membership runs from 1 January each year.
If you join during the year, you receive copies of English Dance and Song magazine from earlier in the year (so if you joined now, you'd get Spring, Summer and Autumn issues of EDS, plus the Winter one due late November, plus the Folk music Journal in November), and the satisfaction of knowing that you had helped fund the library, education projects, publications etc. Then you'd pay for the next year in January 2009.
There used to be a compex sliding scale of payments depending when in the year you joined, but happily, that has disappeared now - over-complex.
You best plan is to email the membership department, on membership@efdss.org - the person's name is Jane. Or jane.gregory@efdss.org

Hope you all join!!

Derek Schofield