SOBATAM is a community solidarity network with the goal to facilitate the burial of its deceased members through a predetermined financial contribution of the network members and other resources and information that may be available through the network.

SOBATAM is non-profit corporation. It is incorporated in the state of Maryland. It is not a 501c3 public charity.

SOBATAM was created with input from a broad range of members of our community in North America (USA & Canada), to better respond to the high costs associated with the burial, cremation, and/or shipment of the remain of a loved one, while giving you more flexibility to adjust your membership as your personal, professional or family situation evolve, and more voice on how SOBATAM operates.

Website: https://sobatam-na.org
Email: info@sobatam-na.org
Registration: registration@sobatam-na.org
Death notification: death-notification@sobatam-na.org

You can download copies of the bylaws, IR or COI at https://sobatam-na.org/governance. You can also request a copy by sending an email at registration@sobatam-na.org.

All people of Cameroonian background, their families, relatives and friends with their primary residence in the USA or Canada and regardless of their citizenship (current or of origin), can join the SOBATAM network.

You can join SOBATAM through 3 types of membership and you can switch any time as your life circumstances change.

SOBATAM Groups: For associations, families or any entity with 8 or more members.

• $50 registration fees regardless of the size of the group as long as the group is not yet active (does not have yet a SOBATAM Group ID)
• $10 when a new member is added to an active group
• No deposit required
• 2 to 13 delegates at the GA depending on the size of the group
• The group is financially responsible for all its members contributions.

SOBATAM Pool. For individuals that do not belong to a group of 8 or more members.

• $15 registration fees per individual.
• $100 deposit used to pay contributions for deaths and the operating budget. It is the member’s money. It is re-imbursed to the member if he/she leaves SOBATAM.
• Represented to the GA by delegates designated from the SOBATAM Pools

SOBATAM Pool for families. For a group of 2 to 7 people who join the SOBATAM Pool and share the same point of contact as the interface to SOBATAM for communication and financial contributions. Specifically designed to accommodate families.

• $15 registration fees per individual.
• $50 deposit per individual used to pay contributions for deaths and the operating budget. It is the member’s money. It is re-imbursed to the member if he/she leaves SOBATAM.
• Represented to the GA by delegates designated from the SOBATAM Pools
• Each individual in the group is financially responsible for its membership contributions.

Go to https://sobatam-na.org/register and follow the instructions. 3 ways to apply for membership:
(1) Go to the membership portal, open a group or a Pool account, login into your account and enter your information or your group member information.
(2) Download the Excel spreadsheet file and fill it out with your group/individual information. You can either send it by email to registration@sobatam-na.org or upload it directly from the website at https://sobatam-na.org/register
(3) You can send an email to registration@sobatm-na.org to request the spreadsheet or any assistance you may need to complete the registration.

You can stay outside NA ( USA or Canada) up to 6 months without loosing your membership benefits. This restriction is removed after 2 years of membership in good standing provided you respect the notification procedure. 

You have 3 options:

• Send an email to registration@sobatam-na.org with the member information: name, day and month of birth and optionally email and at least one beneficiary contact information (name, telephone and/or email).
• Download form SBTM-REG-002 from https://sobtam-na.org/register, fill it out and send it to registration@sobatam-na.org
• Login on to your membership portal account (You must be the group admin). Click on the add a new member button and follow the instruction.

You have 3 options:

• Send an email to registration@sobatam-na.org with the member information: name, day and month of birth and optionally email and at least one beneficiary contact information (name, telephone and/or email).
• Download form SBTM-REG-002 from https://sobtam-na.org/register, fill it out and send it to registration@sobatam-na.org
• Login on to your membership portal account. Click on the add a new member button and follow the instruction.

SOBATAM Groups: A delegate of the group must send an email requesting the withdrawal to registration@sobatam-na.org with the names and SOBATAM IDs of members to remove.

SOBATAM Pool: The member must send an email to registration@sobatam-na.org requesting the withdrawal.

SOBATAM Pool for families: The member or the shared point of contact must send an email to registration@sobatam-na.org requesting the withdrawal.

SOBATAM Group:

• $50 registration fees regardless of the size of the group
• $10 registration fees for each member added after the group receives its SOBATAM ID
• Contribution to the annual operating budget as voted by the GA. The amount depends on the number of members. For FY2024 the contribution is about $11/member.

SOBATAM Pool and  SOBATAM Pool for families:

• $15 registration fees per individual
• Contribution to the annual operating budget as voted by the GA. For FY2024 the contribution is about $11/member.

This does not include contributions in case of a death of a member.

No. There is no annual membership fee. However, members contribute to the annual operating budget. SOBATAM’s goal is to grow the membership to reduce and maintain the operating costs to less than $5/member/year. The budget must be approved by the General assembly.

• New member or a new group: 90 days
• Returning member or group: 180 days

No. You only contribute in case of the death of a member or to the operating budget only if you have a SOBATAM ID.

The amount of the benefit is currently set at $15000.  However, the General assembly can decide to lower this amount if the number of members is below 300 (contribution/member/death >= $50) or to increase it if the number of the members >= 7500

Be in good standing. To qualify for the financial benefit, the member must have a SOBATAM ID, be a member of a group with a SOBATAM ID or of the SOBATAM Pool or SOBATAM Pool for families. Be in good standing or a member of a group in good standing. To be in good standing, the group or the individual in SOBATAM Pool, must not be delinquent for death and budget contributions.

Respect notification and other deadlines. The family or the group delegate must respect all the deadlines to notify the death and to provide additional documents if necessary.

Provide all required documents. The family or the group delegate must provide all the required documents.

• Death in North America (USA or Canada). 15 days
• Death outside North America (USA or Canada): 18 days

The name, day of birth and month of birth on the documents must match what is on SOBATAM files. If not, the family has 45 calendar days to provide additional documents proving that it is the same person.

Death in North America (USA or Canada):

• Death certificate
• A government issued photo ID

Death outside North America (USA or Canada):

• Death certificate
• A government issued photo ID
• Proof that the member traveled outside North America for less than 6 months. This does not apply if the member has been member for more than 2 years and SOBATAM already has on file a substantiated notification that the member will be staying outside North America for long periods.

45 calendar days.

The GA is the supreme authority. It is composed of delegates from groups and the SOBATAM Pool.
A group can have 2 to 13 delegates depending of its size.

The GA approves and amends the bylaws and internal rules, vote the operating budget and elect the Executive Bureau and holds its regular meeting in July of each year.

Groups are sole responsible for naming their delegates.

Responsible as a team for the day-to-day operation of SOBATAM. It is composed of 9 members (President, Vice President, Treasurer, Depuy-Treasurer, Secretary, Deputy-Secretary, Auditor, 2 Operations Co-leaders) elected for a 3-year term. They receive no compensation and must be members in good standing of SOBATAM and delegates of SOBATAM groups or SOBATAM Pool at the GA.

The cost of burial and funerals have skyrocketed. Being a member of a single community solidarity network may not be enough to cover the financial needs of the family. So it is always better if you can afford it to be a member of 2 or more community solidarity networks.

That said, there are compelling reasons to join SOBATAM.

From the outset, SOBATAM mission was to better responds to the community expectations in terms of transparency, accountability and membership experience.

HIGHEST LEVEL OF TRANSPARENCY

• Bylaws and internal rules are clear and available on demand and on the website.
• No arbitrary annual fees. No money is accumulated. You vote the annual operating budget. You received detailed reports to control its execution. No expenses outside what is authorized in the budget.
• Group delegates receive copy of bank statements every quarter or on demands. The same information will be available on your membership portal account.
• We provide a dashboard and detailed statistics to help you make informed decisions: Total numbers of members, number of groups, number of members in the SOBATAM pool. Number of deaths, amount collected and payout to families, when a deceased became a member, etc.

ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP

• You vote through your delegates the Executive Bureau (EB)
• You have the power to remove EB members through a regular or extra-ordinary General Assembly (GA)
• Your voice always counts. Your group is guaranteed a minimum of 2 delegates. Your group representation grows with its size. Your group can have up to 13 delegates.

A BETTER MEMBERSHIP EXPERIENCE

SOBATAM is committed to making your membership affordable, flexible and sustainable

• Affordable:
  • We leverage technologies to keep the operating costs to a minimum (less than$5/year/member) when we reach 1000 members or more.
  • One-time group registration fee of $50 regardless of the size of the group. $10 registration fees for new member in an active group. One-time registration fee of $15 for individual joining the SOBATAM Pool.
  • No arbitrary annual fees. You vote the budget and control expenses.
• Flexible:
  • You can join as a group (Association, family or any entity of 8 or more members) or SOBATAM Pool as an individual or SOBATAM Pool for families (2 to 7 members haring the same point of contact).
  • You can switch your membership anytime as your life circumstances change.
  • After 2 years, you can keep your membership if you move outside North America.
• Sustainable:
  • A platform easy to use and accessible (24×7). Through innovation and technologies, we will automate the maximum of operations to reduce costs and errors and increase the availability of our platform and its accessibility.
  • Membership empowerment: You talk, we listen and act to meet your expectation. SOBATAM will provide forums, newsletter, trainings to facilitate input from the community and exchanges between members of the SOBATAM network.
  • Reliability and sustainability of a large network spanning the USA and Canada

SOBATAM competitors are other structured community solidarity networks such as COSNET (USA), SAGI (USA) or RPN (Canada) or institutional insurance companies such as Ladder, AIG, Lincoln.

Community associations offering some form of death benefits are not competitors of SOBATAM. The goal of SOBATAM is to serve these groups, enhance and make their existing solidarity mechanisms more robust.  Example of such associations are Mbai Bassa California, Mbog Liaa USA, Ndap Bikoko USA, etc.

The short answer is NO.  SOBATAM overall cost per year is lower than the competition.

Higher contribution/death/member. Because SOBATAM has about 400 active members and the competition has more than 6000 members, the contribution/member/death is higher for SOBATAM ($40+) than competition ($3).

Overall cost per year is lower.  SOBATAM has only a few deaths per year (2 to 4) while the competition has on average a few deaths per month. Since SOBATAM first IDs were issued in June 2022, as of 08/15/2023, the average monthly total cost (death + budget contributions) for SOBATAM was around $8 ($96/year). For the competition it was about $13/month ($156/year).

• Overall cheaper.
  • Lower registration fees ($10 per new group member vs. $25 for the competition)
  • Overall lower total cost per year ($96 vs. $156 for the competition
• More flexible
  • 3 Types of membership (Group, Pool, Pool for families). You can change anytime
  • Residency restrictions are waived after 2 years vs. 5 or more years for the competition.
  • No restriction on the place of death or burial to get benefits
• Better transparency and governance
  • While each group is guaranteed to have at least 2 delegates, the number of your delegates increase with the size of your group. You have a greater voice.
  • More financial disclosures.

 SOBATAM is better than competitors because it is more transparent, more accountable and offers a superior membership experience by making membership more affordable, more flexible and more sustainable.

We are a group of less than 20 persons. We have a Njangui and a solidarity fund that we use for events and to provide some limited death benefits of less than $5000 if a member deceases. Member contribute to the solidarity fund monthly (About $20/month) and may contribute in case of a death if there is not enough funds to cover the benefit of $5000. How joining SOBATAM can help us?

SOBATAM enables your group to enhance its member death benefits for a modest increase in the average monthly contributions. The benefit increases from $5000 to $15000. With an average monthly cost of  $11/member, the group can pay SOBATAM contributions out of the group solidarity fund by increasing the monthly contribution to solidarity fund by $1 to $3 without sacrificing any of the other existing benefits. The group can also benefit from exchange of information with other groups in the SOBATAM network.