New Members
Introducing Friends to Clubland
Despite what your favorite club curmudgeon thinks, clubs need new members and preferably those that will maintain their memberships, host ample events and pressure their adult children to join as soon as they’re off the family expense account.
“You know what’s disturbing me, Leonard,” a club curmudgeon in Philadelphia once told me over cigars and martinis.
“What’s that?,” I inquired.
“There’s just so many of these young people joining the club now and they’re bringing so many of their friends and it’s changing the place,” he responded.
Perplexed, I asked, “What do you mean by young members?”
“Oh, I’d say mid-40s,” he said.
Soon after, the patio went completely silent.
The most charitable reading of this anecdote could be that this particular Main Line Club’s admissions committee should better vet its prospective members. Or, better yet, it’s members might benefit from reading Ishaan Jajodia’s Clubhouse Guide in this issue about proposing new members.
The more likely lesson is that some Clubs need reminders that exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake is the quickest way to club closure. Or the worst case scenario: a call from your friendly private equity associate seeking to score their next deal.
Clubhouse Guide: Proposing New Members
You’ve become a member of a club and managed to become part of its social fabric. What do you do next? Obviously, spread news of good tidings—find friends you deem suitable, and introduce them to your club, first as guests, and, hopefully, next, as members.
Proposing someone for membership is a serious commitment, but it’s how most make their first entrance to clubland if they aren’t born in or marry in. It’s no light matter, however, for you will always be tied in holy club-matrimony to those who you propose for membership until you choose to leave the club—and beyond—so take what follows seriously.
Clubs need members. Without members, clubland is just a shell of buildings with grand facades and nothing to show for it. Members make the magic happen; without them, it goes poof!
Think carefully about who you want as a fellow member. You’d be surprised—sometimes your best friends aren’t the best members of a club. Instead, focus yourself on whether someone is clubbable or not, and whether someone does indeed want to spend their time and their money—significant and valuable chunks of both, I may add—to the institution you so dearly love.
Make sure they are financially solvent, lest they fall behind on a bill—you will most certainly hear from your general manager if they do. It is hard to not impress this point home, and many horror stories have been heard of this nature.
They are, for all intents are purposes, a mirror image of you. You are responsible for an unspecified amount of time for their conduct, appearance, interactions, and socialisation. It is your responsibility to show them the particular ways of your club, from the quirks of the bartenders to the quiet places where private conversations can be had without interruption. Show them places where it is okay to use your phone; everything else is off-bounds. Introduce them to the sports pros and offer to introduce them to friends of similar ability and skill in the sports they are interested in.
But, you may ask, aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves?
I suspect not. If you can’t imagine yourself doing this for your proposed member, then don’t do it. You are their social shepherd. You are ultimately responsible for their actions, at least until they are out of double-secret probation.
Many clubs have one or either of the following pathways to introduce new members.
Some clubs, like the Union League Club and the University Club, both in New York City, insist on summer memberships as a de facto prerequisite to becoming a full member of the club.
Here you propose your intended for a summer, in the hopes that they may find more friends who will bolster their application come fall. For the club, summer serves as an informal probation period to weed out the unwanted and the undesirables.
For you, however, you’ll enjoy lowered rates and dues, and while you have many, you will not have all the privileges of membership. It will also give you the opportunity to see whether you really enjoy the club before forking over initiation and dues at yet another club.
On the other hand, some clubs, like The Players and the New Haven Lawn Club only accept applications for full membership, regardless of season, which entails a full-frontal acceptance of the membership process.
As a proposer, it’s your job to vouch for the candidate once candidacy reaches the membership committee, which will ultimately adjudicate the application.
Getting an application through a membership committee requires careful shepherding on the part of the proposer. You will, as is the norm, need at least one or two more seconders willing to vouch for you, though some clubs have been known to ask for as many as seven or ten.
Occasionally proposers have been known to have been invited to committee meetings to make the case for their candidates, and many clubs also require interviews with board members or the membership committee.
You might think your duties to your proposed candidate are over if they cross the finish line and are accepted. But you’re wrong.
You’re just getting started. At this point, you’re their shepherd, their guardian. Think of them as a child being thrown off the deep end—you’ve granted them access to the pool, but now you have to show them the ways of the pool.
Bring them to events with you. Introduce them to different informal and formal groups of members. Show them why you love the club from the inside out, quirks and all, and set them up to become members in their own right and on their own terms once they’re done with your apprenticeship.
Please be sure to read next week’s issue on Tuesday, April 21.