City Club Questions
January 26, 2005 3:12 PM   Subscribe

Do you belong to a city club? Why did you join? Is anything useful included in your membership? What benefits do you get to compensate for your dues?
I am not interested in country clubs.
posted by Kwantsar to Grab Bag (3 answers total)
 
I belonged to the College Club in Seattle briefly when they were having a special for younger people to join, seriously reduced rates. They're sort of a second tier club in the city and I think were trying to boost membership, bring in some new blood. I joined because I thought it would be nice to have a place to hang out downtown where I could use a gym and play squash. They also had a library of sorts which I thought was pretty nifty, and I had dreams of organizing it, maybe becoming the club librarian. Basically the use of the space just to hang out was free, they had some gym facilities that were free. The rest of the benefits were basically stuff that members could pay for, but pay less than if they were just folks on the street, stuff like meeting and occasion room rental, food at the local restaurant [I'm pretty sure on this, not 100%], squash court reservations, locker rental etc.

I think if ten of my closest friends had joined at the same time, I might have found it fun, but as it was I felt like a kid at an older person's club where even though I was admitted [there was some sort of application process but not too rigorous] I didn't feel that I really fit in. Once dues went up to normal levels, I decided not to stay and joined the Y instead, not much more expensive for the gym stuff, same location, less "atmosphere" that I felt I didn't need.
posted by jessamyn at 4:04 PM on January 26, 2005


I have a friend who joined the Soho club in New York, which I gather is very chi chi and costs the earth. She can't really afford it at all, but is one of those people who is into cache. She's taking me there for drinks soon, I'll send you a report.

My mother is a member of the Harvard Club in New York, and since my dad died, that place has become a refuge for her. It's somewhere she can take people to lunch, and go to lectures, and meet new people, which is tough for a widow. They have a killer Christmas party too.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:56 PM on January 26, 2005


Soho house is a country club in the city. I'm just saying.

Don't know much about it, other than it costs about $5000 / year (I've also heard $8,000) to join, and there's still a waiting list (though I assume that this is like the velvet ropes at clubs -- keep people waiting outside to make sure they know that the inside is packed with beautiful people).

It's got a rooftop pool, and that's all you really need in NYC. There are something like 30 pools at all (public or private) in all of Manhattan.
posted by zpousman at 6:22 AM on January 27, 2005


« Older What's the name of this pasta made with a sieve?   |   Can you use tunneling to make two XP machines on... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.