Fast Company's Social clubs died out in America. Now, venture capital is bringing them back provides an interesting look at the changing landscape of American social clubs.
The article starts by pointing out the long decline in the membership of traditional clubs. Key quote:
"Over the last few decades, sociologists and political scientists have found that American clubs of all stripes–from youth service clubs to bowling leagues–have experienced steep declines in their memberships. ... The Freemasons has lost 3.8 million members since the late 1950s. The Elks ... has seen its membership drop from 1.6 million in 1980 to 803,000 in 2012. The Rotary only has 330,000 members now and only 10% of them are under 40."
It then covers various kinds of new types of clubs that are mostly in urban areas and cater to those with relatively high incomes:
"These are stylishly designed, members-only spaces that often come with a high price tag, thereby limiting membership to the wealthy and privileged. There are social clubs like Soho House, Spring Place, and the Battery, which serve as gathering spaces for well-heeled professionals.
There are special-interest clubs like The Cultivist, which, for $2,200 a year, gives art-lovers access to museums and galleries without the hassle of making bookings. There are private gyms like Equinox and Peformix House where you can work out with celebrity coaches using top-of-the-line equipment. There are beautiful coworking spaces like WeWork, the Wing, and the Riveter."
The broader point of the article is that the new wave of clubs need to charge high prices because they are ventured backed, have lots of amenities and high costs. This is very different from the traditional grass roots, self-organized clubs where membership is either cheap or free.
Our favorite quote is final sentence in the article:
"But we need to ask ourselves: Are we, as we are building community, creating a Tocquevillian society full of associations, or are we creating the Gilded Age of Louis the 14th.”"
Good question - and one that can easily be asked more broadly about income equality in America.
We've long covered the shifting nature of social clubs. This is due to our coworking research.
We've also dug into the topics of loneliness and belonging. This is because solopreneurs, remote worker and home-based workers report loneliness and lack of belonging among their biggest work challenges. We also look at these topics because of the community building aspects of coworking.
Because of this, we've been exposed to some fascinating work on these topics.
A great example is the How We Gather project, which is a collaboration between Harvard Divinity School, the Fetzer Institute and the On Being project.
It's an extension of a Harvard Divinity School report that looked at declining church membership.
It too is called How We Gather and it has become a very influential paper on this topic.
It also inspired coworking pioneer Tony Bacigalupo to create The Gathering Summit, which is an online conference that brings together community builders from all over the world to learn from and support each other.
The list of presenters at the Gathering Summit is a who's who of the experts these topics. So if you're interested in this area, visit the Gathering Summit homepage.
The need for belonging and community is part of being human and it impacts many aspects of our lives and work. Included are impacting the future of work, the future of small business and the future of self-employment and the gig economy.
So we will continue tracking and reporting on this topic.
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