It should be a life goal to not fit in at these places.

Does Congressional have a men’s grille?

This is not how it works. We don't need to recruit members. We invite guests so they can enjoy themselves and sometimes to see if they would be interested in applying for membership. But the onus is on YOU to apply and get sponsors. You don't get 'invited'.

Anonymous wrote:If you want to join you would send those friends a note saying “hey thanks for inviting us, we had a great time. We would love to be members - do you have any connection to the new member process?”

Then they will refer you to whomever or give you a next step. It’s not rude, there’s a nice way they can put you off.

Yeah the next step would have been for you to attempt to apply for membership. They aren’t going to invite you to join without you initiating an application. Even then it apparently can take years to get in so I don’t think you missed some immediate entry based on a general membership event.

If you want to join you would send those friends a note saying “hey thanks for inviting us, we had a great time. We would love to be members - do you have any connection to the new member process?”

Then they will refer you to whomever or give you a next step. It’s not rude, there’s a nice way they can put you off.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are in therapy.

Haha, I am actually. Thanks for checking.

You are gross

Why? We don't even play golf and probably wouldn't have joined. Just wondered if that's what those invites were about or not. Seems a fairly benign thing to be curious about.

If you wouldn't have joined anyway why do you care? It's a chance for everyone to check everyone out. You probably wouldn't have made it that far if you weren't "the right people" - and I say that tongue in cheek. There are people who disdain country clubs, aren't interested in the golf, tennis, swim, dining, don't have kids who will use it, would rather put money on other trips and experiences, and that's fine. I don't waste time with people like that being invited to events at my CC because there's no point. We do other stuff together.

Does one need a reason to be curious about life experiences? Hadn’t even thought about the episode for years until I stumbled across this wonderful (toxic) website a couple days ago where the topic of CCs seems to be on a lot of people’s minds. To be clear, I am not assigning any personal value based on whether or not we were actually being considered. There’s a bit of mystery and intrigue around CCs that I find interesting (if not a bit ugly) even if that lifestyle isn’t for me. Yikes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are in therapy.

Haha, I am actually. Thanks for checking.

You are gross

Why? We don't even play golf and probably wouldn't have joined. Just wondered if that's what those invites were about or not. Seems a fairly benign thing to be curious about.

If you wouldn't have joined anyway why do you care? It's a chance for everyone to check everyone out. You probably wouldn't have made it that far if you weren't "the right people" - and I say that tongue in cheek. There are people who disdain country clubs, aren't interested in the golf, tennis, swim, dining, don't have kids who will use it, would rather put money on other trips and experiences, and that's fine. I don't waste time with people like that being invited to events at my CC because there's no point. We do other stuff together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are in therapy.

Haha, I am actually. Thanks for checking.

You are gross

Why? We don't even play golf and probably wouldn't have joined. Just wondered if that's what those invites were about or not. Seems a fairly benign thing to be curious about.

Sure, right after. A few years later? You have issues.

Anonymous wrote:I hope you are in therapy.

Haha, I am actually. Thanks for checking.

Yes. Yes you did. Better pack it in now. You're never getting in.

I hope you are in therapy.

My spouse and I were invited to a couple of events by a member at Congressional a few years ago. I can't remember specifically what they were but they were events definitely catered to younger folks, people our age (we were early 30s at the time). Had fun, met some nice people, secretly rolled our eyes a lot, had fun afterwards at the expense of some of the typical silly people you find at these things, etc. I didn't think anything of it at the time other than it was nice to be invited to spend a couple evenings in an exclusive club like this. Now, because anxiety, I have started to wonder if those invitations were not sort of trial runs to evaluate us as potential new members. We both dressed appropriately, thanked our hosts often, we both grew up in "polite society" to some degree so we know how to act in country clubs, for example. So don't know how we may have behaved differently had we known we were being evaluated but I'm sure something would have been different. Actually, I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere near the dancefloor, that's one thing that comes to mind LOL. Is this how young, new members are recruited to clubs? Financially, we aren't exactly Congressional material and doubt we could have afforded the initiation fees but I can't help but wonder if we would have figured out a way to make it work if we were actually invited to join.

Anyway, this post is clearly pointless but I am still curious if this process sounds familiar to anyone who is indeed a member.