Don't want to read all of the last 22 pages, can anyone tell me what you get for your $100k initiation fee and $400 a month? Are food and drinks paid for? Tennis lessons? Free babysitting? Unlimited golf? I don't understand.

Chevy Chase has an initiation fee and then monthly dues. It has not had any assessment in many decades - maybe ever. The expenses for capital improvements such as a redo of the golf course or a new building are paid for out of accumulated initiation fees, which are reserved solely for this purpose. And there is no "minimum" (i.e., there is no required expenditure once one joins) just the monthly dues. The waiting list at Chevy Chase is approximately three years, but summer privileges are available to people on the waiting list once their application is complete and the required number of supporting letters from members have been received.

As a memeber of one of the clubs in Bethesda/Chevy Chase i.e. the Chevy Chase Club, Columbia Country Club and Congressional Country Club (please note later iterations of the "three C's"-and I have never heard of this expression...Chevy, Columbia, and Congressional all begin with the letter "C"-and followed by-well, you know. Woodmont CC is in Rockville.

In short the initiation fee is roughly the same at Columbia as Chevy-about $80,000.00 Chevy has a longer waiting list due to the "old guard" at approximatley seven years. Columbia's waithing list is roughly two to three years. Congressional on the the other hand is $100,00.00 and the wait list varies. It is a far easier club to join given that they have 1) more land 2) two golf courses and 3) they pretty much accept anyone willing to pay the fee. The growth of the Potomac area has cotributed to this exceedingly high number of members and relative newcomers to the area.

The fees include a minimum and "assesments"-improvements to the golf course, tennis or paddle tennis courts and general capital expdenitures and operating expenses.

Contrary to some of the steriotypical comments from the commets about the non-social aspect of the clubs-I would say this may be true of Congressional-but not not Columbia or Chevy. Columbia was founded in 1898-and word around the campfire was formed for all of those of whom not accepted at Chevy.

The dues-and off the top of my head can't remember-and I am not rich-run about $500.00 a month with a bar and food minimum of "X" (?) so use it or lose it!Assessments were painful went skating rinks were built for the kids-hockey and general stuff like that-and I paid for it-and do not have any kids! Very painful.

I hope this hepls.

Sorry ... Columbia

Do any of the big three clubs... Columbiam Congressional, Chevy Chase... offer Corporate memberships.. If so, are there still waiting lists and what are the intitiation fees?

You know you're responding to a 4 year old post, right.

Grew up in Bethesda and went to a private (prep) school. Didn't belong to a country club. My parents don't golf and there were free tennis courts with lights all around. We joined local pools. My dad had been a country club kid and never really had the urge and was in private industry and it didn't matter. Also, my parents have always had a second (and later a third) home that they visited (with us when we were kids) and so even on the weekends we didn't go. I never felt left out of anything at my private school and I know it didn't impact my father's work. I do think that the real pressure will be when all the mother's start talking about heading the beach for most of the summer (to the houses they own). Save your money so you can do that too. It was very normal in my high school to go for beach week or a long weekend to one student or another's second home.

Congressional has the best golf course but Chevy is in a class by itself socially. It is by far the most selective of the so called "big three".

Anonymous wrote:I grew up a member of a country club, and I would never impose such an restricted experience on my children. We've been asked to join by friends, and we've always said NO! Now DH has a new job where all the top people belong to a certain club, and he may have to cave and join. I hope he can find a way to avoid this. There is so, so, so much to do outside of a country club, I can't imagine why they continue to exist at all, except for people who can't bear to spend time around the, gasp, hoi polloi. Anachronism doesn't begin to describe the country club life. We joined a public pool, we play tennis on public courts and at a public tennis club, we eat with our friends in restaurants or in their or our homes, we don't golf (but if we did, we'd play on public courses), and we get along just fine without a country club. I don't want to go back to the 50s. Have you read The Help? That's what country clubs mean to me.

Inside every country club in the Greater Washington Area it is Mississippi and it is 1957. Seriously? I know this will come as a shock to you, but in Mississippi it isn't 1957. Everyone else has moved on. You need to, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know which clubs do social memberships? I grew up at a country club and had a full golf membership, but no one in my family golfs. Just curious!

Columbia Country Club has social memberships.

You're probably looking for the category in the middle - active, non-golf. I don't believe that social memberships can do anything else but dine.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know which clubs do social memberships? I grew up at a country club and had a full golf membership, but no one in my family golfs. Just curious!

Columbia Country Club has social memberships.

Does anyone know which clubs do social memberships? I grew up at a country club and had a full golf membership, but no one in my family golfs. Just curious!

I have been reading this blog a bit and notice that there is a lot of info given on Congressional and Chevy Chase-- I was curious as to whether anyone has had experiences with WGCC? That is the closest club to where we live (we are in District by Key Bridge) and we have been asked to join by friends. Just curious!

We can't afford this lifestyle, but my Dad worked as a greens keeper for 30 years, and places like these (but not quite as nice) are what kept food on our table and a roof over our head, so I guess it all trickles down in the end.

Anonymous wrote:i am so happy you have such a fulfilling life, pp. you must get great satisfaction in helping out the less fortunate in this world while enjoying such a lifestyle. interesting life choices you have there. yes i am being judgmental - my country of origin could do without such "help".

I do have quite a fulfilling life. We have been incredibly fortunate, of course. We also work very hard at jobs we care about and in which we feel that we are contributing. And we spend our free time in a variety of ways, including spending time at the club. Be as judgmental as you want, though you can't seem to identify what's wrong with our family. PPs seemed to think that people who belong to clubs fit a uniform stereotype and have children who are no exposed to diverse cultures and backgrounds. I'm simply stating that that is not the case. As for whether or not your country of origin should accept loans from international organizations, I'm sure you are aware that loans aren't forced upon any country. If you feel so strongly about it, perhaps you work with the country's government to advocate that perfectly respectable view, which I do understand is shared by many.