What should be the focus of my informal private club (or IPC)?

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Before you begin recruiting for your IPC, you need to have some idea of what you want the club to be about. It doesn’t have to be a narrow focus, but you need to be able to state the purpose, no matter how broad. If you’re looking at doing cocktail parties, dinners, dances and similar gatherings, then you’re looking at a social club. If you’re wanting to rub elbows with fellow engineers, programmers, lawyers, and the such, then consider a professional club. I don’t recommend going too much into detail as far as the focus; you want to leave as much room for growth and discussion as possible. A diversity of personalities and experiences is what you’re looking for, and becoming too specific may result in the club lacking any sense of dynamic.

Here’s a list of areas you can form an IPC around:

• Social: Mentioned this above, but I consider this the easiest IPC to create and manage. You can run a purely social IPC, or you can incorporate social aspects into IPCs with another focus.
• Professional: While we’re talking about things already mentioned above, a professional club is another possibility, and one that can have a profound impact in your career field.
• Field: This speaks more to academic fields and pursuits like literature, history, psychology and the like. This focus would be aimed more at amateur interests, rather than professional.
• Hobby: Much like IPCs for fields, hobby IPCs would speak to the hobby in a broad sense, rather than getting down into the pieces and parts. This kind of detail would be reserved for event topics.

I’ll write more on specific IPCs and what you should consider when creating them, as well as adding to the list above as we develop the IPC concept.

Why create an informal private club?

‘Why create an informal private club?’

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This is a potential question that I’ll be addressing throughout the course of this blog. It’s a simple and reasonable question.  The quick answer could be ‘to meet and socialize with friends and acquaintances’, but I think the real question is a bit deeper, so the real answer should be as deep.

I suggest going to the roots of British and American men’s clubs, putting aside the misogyny and racism.  At the core of these organizations was the desire to collect people with similar interests, casual or professional. Clubs helped their members have an excuse to meet like-minded people, become acquainted, and develop personal networks that would last years, or a lifetime.

A natural byproduct of friendships through the club is support for members. If someone is having tough time in life, it’s nice to know that folks from the club will help support when it’s needed. Also, clubs tend gather people with similar interests have similar, or even familiar, tastes. This is great if folks want to be exposed to new things, but do not have someone to guide them through the experience A club can do this on a larger scale, allowing a wider literacy on subjects within the broad interest of the club.

Clubs of the past also strove to educate their members by hosting seminars and lectures, as well as celebrate their accomplishments.  Doing this created deep bonds within the club membership. There is no reason that the same cannot be done on a smaller scale. Clubs give people a reason to spread a wealth of knowledge among people who had an intense interest in the subject matter.

A function of some established private clubs is public service.  Some clubs encourage members to give time and resources to favorite charities. Informal private clubs can choose to do this, too. From what I’ve heard from people I know in organizations like the Jaycees, the public service activity is almost addicting. Much like the reason with common interests, it’s nice to do something as a group effort among friends.

A smaller benefit of private informal clubs is the chance to practice finer social skills, including an excuse to dress well. This comes in handy in many areas of life, namely with family, love and career. The more practice one has at social skills, the easier they’re applied to other areas of life.

I’m sure I hit some of the more obvious reasons to consider creating an informal private club, but as we go along, I’ll think of and write about others.

Defining the 'informal private club' for the Informal Private Club Journal

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A social club can have a definition as wide as all the oceans; stretching from any organized gathering of people to something specific, like the British Gentleman's clubs or college sororities and fraternities. This blog will be more specific, introducing (more likely re-introducing) the concept of an 'informal private club' to the social club vernacular. We'll gather inspiration from the old British private clubs, and their newer reincarnation in the United States, and make it accessible to everyone interested.

What is an informal private club?

An informal private club is a loosely organized group of people with similar interests, or can fit under a broad social or professional umbrella. The membership is curated, much like an established private club, and can include sponsorship and applications, if the club's leadership deems it necessary.

Also, the informal private club is just that, informal. There isn't a club residence or anything permanent. Instead, members take turns at hosting and planning events. The usual place where members meet would be at would in private residences. In essence, members' dining and living rooms become club spaces.

Events should fall within the club member's interests and tastes, but also maintain a minimum level of decorum, much like a formal private club. For example, if the club opts for a cocktail party, then proper attire should be requested. A club shouldn't only be about people gathering, it should also give folks an opportunity to practice finer social skills.

At the same time, an informal private club should be creative, and take advantage of its mobility. Events can take place there is an establishment willing to take a number of people. Events should be culturally uplifting, with plenty of opportunity for the club's members to interact with each other. Where's the fun if the club doesn't have a chance to be social?

The idea of the informal private club will be continually developed in this blog, with all hits and misses discussed.

The Beginning

Purpose of this blog

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The Informal Private Club Journal has a three-fold purpose; 1) develop the concept of information private clubs, 2) to document my experiences in organizing and hosting social events for informal private clubs, and  3) to offer lessons learned and alternative approaches to those socials. Once I'm covering those topics to my satisfaction, I plan to go into detail regarding planning, appropriate fashion, and tools of the trade, so to speak. To be sure, I'm not being prescriptive, only laying out my experience and research for folks to use. I want to encourage people to get out, connect, and have a lot of fun doing it.

Eventually, the subject matter may change organically depending on my experiences and level of enjoyment, or if I develop a readership,  and where they want me to take the blog. Regardless, I want to remain focused on informal private clubs.

My experience
I've always wanted to organize people in some form or fashion, whether it be a gaming group, historical reenacting, or some other event. I helped organize gaming groups, reenacting group and reenactments, the occasional wedding and bachelor party.

My first resounding success came when my wife and I organized a local gaming group though Meetup.com. I'm an avid tabletop roleplay gamer, and we recognized a need to get folks from different or even disparate groups to meet each other and play the games we all loved. This group grew and evolved, but it kept its core the purpose of helping gamers connect with each other. As we grew and expanded, we discovered that our gaming group was doing more than just getting gamers to meet. It was allowing folks an excuse to get out, and facilitating lasting friendships. It even took on the role of a career network and dating service! I think the friendship building is the part we're most proud of, and what gives us the most satisfaction.

We took our organizing experience in a different direction, and began to organize small social club-like gatherings. These were and still are smashing successes. We plan to expand these gatherings to include more folks. This is also when I took the notion to start writing about my experiences, after some urging from a good friend in our gaming group. He wanted to know our 'secret' about organizing folks. This started some retrospective thinking on my part about how to improve gatherings, and to see what the different rules were for corresponding gatherings.

Your part
Please help me improve this blog, if you're getting something out of it. In the comments, suggest topics we can cover, or tell us about your experiences organizing folks for your informal private club, and how you handled the challenges that arose. All I ask is that you keep comments topical. Thanks for reading, and let's start a fun adventure!