The Hurlingham Club, Overboard Ownership & Everything to Everyone (Cafe Society Quick Bite #2)
Explorers Club, Identity Crises & Toxic Ownership
Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s weekly magazine on the intersection of community and society — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team.
Graydon Carter’s new publication, Air Mail, published a great writeup of the drama going on at the Hurlingham Club, Kate Middleton’s favorite place to play tennis, a West London enclave so exclusive there isn’t even a waitlist anymore.
Club members can’t seem to agree on what exactly the Hurlingham Club should be - a place to play, to drink, for older people or younger people — and as a consequence they seem to be doing none of it well, and it has all spilled into public via a blog called Reform Hurlingham, where a person or group of people who post under the name ‘Bernie Boverill’ trash the changes on a regular basis.
It reminded me that there is such a thing as feeling TOO much ownership, having your identity too wrapped up in a spot and the toxic behavior that can inspire as it related to my own experience at the only traditional club institution I am a member at, The Explorers Club.
In its worst form, toxic ownership causes paralysis, as people feel a bit too strongly about small changes, but it’s a good reminder that it’s important for clubs, and brands in general, to not be too many things to too many people, a pattern most of the private clubs these days fall into.
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And check out some of our deeper dinner discussions like why Soho House has had trouble scaling its community (and why we think miniclubs are the future), Possibility-As-A-Product: Superbad, Clubhouse & the Inciting Incident, Gatekeepers & The Wing, Inclusive Exclusivity, Sofar Sounds & Self-Cancelling Greek Life, Ford Bronco, Blockbuster & Nostalgia Porn For A Simpler World and Amsterdam’s Radical Anarchist White Bikes & Community Hobbyists.
Have a great rest of the week!
David (@dlitwak) & The Maxwell Team
