Private status matters! In the latest “Club Industry Brief,” we looked at the The Wing, a club network catered to women, which has seen growing tension in its membership stemming from men using the club. While the club’s mission focuses on females, The Wing was not able to prohibit male members because it lacked private status—specifically, it didn’t have a membership policy that met the requirements of a truly private club—and with 11,000 members world-wide—it didn’t fit the characteristics of a private club. The Wing was thus unable to discriminate based on gender and was targeted with a discrimination suit. Powerless to defend its women-only membership, the club has been forced to allow men in order to comply with the law, upsetting the club culture and membership.
The discrimination lawsuit led The Wing to formally adopt a membership policy and changed its rules for staff not to assume gender and dropped its no-men policy. Today the club describes itself as a space that caters to women and accepts members regardless of gender.
The National Club Association (NCA) strongly advocates for clubs to protect their private status to fulfill their mission to serve as a refuge for their like-minded members. Without this important component, the club tradition and experience are in jeopardy, regardless of whether the club is single-sex or not.
Privacy Checklist
NCA supplies clubs and our members with critical resources to protect a club’s private status. We have just released our updated Privacy Checklist, which details what clubs should and should not do in order to obtain and retain their private status. This checklist is an excerpt of our upcoming publication, “Truly Private Club Status and Tax-Exempt Status,” which will be available to NCA members soon. NCA members can also access our Private Status Health Checkup, which goes in-depth to ensure your club is maintaining its private status in major categories of club operations.
To learn more about this topic, please reach out to myself or our knowledgeable NCA staff at 202-822-9822 or visit nationalclub.org.
Henry Wallmeyer is President & CEO of the National Club Association. He can be reached at [email protected] or 202-822-9822.