Membership
The NLC is a private members' club, with membership needing the nomination of an existing member, and a waiting period of at least one month. Members are either Political Members, who sign a declaration that they are a Liberal in their politics, or Non-Political Members, who sign a declaration that they shall not use the club's facilities for 'political activities adverse to Liberalism.'
In keeping with its liberal roots, it was the first gentlemen's club to allow ethnic minorities as members, with the first recorded ethnic minority member Dadabhai Naoroji being admitted in 1885, when the club was less than three years old.
It did not admit women as full members until 1976, although this did still make it the first major London club to admit women, while many other such clubs did not admit women until the 1990s or 2000s (and several of which still do not admit women today). It offered women an 'associate membership' category from 1968 until 1976.
A stringent dress code is still strictly enforced: male members must wear a jacket and tie at all times, with female members maintaining a similar level of formality, and items such as jeans and trainers banned. Formal military wear and religious wear are acceptable alternatives. A single exception to the dress code is on hot summer days, when members are permitted to remove their jackets on the club's terrace, but not within the club itself.
It is one of the few London clubs to contain another club within — since 1990, the NLC has also been home to the Savage Club, which lodges in some rooms on the ground floor.
Members of the Old Millhillian's Club (OMC) have also been allowed to use the NLC clubhouse since 1968, when their own neighbouring Whitehall Court clubhouse closed down. OMC members are not, however, full members of the NLC and unless they join the NLC in their own right they do not enjoy several of the club's benefits of membership, including overnight accommodation and access to the club's 150 reciprocal clubs worldwide.
Read more about this topic: National Liberal Club
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)