Followup to some points in comments on my last "job" entry

[xiphias]

Harvard Club membership is $1,130 a year if you've been out of Harvard for 10 or more years, $760 a year if you graduated from Harvard between 5 and 10 years ago, and $460 a year if you graduated less than 5 years ago. If you're a current PhD student, it's $400 a year, Master's student, $210, and undergraduate, $150. I sorta want to see if I can't transfer into Harvard, just to get an undergraduate membership while still working there. . . .

I probably could have argued my way into keeping the beard, but I didn't want to risk it.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I think it would be delightful if you transferred into Harvard. :)

Thanks for finding out the prices for me. I may have to see how many people actually want to do this before I seriously set about trying to get a membership for my birthday present from my (entire) family or something like that.

Stream of consciousness reply

[goljerp]

I don't suppose they have reciprocal privleges with other clubs... It looks like the Yale Club of New Haven is only $25/year for me :-) On the other hand, the Yale Club of New York won't even tell me how much it is unless I fill in a form with all sorts of information. Ugh, well, I guess I can use one of my disposable accounts. I wonder if they'll give me a discount when I write "unemployed" in the area for work zip code. They'd probably say if they've got an agreement with Harvard. Hm... (tappity tappity) Yep, they do have reciprocal privleges with the Harvard club. I think I'll wait to see if I have the time and money to make it there before sending them that E-mail...

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

What does one get for one's huge membership fee? The drinks aren't free or anything like that, I'd assume. I always just threw out the invitations to join whenever I got them because once I paid the huge membership fee, I'd never be able to afford to go there. :P

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Well, basically, paying the huge membership fee means that you have the right to pay more money later to get other things -- there's a hotel there, and a couple restaurants, a fitness center, and you can get function rooms and like that.

The Harvard Club assumes that everyone who graduated from Harvard is very, very wealthy and can afford to burn an extra $500 or $1,000/year. This is why the people who went to Harvard who I like 1) can't afford to be members of the Harvard club and 2) can't stand the Harvard alums who ARE members of the Harvard Club.

I just wish there was some way of doing a THIRD pricing scheme: "If you were or are a member of HRSFA, it's $30/year," or something like that.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the "club" structure might be worth bearing in mind for your someday Callahan's venture. :-) I don't mean the part about exclusion of nonmembers (although it could come to that if you want to really build a Certain Atmosphere), but providing a membership concept in general.

[goljerp]

I also think that they regard the club as a way to enable members to network. After all, if one's a non-wealthy business person who went to Harvard, what better way to hobnob with your wealthy classmates than at the Harvard Club, whose only membership requirements are having gone to the school and shelling out the cash, rather than a private countryclub that you can't get into because you don't have the connections?

And, I don't know about the Harvard Club, but I know that the Yale Club of Manhattan also has space which can be used for weddings or other celebrations. I'm not sure what their fee structure is like, but it might be comparable to other venues. And they have a health club! God forbid I should get sweaty with people who didn't go to Yale!

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I just find it amusing that with all of the internet and information savvy folk who read your lj, none of us looked up how to gain entry!
Hope they let you grow the beard back...

[cheshyre]

Well, I did, but then I'm a librarian, and am used to looking up things for people...

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reassurance that all is well in the order of the world! I wish that I had more time to read your blog (let alone read it with appropriate attention) other than during vacations...

[goljerp]

Hey, I did! You can see my thinking as I did so in my comment above... if I was a bit incoherent, it's probably because of lack of sleep. Or sunspots. Or something.