The club just ended a gift-certificate promotion that covered the $1,500 initiation fee. Seattle's Columbia Tower Club is down to 1,795 members after a decade ranging from 2,200-2,500.The Rainier Club, perhaps the most prominent of the area's social clubs, has seen its membership shrink to a recent low of 1,025 members."We're constantly trying to replace members we lose." "It's a war, a war of attrition," says Michael Troyer, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the venerable Rainier Club in downtown Seattle. The Seattle area's most elite private clubs, once the domain of the upper class, are battling slipping membership rosters by targeting a new generation of candidates whose qualifications don't necessarily include pedigree or portfolio.Ī slumping economy, increased competition from health and golf clubs plus an influx of transplants unfamiliar with the old social clubs have contributed to the decline and spurred a new emphasis on recruitment.
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