There are three categories of Membership of the New Sheridan
Club, based, in true gentleman’s club tradition, on how far away you live from the
Club’s epicentre, which is London, England. The Club Regulations go into far
more tedious detail about the definitions, but broadly speaking they are:
Town Membership
This is for those who live more or less in London. It costs £17.50
a year.
Country Membership
This is for those types who reside in the sticks or in
various overseas dependencies. It costs £12.50 a year.
Overseas Membership
This is for those unfortunates who have to live somewhere
foreign. You only have to pay £7.50 a year. God knows, you need all
the money you’ve got to spend on exotic drugs to numb the pain of being away from
Blighty.
To join, you can download a form that will take all your particulars (or you can simply email us with the salient details).
You can pay your subs by cheque, in cash or by BACS bank transfer, though the easiest way to cough up is by PayPal, to coffers@newsheridanclub.co.uk. You can use this handy button:
If you don't want the bother of trying to remember to renew your subscription each year (or the humiliation of being horsewhipped in the street by the Club Secretary for letting it lapse), this even handier button will set up an automatic PayPal payment every twelve months (note that rates are a whole pound cheaper this way):
You can unsubscribe from these regular payments at any time. Here is another handy button that will enable you to do this:
So what do you get in exchange for your cash? In the first
instance you get an exciting Membership Pack:
●
A handsome and pleasingly old-fashioned enamel lapel badge, bearing the Club’s
logo. There’s a daguerrotype of
one to the left.
● A Membership card proving you exist and are a Member.
● A fistful of NSC calling cards. These simply have the
Club’s logo and web address. The idea is that you can hand them to inquisitive
strangers who stop you in the street or on an omnibus (usually after closing
time on a Friday night) to ask how it can be that you are so exquisitely
attired and carry yourself with such élan and rakish hauteur. It happens, and
the NSC calling card does the job of spreading the word without anything so
risky as handing out personal details to drunken strangers.
● A copy of the Club Regulations. Fascinating reading.
Moreover, Members are also the lucky recipients of:
●
A monthly e-newsletter detailing forthcoming events and other news and
information of interest to Members.
● Free entry to NSC monthly meetings: These are
traditionally on the first Wednesday evening of every month in a handsome
wood-panelled upstairs room in a London pub. We drink booze, dress properly and
chat animatedly, jabbing each other with our pipe stems for emphasis. In
addition, each month there is some sort of Turn, usually a
lecture on something nicely obscure, but sometimes it might a musical performance, or perhaps a demonstration of some arcane
and largely useless skill. Members are encouraged to do a Turn (no pressure,
though) and some are repeat offenders. The entertainment may sometimes
come from a guest speaker or performer.
● Preferential access to other Club events: We run a vigorous a programme of parties, shindigs, bashes and beanfeasts, many of them at weekends, to make up for the fact that coves living outside Town might find it hard to make the Wednesday meetings. Our twice-yearly big parties are the talk of London (well, isolated pockets of London) and so far we have been able to keep entrance free for Members. We also arrange such things as film nights, picnics, pub quizzes, excursions and get-togethers with other organisations.
● The NSC Members’ Portrait Service: If you look on the Contact page you will see the Committee Members’ official club portraits. We make this service available to other Members too—you can see the results so far on the Portraits page. There is no fee for this, though if there’s a rush you may have to wait until the Committee can give you their full attention.
The
idea is to find a suitable painting that somehow represents how you see yourself,
or would like to be seen; then we photograph you in a similar pose and
interpolate it into the original painting using Science. Ideally find a
painting or photograph into which you would like your likeness to be 
syringed.
As long as we can get hold of a reasonably high-resolution copy of the source
image then we can do the rest. And if you can’t quite think of the right
picture to start with, have a chat with the Committee and perhaps we can
suggest something.
● Further merchandise: additional or replacement badges are available (to Members only) at a price of £3 each, though Members are requested to respect the fact that this is a badge of Membership and you may not hand them out to non-Members.
We
now have cufflinks, tie slides and stick pins featuring the same enamelled
discs. These are available to Members for £10 a pair, £6 and £4 respectively.
You may also purchase the magnificent bespoke NSC Club Tie. It is all silk, has equal broad stripes of black, red and silver, with a discrete “shadow weave” NSC logo repeating along the black stripe. They are a snip at £15 (plus an extra £1 for postage if you would like them mailed to you or £2 if you live somewhere desperately foreign). If you fancy any of the items mentioned here, please contact Mr Hartley, though remember that they are available to Members only.
We have recently also branched out into Club Scarves, fashioned from stout wool in three lengthwise stripes, black, red and silver. These are currently being handmade by Club Member Charles Henry Wolfenbloode: they will be produced in batches at 
£19.50 each plus postage as appropriate. (He also does a nice line in mini-scarves for toddlers.) Do get in touch if this would interest you.
For Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee we decided to make our own commemorative mugs. As we are aware that not everyone in the Club is a royalist, our hand-drawn silk-screened mugs are playful rather than po-facedly monarchist, channelling both Eric Ravilious and perhaps Ronald Searle. (Right-click on the image below to see a larger image.) The mugs are free to all Members while stocks last, though if you would like us to mail it to you there will be a delivery cost (£3 within the UK, more overseas).
You can even purchase official, limited-edition New Sheridan Club rock (the confectionary, not just pieces of shale). We had this made up for our summer 2011 party "Kiss Me Quick!", a celebration of the great British seaside holiday. In keeping with tradition it is peppermint flavoured and has "New Sheridan Club" written through it (see photograph below). The silver stripe is actually metallic. Only a hundred sticks were ever made but we still have some left. These are 8" long and a hefty 1 1/8" wide (20.5 by 3cm) and are available at £3 each plus a quid postage (£2 for overseas delivery).
● Discounts: here are some of the special offers available to Members:
A Suit That Fits Free measurement and style consultation
Huality Tailoring A 5% discount on all purchases
The Canton Tea Co A one-time 15% discount plus free postage and packing
Jing Tea A one-time 10% discount
One of our Members, Baron Solf, even offers a 10% discount at his restaurant, The Joiner's Arms, in Lazonby, near Penrith
Overseas Guests of Honour
Although the majority of our events take place in Britain,
and indeed in and around London, we do have plenty of Members who live in other
parts of the world. Although they may not make it to many, if any, events I
imagine they are inspired by a sense of solidarity of being part of a global
community of languid fops and consumptive aesthetes. Nevertheless it is the
Committee’s intention that on occasions when foreign Members do manage to make
it to Blighty, and London in particular, the Club will treat them as guests of
honour, endeavouring to arrange entertainments for them, scattering them with
garlands and composing epic poem cycles glorifying their exploits. This has so
far happened a grand total of thrice; and a great success it was on each
occasion. Sir James M. III, John Delikanakis and Misses Anne Holmes and Vega
Andersen are still finding rose
petals in their hair and the poems were serialised in the Mail on Sunday.
Newsletter Contributions
Although it isn’t a requirement of Membership, Members are
encouraged to submit articles, reports and observations to the monthly
newsletter. We may even produce a Best Of volume after a while.
As you can see, being a paid-up Member has all kinds of
enticing benefits, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll chase you away with a stick
if you haven’t actually joined. In fact non-Members are very welcome at the
monthly Club Nights—your first visit is free and after that there’s a footling
£2 charge each time.
The New Sheridan Club is not run for profit. The Committee are simply facilitators and the money taken in fees is to cover costs, such as room and equipment hire, stationery, server space, manufacturing the lapel badges and calling cards, putting on the parties, etc.