Why I Won’t Join Clubs

In the pursuit of collective identity, Landscape Architects risk falling into the ‘club rules’ trap.

It has taken me years of angst, but I have reluctantly joined a club. Not just any club mind, but a golf club.  Despite my love of golf, (it keeps me humble), I joined very reluctantly.  Not a biggy you may think, but hear me out.

Years ago, clubs seemed to be really popular.  Sports clubs, service clubs, community clubs, churches (yes they are a club) car clubs and so on.  This made a lot of sense, after all being a member of a club provides collective conviviality and a sense of belonging.  Us human folk tend to like each other and the explosion of urbanisation would seem to be consistent with a desire for connection

However, curiously, in this age of ageing population, club membership is dropping faster than Presbyterian parishioners.  Sports clubs are struggling to keep their members – even those that you would assume an ageing population would be keen on, like bowls.  We know that ‘churchgoing’ is an oxymoron and clearly very few seem keen on joining a gentlemen’s club – maybe we have just run out of gentlemen.

So what is going on here?  With all this leisure lying around, and a population ageing faster than cheese in a sunbed, you would think that clubs would be filled to the brim like a beer on the 19th.

There appears to be several obvious (but I consider to be wrong) reasons for this inexplicable decline.  It is tempting to blame it on too much TV, although compared to watching Embarrassing Bodies, joining a club would seem to preferable, even if it were an embarrassing bodies club.

Also tempting, is to blame decline on competing interests – no time to join a club because there are marathons to run and cafes to frequent.

The third explanation often touted, is that people are so busy working, especially on weekends, that there is no time for chumming it up at clubs.

Now these all sound perfectly plausible, yet none of them are the reasons why I don’t join clubs.  My reason? – RULES.

Yes, thats right, all clubs seem compelled to come up with rules.  These are seemingly innocuous, such as ‘meet every third Tuesday of the month’, or ‘pay your subscription by June’.  Unfortunately, these are merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  No sooner have you paid your sub then the rules kick in faster than a bill from a lawyer.

Working bees, dress codes, compulsory events, no talking, must talk, bring a friend, pay a fine – the list is endless.

Why am I so offended by what clubs call obligations, but which are clearly just rules?  I look at it like this.  Ever since Aristotle said those immortal words “bugger off you are not the boss of me”,  we have been on a more or less steady march to liberty.  Ok yes there has been the odd Oligarch along the way but they soon get stabbed in the bath or in the case of Adolf and Eva, have their honeymoon ruined by Russians.

Along with an increasing desire for man to live as he/she likes (for to not live as one likes, is the mark of a slave), we just don’t like being told what to do.  This clearly explains the decline in clubs and the rise in casual non-club based activity.

The trick for organisations is to pretend that there are no rules. Rules by stealth.  We can see good examples of this in the world of surfing.  Surfers pride themselves on an image on anti-establishment.  Casual, hang loose, no clubs for me brother.  Surfers even refer to surf club members as ‘clubbies’ – I gather this is not a term of endearment.  However, paddle out to your fellow surfer and you will quickly become aware just how many rules operate out at sea.  They call it etiquette, but thats just a posh word for rules.   And of course, surfers like most clubs, have a uniform.

So what has all this got to do with landscape architecture and urban design?

Just like surfers, or Islam, or Catholicism, we designers are members of a club, whether we think we are or not.  Call us ‘the design community’ if you like, but a club it is.  A club that has rules just like everybody else.  Three of which are, that you must design within the parameters of the club aesthetic, (materials should be honest), you must preach sustainability, and you must be an internationalist.

Of course like most clubs, we members accept these rules as the price of membership – ‘speak no evil’, otherwise leave.

The irony is that club rules have been created by their members, and we designers are no exception.  Herein lies the weakness of every club on the planet, from Islam to Morris Dancers.  In the wise words of Groucho Marx “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member”.

Richard Alexander Bain
Landscape Architect & self confessed urban critic
New Plymouth