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Members’
clubs are essentially private places, restricted to those who have satisfied
the conditions for joining.
But
of course they are often attractive local venues, providing the kind of
facilities and leisure activities which might attract a wider audience.
The
luckier clubs have a waiting list for entry and are able to pick and choose
who will join next. However, the current economic climate has forced a number
of clubs to seek ‘fresh blood’ in order to swell membership numbers and
boost funds.
The
more fortunate committees will be able to use techniques such as direct mail
to potential members, offering if necessary an incentive to join the club. But
the vast majority will use some form of local advertising.
Although
some clubs have tried local radio to appeal to a mass audience, the majority
will use local press, either taking an advertising space or contacting one of
the journalists in the hope that an editorial might bring the club to the
attention of readers.
Of
course, this type of exposure will also bring the club to the attention of
other interested parties — the police, the local authority, the Performing
Right Society and local publicans — each of whom might have a good reason
for making further enquiries into what the club is doing.
So
advertising can be a double-edged sword: it may bring enquiries for membership
but it could also provoke comment as to whether the club is acting unlawfully.
The
first point to be made is that advertising, by its nature, goes to the general
public and therefore is subject to all the rules which apply to public
activities. You cannot always hide behind the notion that you are a private
club when you emerge into the public arena.
This
means that your advertising has to pass all the tests of acceptability that
any trader or business must meet. Above all, the advertisement must be legal
and must not break any of the rules which apply to special offers or
incentives.
One
thing to get straight — there is
nothing illegal in a club using public media to reach its own members, to tell
them about events at the club. If you know most of your members live locally,
you can advertise to them, as long as the copy points out that admission is
for members and guests only.
It
isn’t just clubs which may fall foul of trading standards laws in this
respect. A number of pubs and restaurants which have advertised special offers
have been the subject of complaint or even prosecution when angry customers
find that the advertised discount or event is not available.
You
have to be aware that newspapers and periodicals may publish at different
times, and the reaction to your general advertisement may come much later than
you intended. This means that any offer which you make in print must be
specific and must not appear as if it is available at any time.
For
example, you cannot offer a discount ‘on production of this advertisement’
and then refuse to honour it when the reader turns up at the door, on the
grounds that it is too long after the event. You must be aware that your
special offer is subject to trading laws, and a refusal will swiftly be
followed by a visit from a local council official to put you in the picture.
The
most attractive idea for existing clubs is to attract members of the public
for certain events and then watch the funds of the club — their funds —
swell as a result. But if this means opening the doors of the club on regular
occasions to members of the public, the police will take more than a passing
interest.
It
is true that there is under the existing law a limited opportunity for clubs
to entertain the public. Usually, they will require an occasional
permission to legalise sales of drink from the club bar to the general
public, but remember that this type of permission is restricted to 12
occasions in a 12-month period. More regular invitations could affect the
club’s registration.
The
most common mistake is to assume that for a popular event such as a big-name
group or cabaret act, you can advertise locally and allow people in ‘on the
door’, to be signed into the club by a doorman or committee member. Some
clubs still perpetuate the myth of the ‘temporary member’, issuing a
special ticket to these people when they have paid for entry.
It
doesn’t take much working out to see that this is public entry by another
name. There is no real membership involved, nor is entry restricted in any
way. Any member of the public who turned up with money for entrance would be
readily admitted, and that means the entertainment becomes public.
If
these people are served at the club’s bar, then the police would hold that
the registration certificate is being contravened, because the rules of the
club are bound to restrict service to genuine members and their guests. Direct
service to these ‘temporary members’ would put the club’s registration
in jeopardy.
Again,
a local council official, seeing the advertisement for the XYZ Social Club and
the wording ‘admission by ticket at the door’ would check his files to see
whether the club had a public entertainment licence. If they did not, he could
well turn up on the door himself — with a summons for the club secretary. It
should be noted that the maximum fine for unlicensed public entertainment is
now £20,000
The
vast majority of complaints to the police by local publicans are about
club’s admission policy and advertising. They see them as unfair competition
and it will often be the wording of an advertisement that they object to, and
bring to the attention of the police.
Recently
another case of advertising was brought to my attention concerning a local
golf club. The club, which plays on an undulating course, is predominantly
male and wanted to boost its lady membership. So it placed an advertisement
for the club in the local press to say that ladies were welcome to apply for
membership.
Nothing
wrong in that, you might say. Well, not according to the Equal Opportunities
Commission. They objected to the ad., on the grounds that it was
discriminatory, and they used the very section of the Sex Discrimination Act
1975 which covers advertising to the public.
They
claimed that the club was engaged in positive discrimination in holding out
its facilities to one sex rather than the other. It did not matter that the
intentions of the club in this instance were good — the advertising rules
states that you must not, except in specific limited circumstances, advertise
any sporting. leisure or recreational facility in words which could be taken
as discriminatory.
In
this instance, the club was offering a discount membership fee to lady golfers
who were members of the public and the Commission held that unless the
discount was equally available to men, the advertisement was unlawful.
Increasingly,
sex and race discrimination in clubs has been the subject of close inspection
by the Commission and the Board set up to monitor these things. Although
‘private’ clubs have for many years been immune from the general body of
law, a case decided a few years ago showed that where a club’s admission
practices were essentially discriminatory, because it was technically
impossible for a non-white applicant to gain nomination, the Race Relations
Board could succeed in court.
The
story of the golf club, however, had a happy ending. After my intervention the
Commission agreed to vet the next advertisement to ensure that it complied
with the existing law and then they allowed it to go ahead. They are not
opposed to clubs opening their doors to more women, but they don’t want it
done by positive discrimination — they want anyone accepted whatever their
sex.