Petroleum Club of Houston

The Petroleum Club of Houston is a private business and social club founded by Houston oil men in 1946 and opened above the Rice Hotel in December 1951. It moved to the top three floors of the ExxonMobil building in 1963 and, in January 2015, to the 35th floor of Total Plaza at 1201 Louisiana Street. Unlike most clubs of its type it publishes a complete fee schedule and admission process. Membership is age-banded: Junior for those aged 21 to 39, Active for 40 to 64, Senior for 65 and over, plus Non-Resident, Clergy, Diplomat, an MBA/Law/Medical/Graduate category with dues waived for twelve months, a Legacy category for children and grandchildren of members, and company accounts. Applicants submit an application with a background form and payment authorisation; the Membership Committee and Board of Directors, which meet twice a month, review it, and the initiation fee is processed only after approval. The club says the process can take under four weeks. Member life runs through committees and associations including the Young Professionals' Association, into which all Junior members are enrolled, the Ladies' Association and a dance club.

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Members use one downtown clubhouse for business lunches, dining, happy hours and meetings, with eight private rooms for events. Committees include Food and Entertainment, Wine and Membership. The Young Professionals' Association runs events aimed at younger members, including a Lunch Speaker Series and an Emerging Leaders Program, and its executive committee also recruits members. The Ladies' Association, which costs $50 a year, runs social events and supports named charities. The club publishes a long reciprocal directory covering domestic clubs across the United States and international clubs reached through an IAC card; a letter of introduction, and for international travel an IAC card, must be obtained before each visit.

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Members range from energy industry professionals -- the club's founding constituency -- to lawyers, doctors and other business professionals. Membership categories are age-banded, with Junior members under 40, Active members 40 to 64 and Senior members 65 and over.

The Petroleum Club is the most transparent traditional club in this batch and the easiest to price. Its published schedule is unusually complete -- initiation fee, monthly dues, quarterly food-and-beverage minimum, a flat monthly service charge and discounted valet, all before 8.25 per cent Texas tax -- and it prints the rules that usually stay private, such as a Junior member paying the balance of the Active initiation fee on turning 40. Two features are worth flagging. The MBA/graduate category waives dues for twelve months and then rolls automatically into a dues-paying account unless the member gives 30 days' notice, which is a genuine commitment rather than a free trial. And the application requires a Social Security number and consent to a consumer background report from a third-party screening firm, with the authorisation remaining on file for the life of the membership. The club's own description of its membership as spanning all industries is a deliberate broadening from its oil-industry origins.

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