The Grand Society
An invitation-only social institution. Not a loyalty programme.
A Society is Not a Programme. It is a Company of Persons.
The Grand Society is not a ledger of points, nor a system of rewards. It is an invitation-only company of persons who use the Five Houses as a social institution: for conversation, for dining, for the arts, for philanthropy, and for the private occasions that a public hotel cannot accommodate.
Membership is extended by the Household, upon the proposal of an existing member, and confirmed by the Bureau. It carries no card. It requires no renewal. It is understood.
What Membership Holds.
A room within each House reserved for members, open throughout the day. Correspondence may be written there, callers received, and conversation conducted without the presence of the public rooms.
A table for members and their guests, available at short notice, served by the Household under the same standard as the state rooms. Menus are discussed in advance, in writing.
Access to the House libraries, their manuscripts, and the periodicals that have accumulated in them since the founding. The lending of certain volumes is permitted, against a signed receipt.
Members receive the Calendar before it is distributed, and are given the first opportunity to subscribe to the galas, balls, and seasonal celebrations of the Five Houses.
Small performances, rehearsed or commissioned for the Society, held in the salons of the appropriate House. Attendance is limited, and the programmes are not announced.
Occasions at which one private collection is shown to another, beneath the chandeliers of the House. The objects are not for sale; they are for study, appreciation, and the conversation that follows.
Dinners and suppers held in support of the institutions the House has long patronised. Members are invited to attend, and to propose, by letter, the causes that the Society might consider.
Readings, arguments, and the presentation of manuscripts in progress. The Society has hosted the first chapters of several books that were later published under different names.
Membership is extended, not applied for.
Those who believe they would be at home in the Society may write to the Bureau, or be proposed by a member. The Household reviews such letters each quarter. No reply is given where the occasion does not permit one.
Correspondence, in writing.
All enquiries regarding the Society — membership, privileges, or the proposing of a candidate — are addressed to the Bureau, in Paris.
