I would edit that to ‘Just Officers’ and all their guests.
As an org (the RAFAC) we really dont advertise the benefit of membership there hard enough.
Even if you’re in Inverness, by being a member you can for example get affiliate membership for over 150 other prestigeous members only clubs around the country and world.
Either way, they’re part of the RAF family and I thought it worth a cheeky ‘advert’ here.
If it does go, it will be a sign of times. Lots of small hotels etc have or will go out of business, as will those who charge membership fees, unless they can reinvent themselves. The pub/hotel in our village became a place for “keyworkers” to “live” in from March to July, getting paid by the local NHS Trust. But it kept them going. Maybe it’s the time for the RAF Club to open its doors to everyone and lose the military exclusivity. Have a priority booking for all in the RAF family, not just officers / members. I’ve looked at the membership fees for years and wondered how anyone could ever justify them, unless they were in London a lot, there are cheaper places to stay in the same area.
By suggesting just opening it up to anyone I think you have fundamentally misunderstood the entire purpose of the club in the first place.
It’s pricing as a private members club actually isn’t that out of sync with similar, and is fairly cheap for junior officers - and once a member the cost for the caliber of dining/meeting room hire etc is actually very reasonable indeed… maybe more the point is that with a reduced RAF the customer base has shrunk.
Covid of course will have hurt it. Maybe they should be asking the RAFAC to put a message out to attract new members. It is likely that a lot of people don’t know that they can join… any RAFAC officers signed up for a year and going for dinner, even if it’s just once for the experience, would put some money in the till.
It’s interesting to note on their website they don’t include RAFAC officers as a member category.
They’ve got current, former, reserve (current and former) and commonwealth, and even UAS in the associate category.
They haven’t updated it since the cadet forces commission, previously we would be under reserve officers. But they did write a letter which is in the CFC section on SharePoint confirming our eligibility. I joined no problems and have only held a CFC, never a VR.
