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Chatham House Rules
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Chatham House Membership
Pricing
Chatham House has a range of membership options, with the best being “Full Member” (£320/year), “Under 35” (£220/year) and “Student Concession” (£150/year). All memberships have one-off application fee of £20. If you know someone who is a member, they can refer you and Chatham House will wave the £2 application fee. If you live in London, we do not recommend the Associate Membership (£150/year) because it only permits you access to two talks and two visits to the library per year.
Benefits in a Nutshell
Chatham House offers the following standard membership benefits, which we decode below:
Application Process
The application process, in our opinion, is a rubber stamping exercise, so don’t be alarmed by the form you need to complete, it is very likely to be approved.
Chatham House has a range of membership options, with the best being “Full Member” (£320/year), “Under 35” (£220/year) and “Student Concession” (£150/year). All memberships have one-off application fee of £20. If you know someone who is a member, they can refer you and Chatham House will wave the £2 application fee. If you live in London, we do not recommend the Associate Membership (£150/year) because it only permits you access to two talks and two visits to the library per year.
Benefits in a Nutshell
Chatham House offers the following standard membership benefits, which we decode below:
- Members Events – a selection of talks (outlined below), of which you can attend up to 100 per year (and invite up to 100 guests, at a maximum of 1 per event).
- Members' Newsletter (weekly) – email newsletter with upcoming events, as well as special announcements.
- Video, audio and podcast highlights from our events – excellent resources for events you couldn’t make, but excludes Q&A (see below).
- Chatham House reports and papers, expert comment and news and Chatham House online Archives, including International Affairs and The World Today – access to the entire back catalog of Chatham House research and reporting.
- Chatham House Library and eLibrary – an excellent resource at the heart of St James Square.
- Chatham House online Archives, including International Affairs and The World Today – access to the entire back catalog of Chatham House research.
- 30% discount on books and reports – more suited to professionals in NGOs, researchers etc than corporate members.
Application Process
The application process, in our opinion, is a rubber stamping exercise, so don’t be alarmed by the form you need to complete, it is very likely to be approved.
Chatham House Events
A Summary – What to Expect, What We Like and What We Don’t (Updated: September 2016)
What We Like:
What We Don’t Like
What We Like:
- The speakers and topics – Chatham House does a great job at organizing leading people to attend, you name them, they’ve most likely been. And helpfully a lot of events are announced one month in advance, so you can plan accordingly.
- Occasional “Rushed” Events – these are last minute, high profile talks – sometimes you will enter a draw for a place, and often they’re during a morning or afternoon. Talks in 2016 included Phillip Hammond, Ban Ki Moon, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
- Guest passes – for most talks, you can bring a guest, who can also attend the post talk drinks. Easy registration makes adding their name seamless, and they receive their own confirmation and can arrive separately.
- The staff – really friendly and responsive to emails and in-person. High standard of client/customer service, and striving to make improvement regarding community engagement.
- The Q&A sessions – absolutely brilliant overall. While the speakers are often first-rate, the audience will include a pit of burning coals ready to ask the hard questions the moderator can’t. All sides of the argument come along - journalists, politicians….a Saudi Prince too.
- The pricing – if you plan to go once a week on average, you’re paying £5 per event, with all of the benefits listed. If you're a student or under 35, the price-per-event average falls even further.
- The post talk drinks – overall very well organised, and occur about once a month. Some events would better than others for post-show (i.e. a hostile Middle East talk vs a theoretical review on the UN charter), but nonetheless the wine and beer flows and people start mingling. Our tip, if you’re alone and don’t know anyone, is to get to the drinks FIRST before groups start forming – arriving last to such an event will mean it’s probably a lot harder to integrate.
- The library access – with a wide array of newspapers and magazines in European and Eastern languages, comfortable Chestertons, high-speed WIFI and a coffee machine, it’s a cross between BA’s Concorde Lounge and a college reading room. Open every day until up to the last event (usually 5 or 6pm), this is a perfect place to work on any project with comfortable seating for groups.
- The library terrace – this needs its own special mention; on any day in London with reasonable weather, the terrace opens and snagging seating beside the doors overlook St James Square – for a moment you can pretend you live here (garden-facing apartments £4m+ if interested).
- The magazine – a periodic magazine world affairs that’s big empirical and not that theoretical, mailed out – we’re too busy to read it in detail, but again, high quality.
What We Don’t Like
- Trumpet blowing, irrelevant commentary and dire Q&A from members who only make statements, offer their interpretation, and don’t take a hint to share airtime! This seemingly happens at EVERY event at least once despite pleas for “questions, not statements”. Yes, sir, you may indeed have been a big fish at the FCO, but we don’t need to know that in minute detail. You’ll learn patience (and nothing else) when these members snake the microphone.
- The videos, available with your membership, don’t record the Q&A – this is a real shame for the aforementioned reasons of why we love the Q&As.
- The Youtube videos – these really don’t represent the excellence of the range of talks, but really this only affects non-members who may want to see the quality of events – TheatreSmart states its own reputation by saying the quality is excellent.
- Primer events – these events to date have largely been research-based talks, rather than a discussion of a particular world event, and seemingly have less interest to office worker-esq members. They have a drinks event pegged to them, so if you want to network, you’ll have to attend the talk beforehand.
- The lunch offering pricing (are we petty, or just comprehensive?) – Chatham House members can pay £9 for a lunch, served 12-2pm. While this is free for staff and research fellows, the £9 is a bit steep for what’s offered to general members.
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Take advantage of the endless titles, WIFI and coffee machine at the Chatham House Library (left). Chatham House's main door, facing St James Square (right) |
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Additional Membership Option - Corporate
- Many London based corporates, such as accountancy firms, management consultancies and banks have a corporate membership. Not only can you get free access, there are also more events on offer for “Corporate Members” covering political, economic and social issues which also offer the chance for networking.
- Ask your manager or the marketing department at your place of employment to see if there is a corporate membership, and if so, make inroads to come along to an event that takes your interest.
Finally, THREE awesome tips to get the most out of your membership
- Install VisualPing and monitor the “Chatham House Members Events” page so you’re alerted FIRST to new events, meaning you’ll never miss out on them being full.
- Combine an event with a visit to the theatre; as talks finish at 7pm, you can be anywhere in the West End and Southbank in less than 15 minutes walk. This way you can make the most of your evening, contrasting a talk about politics with a National Theatre production.
- Meet new friends and go to the Red Lion just around the corner after a talk – Chatham House is as social as you want to make it.
