This page was updated Sept. 2024.

What happens at the Wellesley Club? We officially got off the waitlist in August 2024, so now we’re going to find out. We’ll attend our first meeting in September, and we can’t wait. We’re not saying we’ll spill all the secrets, but we may give a glimpse into the fun every now and then.

First thing to know is that the Wellesley Club and the Wellesley Country Club are two entirely different things.

The Wellesley Country Club: think tennis, golf, pool, socializing.

The Wellesley Club: think civics and current events.

The Sept. 2024 speaker will be Meghna Chakrabarti, the host of WBUR’s award-winning On Point national program, and Jonathan Dyer, On Point‘s executive producer. The format will be an interview-style conversation focusing on the role of journalism and WBUR in our community and what the future might look like.

wellesley club leadership — Left to Right: Andrew Ferrer, Emily Shanahan, Andrea Ward, Stephen Murphy, Cathy Taylor, Neal Goins, Sharon Gray, and Salvatore DeFazio III.

The Wellesley Club does have socializing in common with the Country Club, and sometimes holds events there, but there’s no sporty aspect involved. The Wellesley Club’s stated goals are “to promote literary and social culture among its members, and especially to consider and discuss questions relating to the welfare of the Town of Wellesley.” The Club does this at up to eight dinner meetings per year.

To that end, perhaps the most important Wellesley Club meeting of the year is Town Affairs Night. We were invited to attend as guests at the 2023 Night, during which elected town officials shared updates on a slate of hot issues in town, all of which The Swellesley Report has covered at some point, from the stormwater enterprise fund to school building projects to a proposed equity audit and the latest plans to develop housing.

Fun facts about the Wellesley Club

Membership is limited to 300 members and a wait list of 100. Members may invite guests to the meetings. We’re one of the nameless, faceless 100 on the wait list. One day we shall become one of the chosen 300.

The process for membership in the Wellesley Club is by nomination from an existing Wellesley Club member.
Heads of three colleges located in Wellesley (Babson, MassBay, and Wellesley College) can be members if they’d like.