Vetting
Effort is the first filter
Every application is read by a human being who can see what you make and what you came for. There is no automatic approval, no score, and nothing about it is instant. Effort is the first filter, and it removes most of what makes rooms unpleasant.
Why bother
Anything you can join in thirty seconds fills up with people who joined in thirty seconds
The single biggest difference between a room worth being in and a room that is not is how hard it was to get in. Not how expensive — how much trouble. An application that takes twenty minutes and asks real questions is refused by exactly the people you would rather not be beside.
So the application is a questionnaire, not a sign-up. It asks what you make, what you bring, who will vouch for you, and why you want to be here. Then somebody reads it.
The application
What we ask, and why
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What you make, and where
Your craft, your city and your work. This is the part that decides most applications, and a link to the work beats any paragraph about it. -
What you came for
Selling, patronage, releases, collaborators, swaps, meeting people in your field, mentorship, gatherings, dating. Pick as many as are true; it decides what we set up for you. -
The pledge
You read and sign the code of conduct before you are considered. Nobody gets in without having agreed to how this room behaves.
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A reference, and why you want in
Somebody who knows your work, and a few sentences in your own words. Both are read. Neither can be filled in by a form-filler. -
A person reads it
Usually within three to five working days, and you get an answer by email either way. A declined application stays with us: write back when there is more to read, and a person reads it again.
What we are looking for
Three things, and none of them are follower counts
You make something
Professionally, seriously, or stubbornly — it does not have to be your whole income. It does have to be real work you can show.
You wrote it yourself
Applications that read like a form filled in at a traffic light are declined. Effort in the application predicts effort in the room almost perfectly.
You want to be useful to somebody
The members who last are the ones who answer other people's calls. We ask about that, and we mean it.
Identity
Anyone who sells is known to Stripe by name
Nothing on a storefront can be published or bought until Stripe has checked who the member is — a legal name, an address, a date of birth, and whatever their country asks before it will pay a person. So the name on a storefront and the name on the bank account it pays are the same person.
What we keep is that Stripe is satisfied. The documents belong to Stripe, not to us, and no member sees another member's papers. Members who only use the club are not asked for papers; they are known by their work, their reference and an application a person read.
After you are in
Vetting is the beginning of standing, not the end of it
Questions about vetting
How long does it take?
What gets an application declined?
Can I apply again?
Do I have to verify my identity?
Twenty minutes, and a person will read it
Say what you make, show it, and say what you came for. That is genuinely most of it.