No phone or video calls
The single rule people ask about most. This is a clubhouse for creative work, not an office. If you need to take a call, you step outside like everyone else.
The Rosedale Society — Austin, Texas
Where serious creative work happens.
A private, 24/7 clubhouse in Austin for people who are serious about creative work — and for the company of others who are. Application only.
What a desk usually gets you
You take a desk at a coworking space downtown. You pay six hundred dollars a month for it.
The man beside you is on a video call about a Q3 roadmap. He has been on it for two hours.
You meet someone interesting at the coffee machine on a Tuesday. You never see them again.
You did not want an office. You wanted a clubhouse full of people who are good at something, and who will still be there next Tuesday.
01 / 03Oxford, 1933
Lewis and Tolkien did not write alone.
Every week, a pub, a handful of others. They read work aloud and took each other apart. What came out was better than either man could have made alone in a study.
02 / 03Paris, 1922
A salon made Picasso and Hemingway.
The salons were never decoration on the work. Putting a painter, a novelist and a philosopher in one room on purpose was the mechanism.
03 / 03Austin, now
Austin has the people, but it’s never had the clubhouse.
So we took a 1943 bungalow in Rosedale, filled the pantry, put the door behind an application, and banned the video calls.
The creed
A clubhouse where you can think clearly, argue honestly, and finish the thing you keep putting off.
The Clubhouse · Rosedale, AustinThe Clubhouse
A secluded 1943 bungalow in the heart of Austin.
Wooden desks for deep focus. Round tables for discussion. Windows onto a garden.
Inside the clubhouse
12
Who is actually in there
32Membersmake their full-time living from their creative work.
2M+Wordswritten collectively by members of the Society.
24/7Accessto a private clubhouse in the heart of Austin, on your own code.
41Shippedbooks, films, launches and exhibitions out the door since we opened.
19KHourslogged at the desks and the long tables last year alone.
4Times a weekthe average member lets themselves in — which is why you keep seeing the same faces.BooksFilmTelevisionAdvertisingStartupsNewslettersDesignArchitectureLawMusicJournalismPhotographyAcademiaTheatreVideo GamesMedicineScreenwriting
DocumentaryPublishingPoetryIllustrationPodcastingFine ArtFashionVenture CapitalNon-profitsPolitical ScienceComedyAnimationProduct DevelopmentTranslationSculptureEngineeringCeramics
Writing is the bread and butter. It always has been. The rest came to us.
The honest comparison
Cheaper than a desk downtown.
We're like coworking, but with better taste. We cost less than a desk downtown, and the difference is who is sitting next to you — because nobody in the clubhouse bought their way in.
| What is being compared | WeWork — 600 Congress | Rosedale |
|---|---|---|
| Who is in the clubhouse | Open to anyone who buys a plan | Accepted by application only |
| What they do | A broad professional mix | Film, advertising, startups, newsletters, design, books |
| Coffee and drinks | Unlimited coffee and tea | Coffee, tea, snacks, wine, beer and spirits |
| Events and workshops | Professional networking and community events | Every ATX Writing Club event and workshop included |
| Video calls | Common | Not permitted, by design |
| Who you meet | A changing room | The same faces, week after week |
| Quarterly base cost | $1,569 | $900 |
The Rosedale Society is $900 a quarter, or $3,000 paid annually.
- WeWork currently lists a dedicated desk at 600 Congress at $523 a month promotional ($550 standard), plus applicable taxes and fees. Pricing source
- WeWork says coffee and tea are included; snacks and alcohol are not listed among All Access amenities. Amenities source
A clubhouse, not an office.
Most of what makes the clubhouse work is what we do not allow in it. The rules are short, and we mean them.
The house rules
04
No monitor set-ups
No second screens, no docking stations, no desk you have quietly colonised. The clubhouse stays a clubhouse.
No guests
Membership is the point. The reason you can speak freely here is that everyone present was vetted.
Your code is yours
Every member gets a unique door code and 24/7 access. It is not shared, and it does not expire.
Write Night◆Book Studies◆Readings◆Philosophical Conversations◆Record Night◆Author Conversations◆Epistemology Seminar◆Seasonal Gathering◆
Gatherings
Eight standing invitations, all season long.
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Write Night
Work improves through repetition, and through proximity to people who care. A few hours of silence at the desk, then the cabinet opens and the conversation runs late.
Book Studies
The books that matter most are the ones nobody finishes alone. One work per season, read closely for its sentences, structure and context rather than raced to the final page.
Readings
Writing changes the moment it is heard out loud in company. You hear exactly where attention sharpens and where a sentence loses its footing — reading is encouraged, never required.
Philosophical Conversations
Work, friendship, ambition and meaning, given sustained attention. Philosophy, history and biography are the starting point; the choices that shape a life are the subject.
Record Night
Music is the clearest record we have of how a culture sees itself. A few albums an evening, chosen for what they changed, with the context that makes them land the way they did.
Author Conversations
A finished book never shows the years of decisions behind it. Working authors talk candidly about revision, editors, agents and money, in a group small enough to ask a real question.
Epistemology Seminar
Truth, evidence and authority, examined without the politics. How beliefs get formed, how consensus emerges, and where skepticism earns its keep — worked through from difficult readings.
Seasonal Gathering
Bring something you made, a question, and a moment of gratitude. Over a long dinner that combination produces a different conversation than professional small talk ever manages.
All of it included
Every gathering is included with membership.
Voices
What the members say.
“I’m part of a whole community of people who care about writing and care about me.”
“The Rosedale Society puts the right people in the right space at the right time.”
“Being a member of such a highly accomplished group motivates me to meet what once felt like unrealistic goals. It's as though I'm back in graduate school, but it's self-directed.”
“There’s a lot to love about The Rosedale community, but I think it’s all summed up by the dinners. Everybody brings something, and we drag all the chairs and tables into one big room. Then the wine and conversation flow until the candles burn down to almost nothing.”
What it costs, and what it carries
Ten dollars a day, everything in.
Or $3,000 paid annually. Everything below is included; none of it is billed separately, ever.
| 24/7 access to the clubhouseWhat a dedicated desk at WeWork costs for a year | $6,276 |
| ATX Writing Club membershipThe full annual membership, included with yours | $1,396 |
| Workshops and author conversationsTicketed to the public; free to members | $ 900 |
| Quarterly merchandiseFour pieces a year, made for members only | $ 260 |
| Coffee, wine, beer, spirits and snacksStocked continuously, never billed | $ 700 |
| Total value | $9,532 |
| Annual dues | $3,000 |
Working alone may cost nothing. Losing momentum costs more.