JOURNAL 2 AUGUST 2026
On Being Introduced
The difference between a booking and an introduction is who is expected to do the work of the evening.
A booking is a transaction with a time attached. An introduction is a judgement — someone decided that these two people would enjoy an evening together, and put their name to it.
That judgement is the whole of our work. It is why we ask what the occasion is rather than only when it is, why we ask who else will be in the room, and why we sometimes say that we do not have the right person free and would rather not send the wrong one.
It is also why we decline. Not often, and never rudely, but an introduction that is unlikely to go well is worse for everybody than no introduction at all. A companion who spends an evening managing someone else's expectations is not being well used, and a member who wanted something other than what was arranged does not come back.
The people we introduce are not interchangeable, and we do not treat them as if they were. That is the difference, and it is the only thing we would ask a prospective member to understand before anything else.