What Membership Means
Welcome to a friendly community with a rich history and a bright future! To enjoy Woodland Hills fully, make sure you embrace what membership means.
You’re not a customer. You’re something more.
Woodland Hills has been a beloved gathering place for families since our gate first swung open in 1959. The Club is described as "a private, member-owned, nonprofit organization," but still what’s easy to overlook—especially now that "member" gets used for everything from gyms to streaming services—is that here, membership means ownership.
When you join as a Full Member Household, you're not just buying access to the pools and grounds. You're becoming a part-owner. You have a vote in how the Club is run, and a stake in what it's worth.
Membership entitlements and responsibilities show up in concrete ways.
Full Membership requires purchasing a Share Certificate—an actual equity stake, not a fee that disappears. That share is refundable when you resign, once another household is ready to take your place. And if the Club were ever sold or dissolved, any surplus would be distributed among the membership itself—not to outside owners. No rec center makes that offer.
You have a real voice. Every Full Member Household gets one vote. You elect new Directors to the Board each summer, and you can remove a Director by majority vote if needed. The Board can't borrow money or pledge the Club's credit without member approval, and major capital spending requires a membership vote too. Even our By-laws themselves can only be changed by a two-thirds vote of the members.
The "bond" cuts both ways. Your Share Certificate is a financial instrument, but it's also a fitting symbol for the relationship between members. Because everyone's dues and shared upkeep sustain the Club for everyone else, membership isn't just an individual purchase; it's a mutual commitment, and that's written into the Club's structure as well as its culture.
Associate Membership, by contrast, is a preview. It allows waiting-list households to enjoy the Club for a season, but it comes with no share and no vote. Full Membership is the real deal. It’s a stake you help govern—which answers to you, and which comes back to you if you ever leave.
Members literally run the place. We employ a small managerial staff, but the Board of Directors and committee chairs are all unpaid, term-limited volunteers who are elected by the membership. Any member can self-nominate for a Board role; there’s no special credential needed.
This club belongs to all of us, just as we belong to it.
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What does membership mean to you? As always, we invite you to share your point of view!