In a significant departure from club convention, The Saturday Club proposes to induct 350 new individual members to tide over the present financial crunch and attain a state of self-reliance in the near future.

Being pushed by new president Arjun De, the proposal will be tabled at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on January 18. The Wood Street rendezvous has stopped taking in new individual members for the past nine years and the president feels it?s time to break the mould.

?We have around 2,500 members, of which 1,700-odd are city-based. Sadly, the usage of the club facilities is a sorry 22 per cent. Every month, we run up a deficit of nearly Rs 10 lakh which, after being offset by rentals and other income, still stands at Rs 6 lakh,? De points out.

The Saturday Club, like most other city clubs, has been trying to bridge the gap by taking in new corporate members or renewing existing ones. But De feels this stream isn?t enough, and since there?s no consistency in income earned from corporates, it can?t be relied upon to wriggle out of the red.

?The rationale behind seeking increased revenues through individual memberships is to fund the uplift and expansion of almost all the facilities over the next two years,? stresses De.

The president has also proposed a separate screening committee comprising past presidents and prominent Calcuttans to evaluate applications for individual memberships. The 350 members would be absorbed over a period of three years, should the resolution be passed.

The new committee has been buoyed by another windfall ? the 24,000 sq ft of space recovered thanks to the liquidation of Tea Trading Corporation of India, a tenant. It has been proposed that 8,000 sq ft be retained and the rest given out on short-term rent.

?If all this is accepted, then by 2007, we should have a fixed deposit of Rs 20 crore, including the current corpus. In that scenario, the interest earnings alone can wipe out deficits and we can move to a surplus situation,? the president observes.

Renovation of the lawnside cafeteria and upgrade of the Wills Lifestyle Lounge by ITC will be the first priority of the club management once the new programme is put on track. The Antiquity/Mischief Bar being done up in association with Shaw Wallace comes next in the pecking order.

A facelift for the new reception area and a heated swimming pool are also on the first phase agenda. There are also plans to renovate the kitchen, beauty parlour, changing rooms and the main building, besides upgrading the guestrooms and dining room.