EXTRAORDINARY HOUSE

MEMORANDUM TO MEMBERS

Reference: MM/2026/002
Date: 3 August 2026

From: The Secretary
To: All Members, Former Members and Persons Whose Membership Remains Under Examination
Subject: Proposed Presence on Instagram

Members are advised that the Committee has resolved, in principle, that Extraordinary House should establish an official presence on Instagram.

For members unfamiliar with the service, Instagram may be understood as a public electronic noticeboard and illustrated journal. Organisations publish photographs, short films and written notices through an account bearing their name. Other persons may elect to receive these publications, comment upon them or redistribute them—frequently beyond the audience for which they were intended.

It is principally accessed using a mobile telephone, although members are assured that neither ownership of such a telephone nor personal participation in Instagram will become a condition of membership.

Members accustomed to receiving electronic matters through a private secretary, personal assistant, family office or other member of staff may continue to do so. Such representatives may also submit observations concerning this proposal on a member’s behalf, provided that they identify the member for whom they act and refrain from expressing additional opinions of their own.

No final decision has yet been taken concerning what the House might publish, how frequently it might do so or whether anyone presently serving on the Committee can be trusted with the password.

The proposal has arisen during the reconstruction of the House. It has been suggested that an authorised account may assist in publishing selected material released through The Archive, locating missing records and communicating with younger members who have demonstrated an increasingly determined resistance to correspondence by post.

The Committee also considers it prudent to establish which account represents Extraordinary House before less reliable persons attempt to do so on its behalf.

Members should not interpret this proposal as a relaxation of the House’s longstanding expectations concerning privacy, discretion, photography or the use of telephones. The existence of an official account would not confer upon members, their guests or their staff any right to photograph proceedings, identify other members, disclose private correspondence or publish evidence of what occurred after luncheon.

The House may appear on Instagram. The private life of the Club will not.

Before the Committee determines the purpose, conduct and limitations of the proposed account, members are invited to submit:

1. objections to the House establishing a public presence on Instagram;
2. recommendations concerning the proper use of such an account;
3. proposed restrictions upon photography, recording, identification and location sharing;
4. observations on which parts of the reconstruction may properly be made public; and
5. warnings based upon personal experience, provided that the relevant proceedings have concluded.

This consultation should not be mistaken for a ballot. The Committee has not adopted so hazardous a method of administration. All representations will, however, be recorded and considered before the account becomes publicly active.

An account name may be reserved during this period to prevent its unauthorised use. Reservation should not be interpreted as activation, publication or evidence that the Committee has learnt how Instagram works.

Members are not required to create an Instagram account, follow the House or entrust a telephone to anyone who claims this is necessary. All material of consequence will continue to be available through The Archive or communicated by established means.

Submissions should be addressed privately to the Secretary within fourteen days of this memorandum. A member’s authorised representative may submit them on the member’s behalf. Anonymous objections will be considered in accordance with the considerable standing they have traditionally enjoyed within the House.

A further memorandum will be issued once the Committee has considered the representations received and agreed the rules governing the account.

Until then, members, their guests and their staff are requested neither to announce the decision nor to begin describing themselves publicly as an “Extraordinary House insider”.

By order of the Committee

The Secretary
Extraordinary House

Discretion is not diminished merely because its rules are published online.