What's some of your club hints or tips?

[grimsoul]

How do you take advantage of clubs.
Like my family club is just for my household members. I saved up points to get different club vibes to set the vibes I need at the time. Just keep the gathering active and the vibe will last until you change it to a different one or end the gathering. But sense this is my family club I keep the gathering going 24/7.
Like I got all 3 focus vibes and before my kids go to school I make sure to set the club vibe to Focus. That way the kids go to school focused and stay that way the whole time. Or setting the club vibe to to energized before my Athlete sims goes to work.

And everyone in the family starts painting and gardening when they are old enough so I got the club perk to increase painting skill faster and the one to increase gardening skill faster.

And change the club activities to match what you want your sims to do. Before sending them off to garden make sure that gardening is one of the activities so you will get club points while they do it. Or add sleeping to the activities list before sending everyone off to bed  or change one of them to eating before they sit down to dinner.
There is a activity to cover about everything so keep changing them around to match what your sims are doing to keep the points rolling in. Before long you'll be able to set the club vibe to anything you need and gain skills faster on anything you do.

[Playalot]

I've been doing the same kinds of things but I haven't been playing with kids (I don't usually unless it's a challenge or whatever) so it hadn't occurred to me to use a focused vibe for school like that!

I made a gardening club but realized that the members will also harvest everything so now I harvest before starting the club meeting and just let everyone else do the weeding and watering.

In some ways the clubs make it too easy to skill up etc so I've found myself only using them now to socialize like my DJing dance club etc but that because for me the struggle from poor to rich has always been my favourite part of the game. But I do love the clubs, the ability to customize them and change them however you like is a lot of fun.

[grimsoul]

I found out about the garden club harvesting the hard way also, I posted about it here to try and warn others about it. But after thinking about it maybe I should have gave it a different title. Instead of gardening club tip maybe it should be gardening club warning.

Club vibes are handy for doing aspirations also. Like on the creative aspiration your sim needs to start 3 paintings while inspired. Set the vibe to inspired and paint away. Or your kid needs to play one the jungle gym while playful, set the vibe to playful and send them off to play.

[Playalot]

Oh *facepalm* I did read your post and then forgot about it! lol Sounds like you really have been exploring the club system in depth grimsoul. 

*edit: One thing I found really useful to was on the Musical Aspiration mentoring others for three hours is now very easily done in a single sim household by making playing the guitar a club activity. I've always found this very challenging when playing a single sim household.

[grimsoul]

Ouch, sorry you forgot about reading that post. Maybe like me you go to school of hard knocks and sometimes have to learn the hard way for it stick in your mind.

I'm enjoying exploring this expansion but I do love the clubs and seeing what all you can get of them. And all these invites to parties is getting my sims out of the house and exploring the world and socializing more. This may be my favorite expansion so far.

[meubanks]

Forming a "family" club with just a household's members is a great way to boost skill gains. You can basically have an "always on" gathering that just produces a steady stream of reward points. You can even set sleeping as a club activity so that you're gaining passive points 24/7. Just keep unlocking skill boosts and you'll eventually fly through just about every skill. This is most useful when the household members are pursuing skills that rely on a common emotion though, because the maxed out club vibe is strong enough to override other emotions. In that case just unlock the happy boost for the dominant club vibe, and rely on traditional means of achieving the desired emotion.

"Rally the troops" is amazing. It gives a decent boost to multiple need bars. The career boost one is also great. Both cost 500 points, but they are well worth unlocking. Definite unlocks for a family club, unless no one in the household is doing a traditional job.

[grimsoul]

Free maid and repair service and cook.
I had one of my sims, in this case my child called Queen, start a new club. Which she insisted on calling it Queen's Servant. When asked who she wanted for a servant she said that she had heard that Nancy Landgraab was bored and looking for something to do. So Queen called her up and told her (not ask her, but told her) she was going to be her new servant. I think the name Queen has gone to her head.
Queen told her she had 3 jobs to do. Clean, repair and grill.
Whenever Queen calls (aka start a gathering) Nancy comes over and washes all the dishes, clean the toilets, showers, ect. Repairs anything that's broken, and grills something to eat.
At first she was told to cook but all she ever made was single serving meals, so I switched it out to grill instead sense anything fixed on a grill is 8 servings and I have a full house with a lot of mouths to feed. And any food she makes doesn't cost you anything. It's all free.
After making a repair on a item she won't clean up the pile left behind unless you have someone search it for parts first. Once it's been searched she'll throw what's left in the trash.
And the one thing she seems to refuse to do is mop up a puddle that's left there after repairing a broken plumbing item. She just leaves it there to evaporate.
Don't know if it helps a NPC but after getting enough points I got the club perks for gaining handiness and cooking skills faster.

So that's how to get a free maid, repair person and cook all in one.
I used a child to start the club so I wouldn't have to worry about her doing any grilling and repairing behind my back. Sometimes she'll feel guilty and jump in an wash the dishes tho. So maybe Queen does have a soft spot in there somewhere.

Sorry for the long post but I guess I was in a talkative mood.

[Playalot]

Gosh! That's so funny @grimsoul You're giving me so many ideas on how to use Nancy!

@meubanks I really like the 'Rally The Troops' interaction even if it does feel a bit 'cheaty'.

[grimsoul]

@Playalot Yea, it's nice having someone doing all the mundane work around the house.
I even had to go in and set the club uniforms and give adult females a maid outfit for Nance and the child uniforms to give Queen a little princess outfit. I think she's going to be a snob when she grows up.
One thing Nancy does that surprised me is she will sit down and straighten up the chess board and set the pieces back to being ready to play. First time I saw her sit down at the chess table I thought she was fixing to play a game but she just straightened up the board and went to do something else.

I would like to hear how you use Nancy.

I agree about Rally The Troops, it does seem like using a cheat.

[oshizu]

@Playalot Yea, it's nice having someone doing all the mundane work around the house.
I even had to go in and set the club uniforms and give adult females a maid outfit for Nance and the child uniforms to give Queen a little princess outfit. I think she's going to be a snob when she grows up.
One thing Nancy does that surprised me is she will sit down and straighten up the chess board and set the pieces back to being ready to play. First time I saw her sit down at the chess table I thought she was fixing to play a game but she just straightened up the board and went to do something else.

I would like to hear how you use Nancy.

I agree about Rally The Troops, it does seem like using a cheat.

Can't stop laughing about your giving Queen and Nancy special club uniforms to symbolize their princess/maid relationship.
Could you be persuaded to post an image?  ;-)

As soon as a baby ages up to a child, s/he gets her own club. We go to the park and fill the club up with children the same age. The child can try different out clubmates to see who the most compatible friends might be, but friends for Social Butterfly need to be made one by one (not a club meeting).
Clubs have one handy feature that works like a party.  That is, when you convene a club gathering, members will gather even if it's late at night. 
Also, if my sim is throwing a party at another sim's house, my sim adds that sim to the household club so that our club can call a gathering there. The "Club hangout" setting needs to be None or Any club member's house.
That's brilliant about getting Nancy to grill. I'm assuming the meals she prepare are free because she's just visiting?

[grimsoul]

Queen has aged up to a teen now so I can't get a picture of them together with Queen wearing the princess outfit. I didn't even think about getting a shot of them.

I also assume the food it free sense she isn't part of the household. When you just have a sim visiting and they cook it doesn't charge you and it should be the same thing. I was bummed when I had her cooking and she always made single serving meals. It took a while for it dawn on me to have her grill instead.

[Playalot]

Gah, just no time for any game play at the moment @grimsoul ! I haven't even downloaded Movie Hangout Stuff. I know I'll be back thinking about just how to put Nancy to good use when I get a spare moment though!