A members' club built around family life.
Saskatoon has had private clubs before. It has not had one designed for people in the middle of raising children. Pulse Family Club is a members' club at 331 1st Avenue North where childcare is one amenity among many, not the whole proposition.
What a family club is
The traditional private club was built on a premise that quietly excluded most parents: that members arrive alone, stay for hours, and are not responsible for anyone else during that time. Golf clubs, city clubs and athletic clubs all assume a person with discretionary time.
Parents of young children do not have discretionary time. They have fragments — the ninety minutes between a nap and a pickup, the hour after bedtime, the Saturday morning that has to work for a four-year-old and two adults simultaneously.
A family club is one that treats those fragments as the normal case rather than an inconvenience. The spaces work with a child present. The programming assumes you have one. And when you need a genuine hour without your children, the building can provide that too, which is the part most family-friendly venues cannot.
What the club actually contains
Social spaces
Rooms designed to be used by an adult and a child at the same time without either being tolerated. Somewhere to sit with a coffee that does not require you to spend the whole visit managing your child's proximity to other people's laptops.
Pulse City Club — the adults-only side
A members' lounge, meeting and boardroom space, quiet desks, café and bar, wellness and special events. Adults only, deliberately. It is the counterweight to the family side of the building: the place you go when what you need is an hour of adult conversation or genuine quiet.
Programming
Events and programming for both halves of the membership — things designed for children, things designed for parents, and a smaller number designed for both at once. Members book first through the portal.
Meeting and event space
Boardrooms and event space bookable by members through the online portal. Building access is by fob; rooms are reserved in advance rather than fought over.
Food
A café and chef-led food programme in the building, and take-home meals for the evenings when cooking is not going to happen.
Pulse Concierge
An optional programme, available to members, that takes three areas of household administration and owns them completely — gifting, school communications, home services, appointments. It exists because the load families carry is rarely the tasks themselves; it is remembering which task is due. More on Concierge →
The Academy
Licensed childcare in the same building, licence number 90. Available to members and non-members alike, and priced within the provincial fee schedule regardless of membership. More on childcare →
How membership works
Membership has two parts: a one-time initiation, and monthly dues. The initiation is what secures your place; the dues are month-to-month after that.
- Founding Membership — a presale tier with a limited number of places. Half the standard initiation, monthly dues locked for life, plus founder status and a voice in programming. When the founding places are gone the rate goes with them.
- Family Membership — the core household tier. Two adults and up to two children, with a per-child rate for additional children. Full access to social spaces, events, programming and coworking member rates.
- Individual Membership — one adult, full club access plus coworking. The initiation credits toward a Family upgrade if your circumstances change.
- Corporate Membership — club and coworking access as an employee benefit. One invoice, transferable seats, five-seat minimum.
Current initiation and monthly figures are on the membership section of our home page, and the how to join page sets out the process step by step.
Trying before joining
A day pass is $35 and a week pass is $90. If you join within 30 days of visiting, that pass fee credits toward your initiation — so trying it first costs you nothing in the end.
The reciprocal network
Every membership includes reciprocal access at every Pulse club. Saskatoon is open now, with Edmonton and Calgary to follow, and Pulse City Club also operates in Kelowna.
This matters more than it first appears. Families relocate, and professionals travel. A membership that becomes worthless the moment you move city is a membership with an expiry date attached. Reciprocal access means a move within the network is a change of address rather than starting over.
Who joins
Broadly, three groups, with considerable overlap.
Parent-operators
People running businesses while raising young children, who need the working space and the childcare to be in the same place and would rather not choose.
Two-career families
Families where both adults work, the logistics are relentless, and the value is in removing several problems from one week rather than solving one perfectly.
New to Saskatoon
People who have moved for work and need a social foothold that does not depend on having grown up here.
What it is not
Worth stating plainly, because it saves everyone a tour.
- It is not a daycare with a lounge attached. The Academy is a fully licensed centre and the club is a genuine club. Neither is a marketing wrapper around the other.
- It is not a soft-play centre. Children are expected and welcome; they are not the only consideration in how the rooms are designed.
- It is not exclusive in the gatekeeping sense. Founding places are limited by number, not by who we think ought to have one. There is no committee.
Common questions
Do I need children to join?
No. Individual and Corporate memberships have nothing to do with children, and the City Club side is adults-only by design.
Do I have to join to enroll a child in childcare?
No. The Academy is standalone and most enrolled families are not members. Childcare fees are identical either way.
Is the initiation refundable?
Founding memberships are fully refundable before opening day. For other tiers, refund terms are set out in your membership agreement.
Can I bring guests?
Yes. Guest terms depend on your tier and are set out in your agreement.
Can I pause my membership?
Dues are month-to-month after initiation. Pause and cancellation terms are to be confirmed here — ask us and we will put them in writing before you sign anything.
Start with a tour.
Half an hour, no obligation, and the fastest way to know whether this is your kind of place.
Pulse Family Club · 331 1st Avenue North, Saskatoon