Thompson's Hotel Social Club was formed in the Summer of 1998 by Mick Royal, who was working as a Barman at the Pub. Our Social Club was formed as a way of attracting more patrons to the Pub.  In our first year we had approx 50 - 60 members.  Weekly raffles were held each Thursday night at 7pm. The first 2 members to be signed up were Jim Oborne and Brian Hawkins.  The earliest raffle prizes consisted of; Crayfish, Slabs of Beer, 6 packs of Beer/Spirits, Pots of Beer and Pub Meal Vouchers. For our Club's first major fundraising raffle, Mick was able to obtain from a liquor rep a large bottle of Jim Beam Bourbon in a pouring cradle.

Within a a short period of time our club had raised quite a considerable amount of money. It then evolved that some of the monies raised be used to conduct social events for members and also that we put monies back into our local comminuty by way of donations to Community groups.  Thus began our ongoing tradition and purpose of our club, which is to make contributions to our local community, whilst also conducting social events for our members. We have also provided assistance to needy local families in times of illness/accident/bereavement.

In our first 18 years we take great pride in having donated over $25,000.00 to local community groups and needy families.

Local Community Groups who have benefited from our fundraising efforts include;                                                   Cobden Tehnical School, Cobden Primary School, Hampden Specialist School, Cobden Kindergarten, Cobden Skate Park, Cobden District Health Services, Lovely Banks Nursing Home, CHDS Gymnasium, CDHS Anzac Dementia Wing, Ballarat Oncology Day Unit, Warrnambool Palliative Care, Peter's Project (Warrnambool Cancer Centre), Cobden Fire Brigade, Cobden S.E.S., Cobden Scout Group and Leukemia Foundation Shave for a Cure.

We look forward to continuing this tradition of helping out our wonderful local community.

We hold our weekly Pub Raffles each Thursday Night - raffles are drawn at 7.15pm.  We have 7 Weekly Raffle Prizes, which currently consist of $25 Meat Voucher, $25 IGA Gift Card, Pick of our Joker Poker Board for a chance to win our Cash Jackpot, 2 for price of 1 Pub Meal Voucher & 3 draws of 2 Pots of Beer. We also have 2 Members only Draws for Cash & Pots of Beer which Jackpot each week if the Member Drawn is not present.

We also raise funds by occasionally operating the Saturday Morning BBQ at Stirlo's Butchery as well as running Raffles for Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Christmas.

Our Annual Memberships are $30 - Family & $20 - Single.  Membership year starts each February/March.  Members are also able to purchase 2 Meals for the Price of 1 on any Thursday Night by simply showing their Membership Card.

In June, 2015 we presented our first 2 Life Memberships to Jim Oborne & Frank Retallack.  Both Jim and Frank have been part of our Social Club from the beginning and have given freely of themselves over the years to help us in our fundraising efforts.