37 minute read
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Cheeseburgers in Paradise… During a Pandemic
Responding to the economic fallout from the Great Recession, one of the club industry’s leading bodies commissioned a major study to ascertain what might lie ahead.
Many of the predictions coming out of that seminal report proved right on point, but one comment has echoed very hollow since March 2020: “Gated community clubs focused on golf will struggle.”
Certainly, it was much easier before the pandemic to find related tales of doom and gloom in national media outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal. Headlines such as “GolfHome Owners Find Themselves in a Hole” and “Can Yoga Save the Golf Club?” became boringly repetitive as it became so easy and lazy to proclaim the impending demise of this corner of the club world.
What is, of course, now evident, and has been widely reported, albeit anecdotally, since COVID restrictions started to be lifted is that gated community clubs became the sanctuaries of healthy living and recreation that so many yearned for in the attempt to survive lockdowns.
Yet how have such clubs fared financially over the last year? This article will reflect on the accumulated experiences from approximately 200 such clubs in the Southeastern Sunbelt of the United States.
The state of the housing market, naturally, always plays a major part in the financial health of gated community clubs. Given the white-hot nature of real estate in 2021, these clubs have enjoyed major success with each home transaction typically generating some level of capital infusion to the club.
Those clubs that have reduced the amount of refundable equity payable to exiting members have seen the capital coffers swell the most from not having to reward members for leaving the club. Is it possible to ever have too much of a good thing? Possibly. The inventory of homes available for sale in most of these club communities is now incredibly tight.
The capital faucet has slowed to a trickle in some cases due to fewer home sales; an ironic consequence of the fabulous amenity investments club communities have made in the last few years. Totaling more than $1 billion in Florida in the last three years, these investments did exactly what they were meant to do – satisfy the lifestyle needs of current and future club members/homeowners and increase home property values.
Now it seems they are so valuable that not enough people want to leave. A number of clubs are already seeking ways to replace the lack of anticipated capital infusion from recurring house sales. More pressure will fall on increasing ongoing capital charges to the existing members – charges that are already more than $2,000 per member in some cases.
Some clubs are planning other approaches, such as taking over the realty operation within the community; others have opened, or added to, non-resident member categories. This can be a tricky approach with many residents viewing non-resident membership options as the antithesis of the reason they purchased a residence and membership in the club community – safety, security and, more recently, health.
Community structure can also make the latter approach challenging from a legal and tax perspective, which is also leading to the renaissance of a pre-recession trend – the merger of the club and the community association.
Within the amenities, we know that golf has been booming in a way that many industry observers thought they would never see again. With record-setting levels of rounds played and equipment sales nationally, it comes as no surprise that community clubs benefited from this resurgence.
With most of these clubs, requiring cart usage, the challenges of single rider carts, modified carts with plastic partitions between two riders and, of course, a packed tee sheet, the long-term challenges of density and capacity on these courses have yet to be determined. Certainly, many superintendents are worried about the impact of four carts going out every eight minutes.
Even with COVID restrictions easing, it will be a number of seasons before quantifying the true cost of operating the course under pandemic conditions is possible, but it is difficult to see them receding from the $101,000 cost per hole average of 2020. $21.88 per hour. At one point during the pandemic, that was the wage rate some clubs in the Southeast were competing with because of the various enhancements to state and federal unemployment benefits.
While clubs have long been used to competing with each other and various other sectors of the broader hospitality industry, Uncle Sam was, and still is, proving to be an unexpected opponent when it came to getting people to work at the club. Many community clubs traditionally fought this war for talent with their own form of “off-shoring” – bringing in seasonal foreign workers under the temporary visa programs available.
International pandemic travel restrictions on such workers leaving their home nations effectively rendered this tool ineffective. The result? Clubs that regularly brought in as many as 350 seasonal workers from the UK, South Africa and other locations now face a domestic battle of epic proportions.
A quick review of these clubs’ LinkedIn postings reveals major advertising efforts to recruit local talent for all aspects of club services. It can be hard to appreciate just how challenging this perfect labor storm is for such clubs.
However, when you consider that their members in many cases have enjoyed member-to-staff ratios as low as 3.1 (a higher level of personal service than many luxury cruise lines) for many years, the impact of the labor shortage on member satisfaction could be devastating. Will the reopening of international travel and the eventual scaling back of government unemployment benefits balance the labor markets?
Perhaps, but all signs point to pressure on wages that will not subside and that ultimately members will have to bear the brunt of if they want to still operate at the member to staff ratios, they have become accustomed to.
Members having paid joining fees of $90,000 and annual dues of almost $16,000, it is doubtful that their expectations will be the factor that yields in the conflict of payroll costs versus lifestyle demands. And while dues rates went up four percent on average from 2020 to 2021…that arguably will not be enough.
What of dues? Pre-pandemic, these clubs, on average, received 61 cents of every operating dollar from dues. Because of the various amenity shutdowns and restrictions, the reliance on dues increased on average to 66 percent.
Never has the adage about clubs being in the dues business rung so true. Conversely, those community clubs that had much lower dues ratios, say less than 40 percent, saw incredibly negative financial impacts with the closing of their other revenue-generating, and in some cases profit, activities. Members at these clubs faced, in some cases, operating assessments over $10,000 per member.
The bottom line? Selling up and leaving the community is often the only way community club members can leave the club. Therefore, with the financial vaccine of locked-in dues streams and the closing of heavily dues-subsidized amenities, the math is straightforward.
Even though club restaurant subsidies, measured as a percentage of restaurant revenue, increased in some cases by more than 20 percentage points, overall club operating surpluses, as a percentage of operating revenue, increased between two and three percentage points. Yes, club management had to deal with complaints from members who had to pay dues without access to the amenities for portions, or all, of the dues period, but financially, many community clubs exited the lockdown restrictions in excellent financial health.
The anti-golf community media tide has turned – for the time being. More recent Wall Street Journal articles
carried effervescent titles: “Before Covid, Golf Club Communities Were in the Rough. Now They’re Seeing Green” and “For Golf, Covid is Even Better Than Tiger.” Leadership and management at these club communities have worked hard to earn these plaudits and capitalize on their clubs’ assets.
Yes, there are problems and challenges coming as we have discussed here but for now, let’s just make sure the members soak up the sun and don’t have to search for that lost shaker of salt. BR
While clubs have long been used to competing with each other and various other sectors of the broader hospitality industry, Uncle Sam was, and still is, proving to be an unexpected opponent when it came to getting people to work at the club. Many community clubs traditionally fought this war for talent with their own form of “off-shoring” – bringing in seasonal foreign workers under the temporary visa programs available. International pandemic travel restrictions on such workers leaving their home nations effectively rendered this tool ineffective.
RACQUET COMMITTEE
JARRETT CHIRICO Jarrett Chirico, USPTA, PTR, PPTA, PPR is director of racquets at the Baltimore Country Club. He can be reached at: (410) 889-4474; by cell (310) 405-3949 or via email: jchirico@bcc1898.com
The Three-Step Foundation to Teaching Pickleball
If there is one thing that is beyond question, it is that pickleball continues to grow at an astounding rate. It is a sport that connects the dots between all racquet sports better than any other to date because of the appeal to players of all levels and abilities.
People with very limited athletic ability can play and improve as soon as they pick up a paddle. In the last year alone, pickleball has been responsible for unprecedented numbers of new players entering into racquets. A million into tennis and thousands into paddle simply by pickleball giving them the needed entry point. Pickleball has been responsible for saving struggling clubs and propelling successful ones to new heights.
When I was the director of racquets at the Baltimore Country Club, I saw a 204 percent growth in our racquets’ participation and programming over nine months. These numbers are as astounding as they are exciting, but as in any developing industry, there are potential obstacles.
I’ve been lucky enough to work with thousands of players and certify hundreds more around the country. It is something I love doing and a fulfilling way to give back to the racquets industry that has taught and given me so much.
Is there a secret to teaching pickleball? Is it like tennis or is it subtly or even wholly different?
My conclusion has been that success in pickleball, much like anything in life, comes from a strong foundation. Simply put, most people overcoach, overtalk and have a poor grasp of how the individual parts make up the whole.
And because of pickleball’s meteoric rise in popularity, players are often left with a deficiency of truly good coaches to learn from properly. Sadly, this often results in many players listening to and paying for poor information.
There are three main points to teaching pickleball that I stress above all others. These three all-important competencies apply to all levels of the game. Whether you are teaching a beginner or a 5.0, it always comes back to the three key points that I call my “foundation of three to coaching pickleball.”
The first part of the foundation is posture. If you watch any professional player, they maintain perfect posture as they play. This is best demonstrated by thinking of the middle of your chest as a bullseye and always attempting to keep the bullseye pointed straight ahead.
I like to tell students to imagine their shoulders are a table and that they should always attempt to keep their table level. Any time you dip your chest and break your posture, your contact point suffers.
One of my favorite drills to practice posture is dinking back and forth from the NVZ line while trying to take as many balls out of the air as possible. The key point being when you reach forward into the NVZ, you maintain perfect posture. The further a player reaches forward the greater their risk of breaking their posture.
Coaches should look to challenge students by creating situations that make it difficult to maintain proper posture while putting the focus on how important it is. Calling attention to this simple but essential point during all your teaching will make a huge difference in your students’ improvement. It is also critical to demonstrate often. As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
The second part of my foundation is contact point. If you don’t have perfect posture, you will struggle to have the correct contact point. (Thus contact point being number two.)
To keep your swing simple, you should strive to have the paddle do the work for you. Your contact point must be at a balanced point out in front of your body.
Taking an unnecessarily long backswing or using your wrist to compensate for a poor contact point should be avoided at all costs. The tip of the paddle should always be in front of your hand during preparation and at the point of contact while you maintain a locked wrist throughout the swing.
If you toss a ball to an outstretched paddle held by one of your students, the ball should come back with adequate lift over the net. Contact point and paddle angle go hand and hand and it is only by ensuring that the paddle is extended out in front that allows for consistency.
I often have my students put their arms to full extension at the NVZ to get comfortable taking the ball as early as possible. A similar exercise would be to make a “V” with your elbows in front of your stomach to visualize the correct contact points in front of you. This is when a coach should stress the importance of favoring the forehand side over the backhand since it allows for greater reach and stability when leaning over the NVZ.
Pickleball is being flooded by tennis and paddle players who tend to favor their backhand volley which should be discouraged when extending forward to improve their contact point. It is important to highlight the simple fact that the closer your paddle is to the net, the higher your contact point will be, and the easier clearing the net becomes.
The final part of the three-part foundation is footwork. Teaching proper footwork in pickleball is surprisingly counterintuitive. In general, the default mindset regarding your feet is to always keep them moving.
This is turned on its head on a pickleball court. The key to footwork at the NVZ line is actually to decrease, not increase, how much you move. This highly irregular thinking makes sense because of the limitations the NVZ line places on you. By minimizing the movement of your feet, you maximize your reach over the NVZ line and can prioritize your posture and contact point.
When used together, these three parts that make up your foundation are the cornerstones of building a consistent pickleball game.
To practice the less-is-more footwork approach, I tell students to anchor one foot to the ground while at the NVZ line. They can move one foot as they pivot on the other, but can never lift both at the same time. This teaches them to shift on their outside leg to push the ball forward instead of moving completely while dinking and volleying.
Some of the most illuminating drills you can do involve forcing players to minimize rather than maximize how much they move their feet. One of my personal favorites is to dink down the line or crosscourt while imagining my feet are glued to the ground.
Another similar game is to play points from the NVZ where players can only take one step at a time. The minute a player takes more than one pivot step, they lose the point. It is amazing how quickly this can make footwork patterns click for a player who has never been introduced to the lessis-more approach. The more in control they are with their footwork, the better their posture can be, and the better their contact can be.
The biggest difference between teaching tennis and pickleball lies in where you begin. You teach tennis from the outside in — groundstrokes, then volleys, then serves, etc. In pickleball, you teach from the inside out — starting with dinking before you progress to the back of the court.
This is less because most points are played at the NVZ than it is that learning to hit the dink builds the foundation of technique for all other shots. How you dink can be translated to how you drop, how you drive, or even how you serve.
Drive home the three foundational points of posture, contact point, and footwork no matter what stroke you are teaching and it will translate into swift success for your students. Keep it simple and they will improve more than they ever thought possible. BR
RACQUET COMMITTEE
Data Collection to Build a Successful Racquets Program
As racquet directors, we are often asked by committee chairs to report on the growth of the racquets program. Providing solid data that shows growth in the program is key when it comes to making decisions at the board level about the future success of your department.
It’s important to understand that most board members are successful individuals in their careers, and they expect nothing less from your reports but measurable data to help them make informed decisions. Below are some data examples that would help board members make informed decisions about your racquets program. What is your board of directors looking for?
Membership data
• The number of members that play each racquet sport. (Tennis, pickleball, platform tennis, padel, squash.) • Compare the data from above for each racquet sport to the previous year. Has there been growth? Yes? No? • Be ready to explain why the program has grown or why it has not. What were key factors? • If your club has different types of memberships, please present data about which members participate in your racquets program. (Golf members, tennis members, social members, house members.)
Court reservations
• How many court reservations were made for each racquet sport for their respective season? • How do those numbers compare from the previous season? • Which type of memberships had the most reservations? • Are court reservations well balanced throughout the whole membership or do you have super users that account for a good percentage of reservations made?
Lesson revenue
• Yearly lesson revenue from each racquet sport. • How do those numbers compare from the previous year? • What is the demographic breakdown of those taking lessons? What percent are adults, juniors, ladies, or men?
It’s important to understand that the growth of a racquets program should not solely be measured on the amount of income it brings in. The majority of private clubs do not charge for outdoor court usage, so an increase in member participation would not show up on the bottom line of your budget.
It’s the job of the director of racquets to track this data yearly and present it when asked or needed for future decision-making.
USING DATA TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WORKS
Working at private clubs with a large membership base can strike a tough challenge to a racquets director when it comes to figuring out programming. There is no harm in surveying the membership and building the program around your members’ needs.
A great way to understand your racquets membership would be to send a survey through Google Forms asking what their preferences are. Listed below are some examples of what you should include in your survey.
Example survey questions
Member information
• Name • Email • Gender
Availability
• Weekdays or weekends • Mornings, afternoons or evenings
Program interests
• Lessons • Social play • Competitive league play
Experience
• New to tennis • USTA 3.0 • USTA 3.5 • USTA 4.0+
Keeping the survey short and simple is key to pulling the most accurate data from your membership. Using Google Forms allows the director of racquets to download the responses through Microsoft Excel and filter each category as you would like. This type of data collection helps you form a solid base when it comes to programming and fulfilling membership needs.
Collecting data will always make your approach look strategic; it is important to make sure your numbers are accurate, measurable, and easy to explain. At the end of the day, data will help board members make informed decisions to continue the growth of your racquets program. BR
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Building a Membership Team for the Future
Whether you are a free-standing club (city or country), a community with a club, or a resort with a club component, it has been a long time since we have experienced anything like the last season. Sales were at all-time highs; initial joining fees beat budgets and many clubs found out what it is like to have a full complement of members.
Now what? Some have expressed fear that once travel starts again and people feel freer to engage in social events, the club memberships that new members acquired may be easily resigned. Now is the time to create a platform for success in the future.
Using a three-legged stool approach to create your platform, where each leg cannot support itself on its own, continued recruiting, retention and a solid communications plan are essential.
You should begin your platform for success by naming a board liaison to head your membership and marketing team. The characteristics of this liaison should include leadership, motivation, governance, marketing, sales, public relations, and communication.
From there, this skilled leader can fill in your platform with team members that grow a team that will set itself up for success in the future. Here is how your platform might grow:
One of your first questions might be: How do we find committee members to fill our platform. This process begins with your application. Do you have a question on your enrollment materials that asks if the applicant has any interest in serving the club? Answers yes or maybe should be tracked and given to a member of the recruiting committee.
Remember, recruiting is not limited to new members; the recruiting committee can help recruit future committee members and board members. Be sure new members who indicate their desire to serve are contacted and cultivated based on their interests, business acumen, and passions.
The members of the recruiting committee would have backgrounds in sales, lead generation, members needing leads themselves, not-forprofit marketing, advertising, and promotion.
The retention committee would consist of members who are users of the club. This committee will work well with a mix of members who joined over 10 years ago, over three years ago and new members (one to two years). Retention committee members might have backgrounds in event planning, affinity program generation, or lifestyle industries. They must be willing to engage with the membership and reach out to those who have not fully used the club.
Members of the communication committee would have a degree in communications and experience in public relations, telemarketing, storytelling, social media, time management, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.
Once you have defined the characteristics of the team members needed to fulfill your committees, identify the qualities of the professionals who will work with and guide the committees on behalf of the board.
The director of membership (DOM or chief membership officer) should have many of the skills outlined above. In addition, this position should have achieved a certified membership/marketing professional or master certified membership/marketing professional designation. This position requires excellent written and verbal skills, a polished and professional demeanor, leadership and coaching skills, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and strong interpersonal skills.
A sales professional, a member relations professional and a communications specialist reporting to the director of membership round out the team.
Much has been written about the past two years’ success in membership growth. Your platform now must focus on member experiences, engagement, and continued enrollments due to natural attrition. Just makes cents to me. BR
MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
MIKE PHELPS Mike Phelps is co-founder of Pipeline Agency, a specialized brand marketing agency for private clubs and communities. More information on Pipeline and its CRM and automation software can be found on the website at www.pipelineagency.com
Raising Brand Awareness to New Heights
When it comes to recruiting new members, clubs tend to think of marketing in short bursts. Make it happen immediately. High impact and urgent.
Not good. This is the type of awareness that can work against your brand, sending signals of desperation and volatility to your members and your audience of prospective members.
On the other hand, raising positive brand awareness is the task of turning an unaware audience into prospects who will not only feel good about your brand but will put your club top of mind when it comes to their decision to join.
It can be one of the most difficult tasks in the whole spectrum of branding mainly because, on average, your audience will need seven to eight touchpoints before they even register your club in their mind as a legitimate option.
Raising positive brand awareness is not just about getting your social posts seen and email messages opened. There’s a lot more to it. Raising brand awareness is about getting your audience to understand who you are, what you do that’s different, and the value of that difference to them.
Instead of proposing marriage on the first date, you nurture a relationship over several dates, sometimes lasting months or even years. And just like dating, it’s going to take multiple touchpoints to try to get your audience to understand what makes you special. The best way to manage these multiple touchpoints is through automated email.
Once you have permission to send your audience emails (very important), then you can map out a specific series of emails designed to help them understand who you are, what you do, and the value you provide.
Automated emails are delivered (or dripped) in a sequence without interruption, without the need for you to be there and think about it… it just happens over time. This will increase the number of times your audience sees you and helps them to understand how your club fits into their world.
For most clubs, the content of an awareness email should follow these simple guidelines:
1. You only want to craft communications that resonate through familiarity, resonate through emotion and ultimately demonstrate how your club promotes and inspires a positive transformation in members’ lives. 2. The content of each awareness email should work backward from an interior page on your club website. Showcase one core theme or brand pillar and use images and messaging that correlate to the webpage driving the content. Remember: Bad emails waddle like a porcupine and make lots of little points. Good emails charge like a rhinoceros and make a single point powerfully. 3. The call to action (CTA) on an awareness email should be one single button that links to the respective interior page of your website. 4. Resist the temptation to include any type of offer, promotion, invitation, or specific request (i.e., schedule a tour).
After those seven to eight touchpoints, your audience should be aware your club exists, but that doesn’t mean they are ready to come out for a tour and fill out a membership application.
Remember, your goal is to get your audience to understand who you are, what you do that’s different, and the value of that difference to them.
This next phase of email automation requires more than the standard drip automation sequence. You want to develop an automation program that helps you bond with prospective members. If your bonding program is successful, people will think of you and feel good about you when they finally want to join a club.
Today’s customer relationship management (CRM) software unlocks a suite of new communication tools that can enable
clubs to expand the relationship from initial awareness to engagement. Here’s what modern CRM brings to the table...
Those initial awareness emails can be tracked for standard delivery and open rates as well as button clicks, webpage views, repeat website visits, etc. So, you know exactly when (in real time) someone opens your email, clicks on the button link, and visits your webpage.
Tracking this behavioral information within a CRM allows you to create derivative automations that are triggered by their actions, not simply by time/date. This means that as soon as someone clicks on a button link in an awareness email, they can be added to a derivative automation that fires a more tailored email expanding on the content they just clicked on.
Further, if they visit other pages on your website, return to your website at a later date, or even click on a social media post, that can trigger a whole new set of automated emails, or prompt staff members to reach out directly.
The point of derivative automations is not to bombard your audience with emails but to begin to tailor and segment emails based on their actual behaviors. This is how you get them to understand not only who you are, but what you do that’s different, and how the value of that difference matters to them.
These new CRM and automation tools can help save time and, more importantly, increase the effectiveness of any club communications, not just brand awareness emails. For example, CRM can learn when each person on your list is most likely to open their respective emails and automatically send emails to them at that precise time (resulting in a 15 to 25 percent increase in open rates).
The next generation of automations can also send text messages and direct mail pieces, or even deliver specific Facebook or Instagram posts to the newsfeeds of various people on your list (just as if you were sending an email).
Imagine receiving an email about summer programming at the club, clicking through to the aquatics page of the website, and then seeing an awesome video of the pool in your feed the next time you check Instagram.
This multi-channel approach works even better for internal bonding through member communications. When a member clicks on an email for a club event, they could receive a related post from the club right in their social media newsfeed — a social post that reaches only those members who click on that email. Or turn it around and send a follow-up email to members who click on a specific post. It’s all possible with the latest CRM software.
Whatever your approach to creating positive brand awareness, don’t wait until your audience is consciously in the market and pounce on them with an urgent, limited-time offer. The overall goal of branding should be to create an emotional bond over the course of a long-term relationship. BR
INNOVATIVE IDEAS
Little Free Libraries Featured At Jacksonville Golf and Country Club
If you look around, there’s a good chance you may see one of the more than 92,000 registered Little Free Libraries around the globe.
They can be found anywhere from school hallways to barber shops to laundromats to something as simple as a front yard.
Two of these beautiful boxes, chock full of education, adventure and escape, can be found near the grounds of the Jacksonville Golf and Country Club, Jacksonville, FL.
One is high atop a post, filled with rich tales for older readers. The other sits low and below for young readers discovering new worlds to be immersed within. How did it all begin? Because Vic Dienes saw the librarian hiding within his wife.
“He read an article in the Florida Times-Union on May 18, 2016, about the Little Free Library movement,” said Susan Dienes, a club member. “Knowing how much his wife enjoys reading, he passed it to me with the comment ‘why doesn’t JaxGolf get one?’”
She did her research and found the concept was simple. Someone stocks it to start. After that the patrons take over - take and return or take and exchange. She quickly realized that the Women’s Network at JGCC was the perfect group to initiate, fund and maintain their very own. From that moment on, a community passion, or maybe even obsession, started.
This haven, installed in April 2017, is in a place that makes it easily accessible to all interested, though operated by a private club. The two libraries sit at a school bus stop near the back of the driving range with high visibility from a busy road.
There is a place for drivers to pull over and park conveniently and a place for cyclists to place their bikes while they scour the selection. It’s on a sidewalk for pedestrians, with a bench for those with the desire to linger.
There are only a few rules when it comes to the library but those only apply to the stewards on their weekly cleaning visits - they remove inappropriate materials and anything that’s tattered or battered. Damaged books are sent to a recycled grave. Aside from those, the most important rule is to enjoy.
“The monthly stewards have mentioned that when they stop for a checkup that the books are often sorted neatly by age group and genre. We kid that there is a little of the librarian in lots of readers,” added Dienes.
These literacy stations started as an ode to the founder’s schoolteacher mother. Todd Bol created a model of a one room schoolhouse in her honor. He never would have guessed it would grow to such a global phenomenon.
The love of these libraries is timeless as seen in the JGCC user demographics. Mothers and sons, fathers and daughters, infants, even a lovely 96-year-old woman. They are truly beloved by patrons of all ages.
There was even a celebration held to mark the twoyear birthday of the library, featuring balloons, banners and a story in a local publication.
This past year readers were encouraged to restock the library with books they read during the challenging times. This allowed others to experience lives other than their own, escape to places they could no longer visit, and educate themselves on any topics that interested them. It is easy to say the work of the women’s network has made a notable impact on the world around them, but Dienes sayid this is exactly the kind of work they aspire to do.
“We believe our focus on issues that are important to women and families help make a difference in our community - local and at large.”
Now’s the time to add a visit to the library to your bucket list. I’d highly recommend any book lover to do the same. BR
ELLERY PLATTS Ellery Platts, Innovative Ideas editor, earned a Bachelor of Journalism (Hons) from the University of King’s College where she balanced her love for writing and photography with varsity athletics. An avid golfer, she has been in the club circuit since early childhood where she played as a member of Silver Springs Golf and Country Club, Calgary, AB. To submit an idea or story for this section, please email ideas@boardroommag.com
Rowland Only Female GM Recognized by PGA of Canada
Sheryle Rowland was just 12 years old when she was first introduced to the world of golf.
A bad junior lesson experience caused her to give it up shortly after, but not for long.
Four short years later, she picked up her clubs again while working at an executive golf course. Here exposed to lessons, golf schools, positive mentors pushed her to pursue golf seriously. She quickly fell in love with the game, culture and people.
Now, she is the only female general manager officially recognized by the PGA of Canada, a long and tough journey from her career beginnings as a remarkable golf professional.
“I thought I wanted to be and would be a golf professional for life,” said Rowland. “After spending 15 years at a wonderful private club and continuing to be part of its growth, I suddenly found myself wanting to contribute in a different role.”
Stepping outside her comfort zone and leaving Silver Springs Golf and Country Club, in Calgary, AB, Canada, her home for many years, became a major step toward this new and improved future.
This allowed her to learn strategic club management, how to lead major club projects, try out larger leadership roles and contribute to bigger picture decisions.
How fitting it is that she now holds the general manager position back at Silver Springs?
“It’s valuable to know where the club has been and where it is going,” said Rowland. “I have always had long term goals and at this point in my career, I want to be the best GM and leader I can be.”
Her 20-year history at the club has made her a familiar fixture, instilling comfort, stability and trust, not only with her staff, but the membership.
Though she is the only officially recognized female general manager, there are others that don’t have a head professional working beneath them and therefore are not recognized by the PGA of Canada. This is something she would love for the industry to change.
Coming from a golf background means she has other unique takes on changes that could be made in the industry as well. For example, compensation for golf professionals.
“They sacrifice their work and life balance, but the compensation does not match the effort. And unfortunately, I think that’s why a lot of people leave the business,” added Rowland.
What’s next? She hopes to see more women involved, encouraged and advancing in the golf industry. That’s a vision that likely will come to fruition soon. BR
TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
The term cloud software gets thrown around a lot in our industry, but often when questioned on the term, I have found that opinions on what defines cloud software can vary significantly.
Part of this is likely caused by the wide range of software deployment options available today, from owning your own server to running exclusively through a web browser. Couple this with the fact that, to many people, the term cloud is often used any time an internet connection is part of the equation, and the whole topic can quickly become muddy if not outright confusing.
So, with all of this in mind let’s define the two ends of the software deployment spectrum: cloud software and locally hosted software.
True cloud software, in its simplest term, is any software that runs exclusively on a web browser, such as Firefox, Google Chrome or Safari, and requires an internet connection to function.
At the other end of the spectrum is locally hosted software which is installed on a computer and requires no outside connectivity to operate. To illustrate these two technologies at work, we need to look no further than Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.
Both product suites are designed so we can write and edit content, analyze financials within spreadsheets, and create presentations to wow audiences. However, despite their many similarities, the fundamental difference is when and where we can access and process information.
With traditional Microsoft Office, everything is loaded and saved onto your local hard drive. Interested in working in the middle of the wilderness miles away from the nearest internet connection? You can still crunch numbers and perform VLookups until you’re blue in the face. If you’re a Google Workspace user on the other hand, you’d better stick close to an internet connection because once you’re disconnected, so is your ability to access or edit any of your saved information.
Cloud software provides the advantage to work anytime and anywhere, but if you often have connectivity issues or degraded internet performance, cloud software can quickly become more of a drawback than a benefit.
This becomes especially apparent in-service businesses where technology isn’t only needed to operate behind the scenes, but also to provide or facilitate service to customers. Consider what would happen if your club were to lose internet connectivity for a short time. Your finance team may be able to wait out the interruption in service, but your front of house staff in the middle of a busy dinner service may encounter an entirely different scenario.
Internet connectivity is just one of the considerations clubs need to make before selecting a software deployment solution.
Cloud software considerations
• There is no need to tie yourself to one work device. You can use your desktop at work then pick up where you left off from your laptop or iPad at home. • Updates, security and data backups are managed by your software provider. This means you are less reliant on an in-house or third-party IT resource. • There are often lower upfront hardware costs associated with cloud software. Since all the data processing is taking place in the cloud, you can operate using less powerful devices. • Despite the lower costs associated with hardware, monthly or annual fees can be significant as providers need to work hosting costs into their pricing models.
Locally hosted software considerations
• You are in control of product updates. This allows you to schedule them when it is most convenient for your business and ensures your staff don’t unexpectedly encounter brand new functionality or user interface changes when they log in. • Locally hosted software is very stable; issues outside your club’s network won’t impact your ability to operate. For instance, you don’t need to worry that your software provider may suffer a service outage, and internet connectivity never needs to be a concern. • You will likely need to have in-house IT expertise or a trusted third party to help you with hardware acquisition and upkeep, as well as maintenance of your local network. • The upfront costs can be higher due to the need to purchase more robust computers and servers.
Nothing is black and white and there are a number of additional deployment options available to your club that sit somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum. These include RD Web, remote hosting and thin client setups.
If you are curious about cloud, locally hosted or any of these additional deployment methods, you should reach out to your current software provider for a clear understanding of how their systems can be implemented or re-implemented to best suit your club’s needs. BR
TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE
Digitize to Optimize
Technology is best when it brings people together.
– Matt Mullenweg
As private clubs have struggled to stay engaged with members throughout the stages of the pandemic, many adopted technology and automation as a way to enhance the overall experience.
The benefits of technology are evident in our day-to-day lives.
We can deposit a check into our account without stepping foot in a bank.
A few taps on our smartphone produce a car ride across town or even a meal.
We can buy a car online and have it delivered, all without the pushy sales pitch and frenzy of a car dealership.
Although the private club industry has traditionally been slow to adapt to technology, pre-pandemic hesitation related to budget concerns or culture instantly shifted to an urgent need to innovate during the pandemic.
Technology became the primary way to stay connected, retain members, and deliver the best club experience possible, despite unprecedented circumstances.
The advances have been good for the industry, but the positive impact multiplies when you consider that technology solutions come with the need to address operational inefficiencies.
As a result, many private clubs are better off than they were before. Here are a few ways in which technology enhances the member/prospect experience within a private club setting, while also increasing productivity:
• Most of you are aware of the option to create an auto-reply that notifies the sender that a message has been received. But you can take automation a step further by creating templated replies to common inquiries to ensure consistency and save time. • Go beyond “Dear Member,” and personalize salutation fields by using the “bulk email token” feature in your club’s website platform to pull names from the member database. If you want to use a prefix, avoid standardizing with
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