EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Whitney Reid Pennell, president of RCS Hospitality Group, is a celebrated management consultant, educator, and speaker. RCS continues to offer innovative solutions through RCSUniversity.com, an online virtual training portal for employees and managers. For more information, phone (623) 322-0773 or visit the RCS website at www.consultingRCS.com.

Is This the New (Staffing) Normal?

The nationwide labor shortage continues as the hospitality and club industry emerges in a post-pandemic world.

Most labor studies and staffing experts agree that the workforce shortage will remain for at least two more years. “Pay more” is a simplistic response and will not help clubs solve the crisis.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Experienced club employees who were furloughed, let go or not rehired have moved on to jobs in other industries with companies offering a stark scheduling contrast (no holidays, nights, or weekends), greater work-life balance, increased benefits and pay.

The soft skills many club employees embody are highly sought after in other industries, especially those leveraging increased technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in their service systems. Personable, friendly, and empathic workers who are adaptable, optimistic, and have good communication skills are in peak demand.

According to a recent LinkedIn Job Insights survey, 66 percent of new jobs will rely on soft skills, putting the club industry in competition for talent with all industries. Most of these lost employees are not expected to return to the service industry, much less to the positions they held pre-COVID.

And while unemployment remains high, most of the existing workers have minimal club experience, entry-level skills, or little interest in jobs that are suddenly available. The gift of the pandemic is that we have learned a great deal about staffing opportunities that were emerging pre-COVID.

Teenagers, who the service sector relied upon for seasonal help, were already opting to work in “gig” jobs. Requests for flexible schedules increased as time became more valuable than wage rate to many. Pay competition forced high turnover or made hiring lower-skilled new hires a necessity and meeting the changing needs of dual-income employee families has proven challenging to operations that are open nearly 24/7 year-round.

Now we are forced to better understand how these trends are contributing to a staff shortage in a post-pandemic world.

What can we do?

Be aware of manager/leader burnout: Forced time off allowed our leaders to spend time with families and friends and realize how much they were missing. For those who continued working in 2020, have been called back or were recently hired, leaders at every level have done their best to manage and contribute when short-staffed, pitching in as needed to open and then expand services to meet member demand.

Our club leaders are reaching severe burnout. Many were also tasked with recruiting employees and managing member communications while often retooling policies and procedures with changing guidelines and regulations.

The Mayo Clinic cites lack of control, unclear job expectations, dysfunctional workplace dynamics, activity extremes and work-life imbalance as contributing factors for burnout. The pandemic provided the perfect storm for leaders to reach their breaking point. Small bonuses for additional time worked, extra paid time off, a spa day or other recognition of their efforts during these trying times will go a long way.

Market our jobs as a career choice: What we do matters, and we need to instill a sense of purpose and pride in our current and potential workforce. Many potential employees are unaware of club industry career opportunities or what your club can provide. • Promote company culture • Highlight opportunities for advancement; build clear pathways to get promoted • Advertise ongoing training prospects.

Revamp your recruiting and hiring process:

• Advertise your exceptional health and safety standards • Promote your community involvement • Confirm that potential employees can research your club and that your culture shines through (club information is often within a members’ only login website) • Invest resources into training and onboarding so that less experienced or first-time employees are given opportunities to learn on the job quickly • Evaluate your inclusive hiring practices and remove barriers to entry, such as a lengthy application process, wait time for interviews or hiring time.

Evaluate scheduling practices:

• Post staff schedules in a timely manner, allowing employees to plan their personal time • Explore alternative scheduling practices, such as three 10-hour days, four eight-hour days, shorter shifts early morning, mid-day, or late night to accommodate students, appointments, children’s activities, or second jobs • Get creative to give every manager a weekend off and rotate holidays.

Leverage technology: Scheduling tools that use AI, payroll systems, applicant tracking tools, and virtual training are a good place to start. Ensure the systems now in place are used correctly and not contributing to staff frustration.

With sharp focus on the right things (and not just the easy answers, like “pay more”), we can emerge stronger than ever—for the benefit of our staff, leaders, and members. BR

NANCY’S CORNER

Nancy Berkley is an expert on women’s golf and junior girls golf in the US. Nancy is a member of the World Golf Foundation Women’s Committee and the National Golf Foundation. She shares news about women’s golf — along with her opinions — on www.nancyberkleygolf.com. Nancy has served on the governing boards of two golf clubs and is on the green and marketing committees at Frenchman’s Creek Beach and Country Club. She is a contributing writer for LPGA publications.

Does Your Club Have a Short Golf Course? It should!

I learned to play golf in 1958 at the University of Minnesota. All college freshmen were required to take a physical education course.

No one in my family played golf, but golf was in the local news. President Eisenhower was an avid golfer, and Patty Berg, a founder of the LPGA, was from Minnesota. The choice was easy. I signed up for the golf class and became a golfer.

After graduate school, marriage and a move to New Jersey, I played golf in the late ‘60s with other young moms at a local public 18-hole course in northern New Jersey. The course is still there, with the new name of Pinch Brook, and is managed by Troon Management. The course was redesigned by the golf course design firm of Rees Jones, Inc. It plays as a short par-65 and is advertised as “fun and enjoyable.”

There is a lesson to be learned from Pinch Brook and Troon Management. Unlike rules that govern baseball diamonds and football fields, golf courses are individualized works of art and design. The challenge for BoardRoom Distinguished Clubs in the coming years will be to keep all that is great about this game while at the same time making it “fun and enjoyable” for more golfers. A headline in The New York Times on Sept. 10, 2021 put it this way: “Traditional Clubs Seek to Reinvent Themselves.”

Golf has a history of reinvention. Reinvention, however, can take time. In 1933, when Alister MacKenzie designed Augusta National, he lobbied for an adjacent par 3 course. The club leaders considered a short course too “trendy.” Twenty-five years later, in 1958, Augusta National reinvented itself by adding a short par 3 course designed by George Cobb.

One of MacKenzie’s famous short courses is the nine-hole Northwood Golf Club in Monte Rio, CA, designed in 1934, one year after Augusta National. The 12th hole, named the “Golden Bell,” is the shortest hole on the course, playing 155 yards but challenged by a creek, wind and MacKenzie’s famous shallow bunkers camouflaged around the green.

The newest in fun courses - choose your tee. In July, I visited PGA National Golf Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Jane Broderick, the general manager of the resort’s golf operations, is a longtime friend. PGA National was recently sold to Brookfield Asset Management of Canada for the reported price of $233 million.

One of the resort’s five courses, The Squire, was a tired and poorly draining course. The Squire is now two different and trendy courses designed by Andy Staples, a creative golf course architect. One course is a short par-3 renamed The Staple, with holes that are short and greens that feature challenging slopes and bunkers. The other new course, The Match, is a short par-4 also without designated tees. The key word for the courses is “fun.” The resort is managed by ClubLife Management, a division of ClubCorp.

My club, Frenchman’s Creek Beach and Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, a Distinguished Club, just added 100-yard tee markers on one of our two courses. I met with Wes Dillard, our golf course superintendent, to review the new tees. The tees range from 88 to 137 yards from the green center but were placed to preserve challenges in the Jim Fazio design. For example, on the first hole and depending on the pin placement, golfers must decide whether to hit over a green-side bunker or take an extra shot to go around it. Total yardage is 1,951 yards. It’s going to be fun.

Are BoardRoom Distinguished Clubs offering short courses?

Are they offering fun? There was no easy way to find the answers except to visit the websites of the 200 or so Distinguished Clubs. I was looking for clubs offering one of four categories of short courses: the par 3 with nine holes playing about 1,000 yards; the Executive Course, generally about 2,000 yards; Junior Tees and Family Tees; and short par 4 courses that play in less time because of the absence of long par 5 holes.

I also reviewed the clubs’ scorecards to identify any short courses on women’s tees that might qualify as a “short course” for this arti-

NORTHWOOD GOLF CLUB

TOM NEILL Tom Neill is president of Private Club Historical (www.clubhistorical.com). His company creates strategic historical plans, discovers club history, designs historical exhibits, displays, books and historical videos. He may be reached at (949) 497-6543 or via email: tom@privateclubhistorical.com HISTORICAL COMMITTEE

Display Your History at No Cost to Your Club

Clubs have great stories to tell. Many times, however, they do not allocate the funds needed to tell these all-important stories.

Sadly, many clubs pass on displaying their history and miss out on the benefits: increased member pride, retention, brand value and, most importantly, creating a home away from home for members.

So how can you display your history at no cost to your club? Create a member fundraising campaign. The benefits are immense – creating a legacy with members to celebrate the history of your club and raising the money to do so – all without any assessments or raising fees.

Many general managers have remarked on how willing members are to be involved and contribute. All they had to do was ask.

The money raised will allow members to make history happen at their club, and the acknowledgments for their contributions will be on display for years to come.

Here is a step-by-step process for how your club can make this happen:

1. Make a plan by creating a mission statement.

This statement will identify the projects to be funded at your club and the benefits of doing so, along with the name of the campaign. These projects could range from a trophy display case to a historic hallway capturing the history of your club. Identifying these projects and their estimated costs will help you set your fundraising goal. 2. Enlist volunteers. Members could come from a certain subcommittee or they could form a committee specially for the fundraising campaign. Their efforts are to spread the word through phone calls, emails, or letters to members. 3. Create campaign package tools. The elements needed for a successful campaign include a donation pledge form, messaging to members, progress displays, announcements for email and your newsletter, banners and displays. 4. Get the word out. Announce and spread the word through the club newsletter, email, direct mailing, billboards at the club and, of course, the volunteers canvassing members via phone. 5. Track contributions and keep spreading the word. Keep members updated on the ongoing contributions with a lobby thermometer display, via email and your newsletter.

6. Throw a party. Once the campaign has reached its goal, celebrate with members and recognize donors. 7. Put your funds to work and keep your members updated on the progress of your newly funded projects.

So clearly, without creating a budget for displaying history, let your members proudly contribute to their legacy and their club with a fundraising campaign. BR

“Some clubs don’t see the value of their heritage, but I’ve visited over a thousand clubs and the ones which stand out are the ones that have effectively presented and promoted their history. A club’s history is a humanizing force for their brand, as it tells stories of the members, who have worked together to build its legacy. As a club, its members, and its reputation grows over time, so does the importance of effectively managing the history, and this unique way of funding a historical program would benefit any club.” – John Fornaro, publisher and founder of BoardRoom magazine

TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

JOSEPH SARACINO Joseph Saracino is president of Cino Security Solutions and can be reached at (516) 932-0317, extension 311 or via email: jsaracino@cinoltd.com

Protecting Your Club Against Cyberattacks

Until recently, we had not heard of a cyberattack against a private club. That changed in January, when we learned that one of the United Kingdom’s most exclusive golf clubs, Wentworth, had been hit by a ransomware attack.

The personal data of the club’s 4,000 members (i.e., names, dates of birth, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and last four digits of their bank account details) was breached. The cybercriminals sought a Bitcoin ransom.

It is unknown if it was paid. What is known is that ransomware attacks are increasing and will continue to pose the greatest cyberthreat to all entities, including private clubs. The costs of these and other cyberattacks are also increasing.

According to data compiled by the Ponemon Institute and reported in IBM Security’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021, the average cost of a breach increased 10 percent year over year in 2020. It is the largest increase in the last seven years.

These costs totaled $4.24 million. Personally identifiable information such as that exposed in the Wentworth breach is the most common type of record lost (44 percent of all breaches) at a cost of $180 per record. For board members and senior staff, it is important to recognize the vulnerabilities associated with private clubs and what measures should be implemented to minimize cybersecurity risks.

CYBER VULNERABILITIES

While ransomware attacks on large organizations have gained widespread coverage, smaller entities are most targeted. From Jan. 1-Aug. 1, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners reported that between 50 to 75 percent of ransomware attack victims were small businesses. The reasons for this include: • They spend less on cybersecurity • They have few, if any, cybersecurity policies in place • Their employees are not trained in cybersecurity practices

• If they are deploying some cyber measures, they are being implemented by in-house information technology (IT) staff or the managed service provider (MSP) who maintains their IT systems.

Many private clubs follow this pattern. Their staff members generally have minimal knowledge regarding key IT systems and cyber terms. For example, canvas your club’s board members and staff and see how many understand the role of a virtual private network (VPN); know what phishing, malware, SQL injection, session, point of sale, video conference and keylogging attacks are; or could identify encrypted URLs or suspicious emails.

You will probably find few that are fully informed. Further, ask yourself: • Does your club have cybersecurity policies in place? • If so, do you have a strictly enforced privileged access policy limiting access to confidential data? • Do you have a third-party cybersecurity firm managing your system’s security?

All of these areas represent cyberattack landmines that could lead to a breach like Wentworth experienced and the costs associated with breach notifications, cyber extortion (ransom payment), proprietary data leaks and potential litigation. Additionally, there could be serious reputational damage and subsequent loss of members.

MEASURES TO PROTECT YOUR CLUB

We are all vulnerable to cyberattacks, but there are measures that can lessen the risk and exposures. Benchmarking your system is the first step. This is done with a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing performed by a third-party cybersecurity specialist.

If internal IT staff or MSP conduct these measures, objectivity will suffer. The vulnerability assessment evaluates the system in terms of its risk level based on various vulnerabilities identified. Penetration testing or ethical hacking determines how easy or difficult it is for a cybercriminal to enter your club’s IT systems (i.e., network, ports, database, emails, etc.) and inflict a breach.

Based on the findings of these two measures, the cybersecurity consultant will advise club management regarding technologies that should be deployed (e.g., firewalls, encryption, endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, password and SSH key management, and solutions to lock down access to proprietary data).

Additionally, he will recommend high-level cybersecurity measures, including developing a cybersecurity policy manual, conducting awareness training for all board members and staff, and developing a backup data recovery plan.

By being proactive and vigilant, clubs can mitigate their cyber-risks and exposures considerably. BR

TILL VON RUEXLEBEN To discuss applications for your club and to find out what other clubs are doing, contact Till von Ruexleben, COO, CISSP, CeH, CSA, CCSK, Vivid Leaf, at (239) 293-6699 or via email: info@vivid-leaf.com, www.vivid-leaf.com

TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

Benefits of Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in Private Clubs

The ability of computing devices to devise decisions based on a broad information base, artificial intelligence, is leveraged by businesses all over the world. Examples are automated support by telephone or on websites, Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.

This article discusses potential applications for the private club industry and the chance to leverage AI for exceptional membership experiences.

Private clubs have started leveraging AI for “internal” use cases. Membership feedback can be analyzed to aggregate both positive and negative impressions and to summarize the results for club leadership; this extends to automatically generated reports for 360 reviews, scorecards and tracking of board, leadership and membership goals and objectives.

Robert Sereci from the Medinah Country Club is an early adopter of AI. He tracks progress against his team objectives, membership feedback and highlighted results of 360 reviews in real time and gets alerted if deviation from his goals or his timeline is detected.

A broad application field for AI is sustainability. Monitoring thousands of data points from a club’s utility meters and comparing it against, for example, climate data to see whether unusual usage occurs is clearly something a computing device can do – even in real time. That way, the club’s administrative staff can receive an early warning of devices about to fail, leaks or other technical problems.

To the left is a graph from a Florida club, where AI detected an about to fail compressor before a problem occurred.

AI and sustainability also work well together when it comes to measuring progress and comparing efficiency of operations with literally millions of data points, normalized and computed. For example, calculating CO2 emissions per round of golf played or per clubhouse square foot.

New, inexpensive technology, like LoRaWan (Long Range Wide Area network), allows clubs to monitor even remote areas for humidity, temperature, usage, water quality and more. The data generated is usually too large to comb through by hand. The Vivid Leaf sustainability platform integrates the information, analyzes it, and informs club leadership about trends and issues.

Looking at how AI could be used to improve membership experiences, the possibilities include faster reporting and tracking of problems (including malfunctioning equipment), analyzing usage patterns of the club’s assets and expanding those that are in high demand, and answering member questions. For example, what time today will the course/fitness center/pool/tennis courts be the least busy? As technology evolves, we shall see many more AI applications. BR

from Executive Search Showcase | 70

• Smith worked with his team in establishing the Thistle Promise, a service excellence program which has set the highest level of standards for the team’s service culture at The Country Club of Rochester. • Smith and his team worked to developed premier manager-in-training and internship programs, which have attracted the highest quality young professionals interested in private club management. These highly regarded accomplishments have become a standard for local and national clubs.

Smith’s professional accomplishments in his 30-year career include receiving the 2008 Willmoore H. Kendall Scholarship; achieving his Club Management and Chief Executive Certifications, serving six years on the board of directors for the New York State Chapter of CMAA, including two years as chapter president, the 2018 Rich Regan Club Manager of the Year Award by the New York State Chapter of the Club Management Association of America, and the 2019 Excellence in Club Management Recipient of The Mead Grady Award presented annually by the McMahon Group and voted on by a panel of industry experts. Smith has spoken on local and national panels for CMAA and the National Club Association. Smith also serves as a mentor to young professionals in the industry including students at The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Saunders School of Business and Niagara University’s Student Chapter of CMAA. Please join us in welcoming Michael to the Kopplin Kuebler & Wallace team. BR