NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS Wednesday — April 28th, 2021 Minutes by Diana Miller Cooper
PRESENT: Steve Shrawder, Gary Sailer, Nic Ingram, Jack Meyers, Mike Royle, Mike Sobba, Joe Mandacina, Gail Michaels, Tina Pederson, Rick Austin and Tiernan Good WELCOME/OVERVIEW/MEMBERSHIP/POOL OPERATIONS — Steve Shrawder, President Membership Stats: We have three new and three resigned National Golf members since our last meeting with a total of 330 as of today. We added six Purple Rose members since our last meeting for a total of 156. Initiation Fees: Initiation fee for Loch Lloyd recently went from $16,000 to $25,000. Steve asked the Board if now was the right time to increase our initiation fee from $16,000 to $20,000. Discussion ensued and the Board agreed that as a high-end Club that puts out a high-end product, it seems doubtful that raising the fee from $16,000 to $20,000 would dissuade people from joining. The general consensus was to raise the fee and to announce the increase early enough to encourage some people to join before the increase effective date. Pool Opening: May 27th is the tentative opening date for the Pool, kicking off with a Kids’ Pool Party. Steve has been working with the management company regarding the hiring of lifeguards. Guest Fees: In 2019, Pool guest fees were $5 each. Steve believes that fee is low and proposed a weekend guest fee of $10 to discourage too many guests taking chairs away from members. A few Board members thought the increase was high. Discussion ensued regarding limiting the number of guests a member may bring on weekends and holidays. GOLF OPERATIONS — Nic Ingram, Director of Golf Rounds Report: Rounds are very close to last year’s numbers; year-to-date we are down 3%. LGA: Two ladies’ days have been snowed out; yesterday we had 20 ladies on the course with 12 of them participating in the “Just For Fun” group. The LGA goes out at 9a; the “Just For Fun” group goes out at 9:30a. Mrs. Michels is working on a ladies’ event once each month to be held in the evening. MGA: We are trying to get more men to participate in the MGA; we have traditionally gotten 10 to 16 men to play. Men’s Night will be moved to Thursday evenings starting May 20th. Play will include 9 holes with a 5:30p Shotgun. Program will run through the end of September. Match Play: The sign-up deadline was last week for Match Play. We have 91 participants … 10 more than last year. Ryan is sending out a link for Golf Genius which shows every match and stats. Junior Golf: Sign ups started three weeks ago. We are offering a PGA Junior League this year with 36 kids signed up. We’ll have 3-4 teams with practice Wednesday evenings and matches Sunday afternoons. The kids will play against each other in a 2-person Scramble. Little Linksters has 40 registered; Junior Camps are sold out at 25 kids each. Mrs. Pederson suggested a tournament for the PGA Junior members with other clubs in the city. Discussion was held on the benefits for young kids to play elsewhere and what a special opportunity that can be. The Hangover: This event takes place May 15th with a 9a Shotgun in a 2-person Better Ball event with breakfast beforehand. We usually have 80 or so players participate. Couples Golf: Our first Couples Golf event of the season takes place Friday, May 28th (Memorial Day Weekend). This first Couples Golf event of the year is usually the best attended. Course Amenities: The GCM team has placed water jugs on the course and water machines outside the Snack Bar and at the Tennis Courts will be operational as of May 3rd. Benches and ball washers have also been placed back on the course. Associates have resumed picking up members in the parking lot and we are returning to more normal pre-COVID operations while keeping mask mandates in the Golf Shop. Locker Room Attendant: We have a strong lead for the Locker Room Attendant position and hope to hire him soon. Monday Events: We have a “green light” to resume outside events on Mondays. Our event count is down compared to other years; we are currently at 20 events for the season. Watson Challenge June 3rd-5th: We are looking forward to showcasing the Club at this event. Rick and Luke Austin are doing a great job of fundraising and Mr. Sobba has 30 volunteers signed up. The course will be closed to member play all three days until 12:30p. Spectators for The Watson Challenge will only be members and player families; the general public will not be allowed. Mr. Austin reported that fundraising is going well and most people are signing up at the $300 level as individual sponsors. He is trying to wrap up fundraising efforts so shirts and quarter zips may be ordered. These will feature The National and Watson Challenge logos with no year on them.
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NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD MEETING HIGHLIGHTS April 28th, 2021 Page 2
FOOD & BEVERAGE — Jack Meyers, Director of Food & Beverage New Menu: Jack reviewed the new menu items, highlighting those offerings which were new to the menu as well as favorites that have been brought back. Member feedback on the new menu has been very positive. Wine Menu: The team is working on reformatting the wine menu, utilizing 3-panel hard-back presentation folders. Weekly Specials: Weekly dinner specials were temporarily suspended the past two weeks as we rolled out the new menu. Specials will resume next week, Wednesdays through Saturdays. Outside/Monday Events: For outside/Monday events this year, all food and beverages/bars will be located outdoors. Tents will be utilized as needed. Olde Locker Room: Starting May 18th, the Olde Locker Room will be open Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 4p to close and Saturday 11a to 5p. Jack is continuing to work on staffing the venue and looking ahead to the third week of May when we will have all the college staff back in play. Men’s Night in the OLR will be held on May 4th and include Boulevard Tastings, Roosters Men’s Grooming hot shaves and cigar specials. A ladies’ night is being planned as well. Staffing Update: Jane Chandler has retired after 20 years working at the Club. We’re planning a retirement party for May 8th which will be a reception so that members may say goodbye and wish her well. We’ll send out details on the reception via email. We are currently four cooks and an F&B team lead short. Staff Uniforms: Jack reported that the staff will wear a light blue Polo shirt this year. Upcoming Events: The menu for the Echolands Wine Dinner on May 12th will be announced later today and the event will be priced at about $65 per person. We’ll offer Street Taco Specials on May 5th for Cinco de Mayo. Mother’s Day To-Go features two protein options for pick-up on May 9th. This will probably be the last big holiday “to-go” event as we resume normal operations. By Thanksgiving we should be back to offering buffets. Trivia Night has been very well received. Mrs. Pederson requested an alternate day be considered for Trivia Night so that some of the Deuce LGA members may attend. Memorial Day Weekend plans include a DJ at the Pool on Sunday and Monday and on the Terrace Sunday prior to fireworks. GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE — Gary Sailer, Director of Golf Course Maintenance PoaCure: The GCM team has applied two applications of PoaCure so far; the second one just this past Monday. The poa is starting to yellow and will eventually die off. We won’t see bare dead spots; just thinning spots. There are some strains of poa that have mutated/changed and will be hard to kill; that’s why this is a three-year process. Putting quality should not be compromised by the PoaCure. Native Areas: We are spraying the hot spots of the native areas where we get a lot of weeds sprouting up. Our plan is to make a broad spectrum spray in June. The goal is to be cleaner at the edges as we keep weeds under control. The June spray will carry us through The Watson Challenge and The White Alloe. Zoysia Sod: The team continues to work on the Zoysia sod in the approaches, right in front of greens in high-traffic areas. The team did aerify the approaches last year which did help. ADDITIONAL TOPICS A. Town Hall Meeting with ClubCorp A brief discussion was held regarding the upcoming Town Hall Meeting with ClubCorp, scheduled for April 29th from 6:30p to 8:30p. RSVPs are being taken online and the Board will meet with the ClubCorp representatives from 3:30p to 5:30p prior to the membership meeting. A. Promoting Clubhouse Usage (Mrs. Pederson) Mrs. Pederson suggested we consider Sunday evenings as a good night to host small family events which will encourage Club usage.