Building community during coronavirus

How we’ve all pulled together during CORONAVIRUS

If you’ve heard chief executive Bob Williams speak, you’ll know there’s a mantra he likes to refer to frequently: building community.

It’s always been about the bonds that are built – between the association and its members, through the connections made at regional meetings, and those constructed at the grassroots between members themselves.

As the coronavirus pandemic has challenged the golf industry in ways never thought possible –

whoever believed clubs would be shut down for some two months? – that community has only been strengthened and tightened by the adversity that has been faced.

And while recognising the hardship and turmoil that the virus has brought, whether economically or in terms of health, it has revealed opportunities to work closer together in the future and take advantage of technology to spread the GCMA message even wider.

It became clear, from the very start of the crisis back in March, that the role of the association would become pivotal in guiding clubs through unprecedented times.

“We recognised pretty early on, when it hit and lockdown was enforced on March 23, the effect that was going to have on general managers and their immediate need to understand the Government’s information,” said professional development manager Gavin Robinson.

“It was about understanding that information and then being able to apply it within their own golf

From connecting WhatsApp meetings to staging virtual webinars, the association community has become ever stronger during these unprecedented times

clubs. There were an awful lot of questions from members around ‘what’s the right thing to do?’

“We kicked into overdrive at that time.The decision was taken not to furlough our own staff because this was going to be an extremely busy time for us in supporting the membership.

“From there, golf management researcher Jim Cunning had a huge role. We set up a Covid-19 section within the website, with all the up to date information coming from the Government and other organisations – ourselves included.”

It was community at a national level. Driven by Bob Williams, the GCMA played a pivotal role, along with other professional bodies including the PGA and BIGGA, in producing guidelines and essential practices that would cut through the huge amounts of information out there and provide the most up-to-date advice.

“There was a real togetherness from the PGA, GCMA and BIGGA,” Williams explained. “There was a real feeling that the professional bodies – the people that represent the paid employees – had to work together.

“Those meetings have been going on every week since. Jim Croxton, Rob Maxfield, Phil (Grice, GCMA chairman) and myself sat round a virtual room and discussed what needed to happen next.

“That has been really positive.”

“We understood very quickly that golf was a sport that could be played with social distancing and there were the physical, mental and health benefits of being able to get out on the golf course,”

added Robinson.

“There was a general acceptance from all the associations that golf was in a very good position to help coming through the crisis and help people get back to some sort of normality and get out and get some physical exercise.

“That really drove the coordination and cooperation.”

But it wasn’t just at the very top of the golf industry where those bonds of togetherness were being strengthened.

It was happening within the GCMA itself, spurred on by the introduction of weekly webinars that became ever more popular by the week.

Club managers were able to listen to the likes of England Golf chief executive Jeremy Tomlinson, and ask questions, in virtual Zoom meetings watched by hundreds.

Said Williams: “The response from those webinars has been absolutely amazing. I kept saying, and it was really key, we’ve got to be topical, we’ve got to be fashionable to the moment, and it has got to have outcomes where people will walk away and go ‘now I know how I can plan to open a golf club, or ‘how I can plan to get the golf course cut’. ‘How many people can I get in? What’s essential maintenance? Who are essential workers? How can the pro work?’

“We had to really react very quickly. It was about sharing knowledge and sharing the bad points as well as the good.

“All of a sudden, members were sharing that knowledge all the time and it made no difference if it was someone in the north of Scotland or down in Cornwall in spreading the message.

“They were still sharing and that has been the value of Zoom, WhatsApp and the GCMA community.”

“We obviously realised very quickly that face-to-face meetings were going to be impossible,” said Robinson of the innovation.

“The first webinar we did was with BIGGA chief executive Jim Croxton and he was excellent and spoke very well about essential maintenance.

“That was one of the first issues (arising for clubs after the lockdown) and was critical for the general managers to know. That was extremely successful. The second webinar was with Rob Maxfield and Joe Kelly at the PGA.

“The third was with Kevin Fish and we had 270 members on that call.

“Selecting speakers was a process. We had to decide what was relevant and react to the situation – what was a very fluid situation. We didn’t make any quick decisions on who to put in front of the membership until Friday or even the Monday of the week we were doing it.

“It had to be relevant for the membership – otherwise there was really no point in doing it.”

One of those webinars, for example, was about insurance. It was not the headline name of a governing body chief executive but instead, as Robinson put it, the “real nuts and bolts”.

“It was something relevant and something where people had great takeaways and saved the managers on that call hundreds of pounds.

“At the end of the day, when you are in a crisis, that is fantastic – to be able to go back to the board with that saving, plus, it’s adding value to the membership of the GCMA.

“It has been great and the feedback we have had has been extremely positive. It’s relevant and

keeps managers in the loop of what’s going on and who’s doing what.

“It really has helped us build a community within the membership.”

That communication has travelled down the pyramid as well. Outside of those webinars, regional managers across the 16 GCMA regions have been using Zoom to hold virtual meetings with their members.

And at the grassroots, groups of managers in counties and towns have also used the same technology, or utilised WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, or Google Hangouts, to plot their way through lockdown and what lies ahead.

Such has the been the impact of technology in solidifying the links between members, it’s likely to play an increasing role in what the GCMA offers going forwards – whether that’s an online Principles of Golf Club Management education course or virtual conferencing.

“The strength of the community has grown immensely during this period,” said Robinson. “It is a time of crisis, a time when people need to pull together, and there are positives to have come out of such

a tragic situation.

“It’s really brought the value of our association to the fore. We have more than 1,700 members but the community we’ve been able to build, and show the strength in that community through this time, has been key.

“Technology is only going to help us continue to do that into the future. It’s going to help us bring more education to our members.

“It’s a very difficult time for everyone and, obviously, we pay respects to the people on the front line in the NHS and care homes and understand the difficulties the families of the bereaved are going through.

“But golf - as a sport and industry – needs to understand its role within the community and help build communities as clubs used to do when they were first set up all those years ago.

“They were supposed to be at the heart of residential communities and I think we’ve gone away from that a little bit.

“It’s time to build that back up again and we’re trying to do that within the association, through our members and getting that message to them, to build their communities as well.”

GCMA AGM to GO VIRTUAL

Our Annual General Meeting will be unique this year as the GCMA responds to the coronavirus pandemic

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures – and that’s certainly the case when it comes to this year’s Annual General Meeting. For the first time in the 87-year history of the association, the gathering will be conducted virtually as the UK continues to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

The board of directors will host the AGM via a weblink at 11am on Monday, June 22.

The link, agenda, and reports, are all available in an AGM section of the members’ area on the website.

Following last year’s meeting, one of the elected directors relinquished his nomination to serve on the Board and the directors took the decision not to co-opt a replacement.

That means two directors will be elected. The first will fulfil the role of financial director, while the second will replace Phil Grice, who has fulfilled his second term of office and is not eligible for reelection. The nominees are Steve Armstrong, David Boyce, Gareth Morgan, Ed Richardson and Mike Robinson, and a bio and video introduction for each is available in the members’ area.

To attend the AGM, registration is required by June 18. Click the link in the members area.

You’ll need your name and membership number. All voting will take place in advance and votes must be received by Jim Cunning - jimcunning@gcma.org. uk - by noon on June 18. They will be counted the following day in a process adjudicated by president JR Jones and Frank Clapp.

Only questions submitted in advance to Jim by June 15 will be answered. Questions can be asked using the chat function. They will not be answered live, but by the following Monday (June 29).

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