Tom Brooke looks back at his first year in charge

‘We’ve made great strides but there’s a LONG WAY TO GO’

It’s been quite a year in the GCMA hot seat for chief executive Tom Brooke. It was challenging enough arriving at Bristol HQ during coronavirus, but that was to get even more difficult – for everyone working in the golf industry – when the shutters were pulled down at clubs again in England, Wales and Ireland at the turn of this year.

But despite operating in a pandemic, it’s still been a time of change and progress for the association. We asked Tom to talk about his first 12 months in charge, what he thinks has been achieved, and what is yet to come for the

GCMA and its members…

You’ve had to manage the GCMA through this pandemic but that hasn’t stopped you trying to develop the association from the first day you walked in… I’ve tried to get the balance right in terms of focusing on the longer-term development of the association but, at the same time, needing to stay on top of current day-to-day operations and providing that all important service level to our members.

We’ve needed to progress and develop the team at HQ and we’re really fortunate to have a great team in place now, with a huge amount of passion and energy for the GCMA and our direction of travel. I’ve also been really lucky to have the support of a great Board of Directors, and our Regional Managers.

There has certainly been a lot to do in keeping up with the regular enforced changes to club operations that the pandemic has created for us, and at the same time the various issues that have arisen within the industry over the past 12 months – such as World Handicapping, the Independent Golfer and SafeGolf. We’ve also been working to build connections and making that representation we’ve needed with the Home Unions and Governing Body.

There’s been a lot of progress with our Professional and Personal Development offerings, with the introduction of a number of new initiatives this year and continuing to work on some further additions to the programme that we plan to launch over the next couple of years.

Our partnership network has also continued to grow and we’ve got some fantastic new benefits to offer our members through the newly expanded portfolio.

Probably the thing that has been missing the most though, due to the pandemic, has been the ability to get out and meet our members in person. For me, that has to be a priority as we move forward.

So, yes, overall it’s been an extremely busy but very enjoyable first 12 months!

You arrived from Glendale Golf, where you were responsible for running a group of golf clubs. How have you found overseeing an association and have you had to change your management style?

It’s been a year since Tom Brooke took on the role of GCMA chief executive. He assesses the last 12 months and looks ahead to the future for the association

It’s been a big transition and a big change in terms of the type of role. Suddenly you’re stepping away from direct involvement with club operations and into a role where you’re responsible for supporting and representing golf club managers - rather than directly leading and managing them.

In many ways, it’s a leadership role where you’re there to serve, so it’s a very different dynamic and one that I’ve needed to adapt to very quickly.

Something I often refer to is that coming from a group operations background, firstly with Crown Golf and then with Glendale, I’ve always had that network and group of individuals around me to support me, to bounce off, and to go to if I needed some information or advice.

The majority of our members don’t have that within their club - because they’re operating from individual or independent clubs – so that’s absolutely what the GCMA provides and a huge amount of the value we provide as an association. I very quickly recognised that and I’m really keen to build on that as one of our core strengths and a unique part of our offering.

One of your priorities has been to increase the visibility of the GCMA – particularly at a national level. What did you think needed to be done and what were your key ambitions during that initial period after you arrived? First and foremost, it was about understanding and identifying who we are as an association - identifying our purpose, a clear vision, and a clear set of values that everyone could buy into and come along on that journey.

That meant spending a lot of time with our core leadership teams, the team at HQ, the Board, our regional managers, and groups within our membership. That was a really important piece of work. That’s the foundation from which we then build our operational objectives.

The key words I continue to use are ‘Visibility’ and ‘Relevance’ and, being entirely frank, needing to rapidly modernise the association in order to achieve those objectives.

The GCMA has been, in my view, under-represented and undervalued at the top table for many years. Ultimately, we are here to represent and serve golf club managers.

As I’ve often said, the role of the golf club manager and the role of the golf club is absolutely critical and central to the future success of golf in the UK. That’s where everything stems from.

The work that the R&A and the Home Unions do to grow and develop golf has to have an intrinsic link with what’s happening at grassroots level at golf clubs – and key to that is the golf club manager. This means that a key part of our role is to ensure we are visible in that process, that we’ve got a voice, that we’re representing the opinions of golf club managers and the opportunities and the challenges that golf club managers face.

Equally, it is important that The R&A and all of the Home Unions are recognising that and using us as a portal and a communication hub to make that happen.

And that’s happening now? Absolutely. That’s something I’m proud to say we’ve made some real progress with. We’re now having more regular calls and contact with England Golf. We’ve had some live webinars, to which our members were invited, on World Handicapping

and the Independent Golfer. We’ve done the same with Wales Golf and we’ve acted as that communication hub for the Home Unions to talk directly with club managers on really critical strategic issues in golf. We’re also starting to make some positive connections with Scottish Golf and building our presence in Scotland.

Equally, club managers can have that direct link they may not otherwise have had to ask the right questions, and to challenge the Home Unions on the direction and the administration and delivery of some of the key objectives in golf.

That’s started to work well, and I’d like to think that we have had an influence on how some of those new initiatives have been launched.

We’re taking a more active role in The R&A forum and, in fact, three of the four key discussion points at the last forum were raised by the GCMA and we were key to leading those discussions. It’s great that we are getting that voice at the table now.

The challenge for me now is to ensure that, in being more visible and working more closely with the home unions and R&A, we’re seeing tangible change and improvements for clubs and for club managers as a result.

There’s obviously been concrete benefits unveiled for members over the last year, such as Skillgate, Perks at Work and regular webinars. Are you pleased with how that’s developed? That was one of our key focus points once we understood our clear purpose, vision and direction. It was about integrating some new member benefits and really wanting the central GCMA membership to hold more value.

We have fantastic value delivered at regional level, where our regional communities and regional networks are hugely valuable to members.

It was really important to me that our national membership held equal, if not greater, value – and particularly leaning on personal and professional development for the individual.

We launched the new GCMA SkillGate online learning platform in February at the same time as launching Perks at Work, which is a personal member benefits platform with discounts at national retailers and with household service providers.

We also launched a new webinar series, where we’ve been able to cover multiple issues under the three new banners of GCMA Inspire, GCMA Hot Topics and GCMA Know How.

If members couldn’t attend live, it’s there and available to watch back so it’s a huge amount of content that we regularly provide for our members to add to their personal and professional development.

Now that those benefits are live and available, we need to focus on helping our members to get the most from these benefits, both personally and professionally, to maximise the value and experience of being a GCMA member.

Looking forward to the next 12 months, Conference is on the horizon but how are you – and the association – looking to build on what has been started? We’ve made some great strides, but we’ve still got a long way to go. There’s been some fantastic work delivered by an entirely new team at HQ and, in my first 12 months, we’ve just grown our membership base for the first time in 13 years!

That shows we’re starting to take some really positive steps forward but, to keep going and for sustainable long-term success, we’re looking to really develop

those new member benefits to become a core part of GCMA membership. We must ensure all those new platforms and services show great value for our members and start to have long term, positive impacts on their enjoyment of being a part of the GCMA and their success in their roles as golf club managers.

The next 12 months are going to be very different for me in the role. With Covid restrictions now lifted, we’ve started to get the opportunity to meet our members in person again, as well as connecting more effectively with our business partners and other industry representatives.

The area we want to continue particularly focusing on is the provision and delivery of education and professional development. We’ve got plans to launch a number of new initiatives in early 2022, which we’re really looking forward to announcing later in the year. Of course, we’ve also got the 2021 Conference to look forward to and the recently announced GCMA Mentor programme, which I am particularly excited about. It’s an initiative that’s going to really make a difference.

There’s also some great work underway with our expanded partnership network and we want to surround our members with up to date, relevant support and guidance though these new channels. Overall, I think we can collectively be very pleased with the developments that we’ve made. Equally, we must recognise that for long term, sustainable success, we need to continue developing our offering and our presence within the industry, as we strive to become the progressive and influential association I know our members are looking for us to be and that I hope they will be proud to be a part of as we move forward.