"If I Knew Then What I Know Now...": Advice from Club Managers to the Next Generation
One of the coolest things we saw at the CMAA World Conference in Orlando this year was the tremendous amount of student groups that were present and engaged on the expo floor and during training sessions. It's always exciting to see the quality and talent of the next generation of club leaders, and this year was no exception. It got me thinking: while I am privileged to learn from RCS president Whitney Reid Pennell's immense knowledge and experience at close hand, I wondered
Why Membership Dues, Initiation Fees, & Capital Fees are KEY to any Long-Term Capital Plan
Editor's Note: Today's blog post is brought to you by RCS Strategic Alliance Partners and founders of Club Board Professionals, David Duval and Joseph Abely. DON'T MISS their free RCSU webinar happening May 17th, "Long Term Capital Planning: The Roadmap to Financial Sustainability". REGISTER HERE. We'll see you there! We are strong proponents that private clubs should have a 5-10 year long-term capital plan. A long-term capital plan should reflect all future anticipated capit
Why Millennials Matter: Golf Trends for the Next Generation
This article originally appeared on Golf Business Monitor in January 2017. A follow-up piece is planned for September to find out how tings are going. Most golf clubs operating in the 21st century know that there are changes afoot in the industry; complex changes that are requiring us to rethink how we attract and retain new members. One of the biggest changes is the tremendous growth of the millennial market, those born between 1983 and 2000 although there are no formal gene
6 Keys to Communicating with a Multi-Generational Membership
Editor's Note: Today's blog post is brought to you by RCS Strategic Alliance Partner and founder of the Howland Marketing Group, Ashley Howland. DON'T MISS her free RCSU webinar happening next week, "Communicating with a Multi-Generational Membership". REGISTER HERE. We'll see you there! “The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love to chatter in place of exercise.” - Socrates, 5th Century BC Yes, you re
Renovation Intuition
This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2012. In the hospitality business, we strive to fulfill the basic needs of a customer: to feel welcome, comfortable, understood and important. These needs are vital for both external and internal customers. However, we often overlook the simple signals our members and employees convey through their actions that, if addressed, would vastly improve their experience. If you are planning a renovation or remodel of your clu
10 Training Tips To Deliver the Results You Want
This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2015 as "What is The Point...of Training?" What is the point of training? Does everyone on your team really understand the point of training and how best to make your training effective? We train for a variety of reasons, but they are all centered on producing change and to keep our service culture strong. We train to affect change in skills (how to do something), knowledge (critical thinking or decision making) or att
Cultivating Your Service Culture
This article originally appeared in BoardRoom Magazine in 2014. Customer service means different things to everyone. Wikipedia defines customer service as “The provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.” Businessdictionary.com defines it as “All interactions between a customer and a product provider at the time of sale, and thereafter.” But what does this mean in the club business? My general rule of thumb is to first realize that very often our cu
The Millennial March Towards the Future of Private Clubs
While this year’s hot topic at the 2017 CMAA World Conference was focused on the “member experience”, last year there was a lot of talk about Millennials—and their importance to the world of private clubs has not diminished. In the January/February issue of Golf Inc., Mike Stetz's piece “Millennials do like clubs” echoed many of the same trends and preferences that we have seen with this generation. “Millennials, numbering nearly 80 million in the United States, are the most
ALERT: TX Federal Judge Halts Overtime Rule
On Tuesday November 22, a judge in Texas ruled that the federal Department of Labor's new Overtime Rule--that raised the salary threshold under which workers would be eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 annually to $47,476--should be halted in its implementation. According to the National Club Association, "The ruling means that the rule WILL NOT go into effect on December 1, 2016 and that all clubs may keep their employees at their current salary and schedule without the
