This year’s batch of Ideas presentsa great indication that the possibilities of what can now be done in a club setting are more limitless than ever.

Since we published the first “Ideas Issue” in 2007, our annual collection of what’s caught our attention as some of the most inventive and effective concepts implemented by clubs each year has also served as a pretty good barometer of the ups-and-downs, and significant trend shifts, that we’ve seen in the industry over the past seven years.

The Ideas Issues that we produced at the end of the previous decade, when the recession had its strongest grip on the business, showed a much greater emphasis on how management teams were working hard to find new ways to tighten operations, maintain staff morale, and most of all sustain the basic appeal, for every possible member and guest, of belonging to and using clubs.

But thankfully, in each of the past few years our Ideas Issues have increasingly reflected less of a crisis orientation and more of a return to an upbeat and spirited approach to the business. This year in particular, the case histories in the following pages represent some of the most imaginative and ambitious events—such as pumpkin smashing and rooftop dining —we’ve ever chronicled. We’re also highlighting concepts aimed at very specific segments—everything from rambunctious boys to young adults  to mothers and sons .
We’re also reporting on some especially inventive ways to provide special new services  and create promising new revenue streams (home landscaping and vehicle servicing. And, we have stories of notable new ways in which clubs are making contributions to the industry and their communities .

What I really love about this year’s Ideas collection are the stories behind how many of the successful concepts were hatched—such as how The Columbia Club’s General Manager, Jim Rentschler, got sick of seeing members carry coffee cups from a chain store across the street into his club and found a great way to beat the chain at its own game—and even got a member to help fund the club’s new café, in exchange for free coffee for life. And how Vincent Tracy, General Manager/COO of Town and Country Club, responded to negative and inaccurate press coverage by finding a way to distinguish his club as the first to be certified as a Green Restaurant operation.

To me, this year’s batch of Ideas presents a great indication that the industry has moved well beyond survival mode and entered an exciting new phase where the possibilities of what can now be done in a club setting are more limitless than ever—and that great ideas are once again percolating from a full range of enthusiastic sources that includes all staff levels, as well as members and suppliers.

The takeaway from this year’s issue, then, should be that we’re now immersed in an era of Ideas incubation where really nothing is too far-fetched, and pretty much everything’s worth thinking about and trying. As a result, I’m already eager to start the search for what we’ll have to report on next year at this time, in Ideas Issue #8.