A remarkable spirit of cooperation lies behind the success of many of the events and operating approaches highlighted in this year’s Ideas issue.
The recurring theme that runs through the batch of innovative concepts captured in this, our Sixth Annual Ideas Issue, is how everyone’s getting into the act.
There’s a remarkable spirit of coordination, and cooperation, that lies behind the success of many of the events and operating approaches that we highlight in the following pages.
Sometimes it involves staff from one club working with staff from another—see the items on page 20 about the friendly competition among club chefs in the Charlotte area that yields a mutual benefit for all of their members, and about how Chevy Chase Club has worked out reciprocal staff-sharing arrangements with other local clubs, to serve each other’s holiday parties. We didn’t have room with the Chevy Chase item to also include that the clubs involved with that arrangement now “work in a rotation,” according to Chevy Chase Assistant Manager Brent Wischon, “not only during the holiday season, but the entire year, to assist each other in club functions whenever assistance is needed.”
Then, furthering the spirit of sharing even more, Wischon adds, “we encourage other clubs to borrow [this idea].”
In the area of intra-staff cooperation, there’s also more behind our item on pg. 45 about how Ibis Golf and Country Club in Florida built unique grass tennis courts on its golf driving range. “Implementing this idea was fun and easy, once we received the ‘buy in’ from our golf and food-and-beverage departments,” reports Chuck Gill, the club’s Director of Tennis. “Our Golf Course Maintenance department worked for three weeks preparing the area for the tennis courts. Members were very pleased with the efforts and awesome teamwork between the departments.”
Members themselves are also pitching in to help with the ideas process, as with the family-oriented ad hoc events committees (made up of both parents and kids) that help Palo Alto Hills Golf & Country Club run its innovative programs (see pg. 40).
Then there’s what’s perhaps the most remarkable development of all—members who are also owners willingly becoming part of the club workforce to not only help execute ideas, but perform basic operational functions (see “Members at Timberlake CC Buy and Maintain the Club,” pg. 12).
In fact, if you’re a club manager who’s really looking for ideas that can make life a lot easier for you and your staff, I highly recommend that you read the entire New York Times article from which our news item was drawn (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/sports/golf/members-dig-in-to-preserve-struggling-golf-clubs.html?_r=1&ref=billpennington). It’s chock-full of amazing concepts for ways to get members to pitch in and help with all that’s involved in managing and maintaining a club property.
Such notions would have been inconceivable just a few years ago, but there’s nothing like a good recessionary scare to bring us all closer together.
Joe Barks, Editor
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