The Assistant General Manager from Medinah Country Club will be recognized as a co-winner of the 2018 “Rising Star” Award at the Annual Awards Dinner at the Nashville City Club on February 25, through the Excellence in Club Management Awards sponsored by the McMahon Group, Club & Resort Business and the National Club Association.
McMahon Group, Inc., the St. Louis-based consulting firm, and Club & Resort Business have announced the 2018 recipients of the Excellence in Club Management (ECM) Awards, established in 1997 by the McMahon Group and co-sponsored since 2005 by C&RB. For the 2018 awards, the National Club Association has also become an ECM sponsor.
The annual awards are selected through nominations submitted on behalf of qualified candidates by other parties. Award recipients are selected solely on the basis of their achievements at the club they currently manage; “lifetime achievements” are not considered.
A Selection Committee comprised of a peer group of club managers conducts the judging for the ECM Awards; the McMahon Group, C&RB and the National Club Association are not involved in the selection of the winners.
The Selection Committee for the 2018 Awards was chaired by Jeffrey Kreafle, CCM, General Manager/COO of Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Md.. A full listing of judges, in addition to information on past winners and on how to nominate candidates for future years’ awards, can be found at the special website for the ECM Awards, www.clubmanageraward.com.
All of the winners will be honored at the Excellence in Club Management Awards Dinner at the Nashville (Tenn.) City Club on February 25, in conjunction with the 2018 World Conference of the Club Management Association of America. This year’s Awards Dinner will be sponsored by Denehy Club Thinking Partners, ForeTees LLC, C. Mondavi & Family, Preferred Club and Yamaha Golf Car.
Individual award ceremonies will also be held at the winners’ respective clubs throughout 2019, and in-depth articles detailing the achievements that led to the selection of the winners will appear in issues of C&RB throughout the year.
Here is a summary of the nomination that earned ECM recognition for Mark Jablonski.
2018 Rising Star Award
Mark Jablonski, CFBE, CSW, ECM
Assistant General Manager
Medinah Country Club
Medinah, Ill.
It’s not easy to ascend as a “rising star” when you move to a large, well-established club with many long-term employees. But that’s the situation that was presented to Mark Jablonski after he came to Medinah CC in 2015.
“In season, Mark leads a team [in his position as Assistant General Manager] of over 250 associates from 15 departments,” wrote Robert Sereci, CCM, Medinah’s General Manager/COO, in nominating Jablonski for “Rising Star” recognition. “In addition, he also has the largest number of tenured employees, which for many new managers could be a great challenge.”
Immediately upon starting at Medinah, however, Jablonski “focused on developing relationships with members and staff,” Sereci said. Those efforts “ultimately earned him the respect and trust” that allowed Jablonski to work with Sereci and others on the club’s management team to bring about impressive changes at Medinah, as described in C&RB’s August 2017 cover feature (“Medinah CC’s Surprising New Moves”).
“Decreasing employee turnover [and] increasing revenues by double-digits are just a few examples” of how Jablonski has contributed to Medinah’s resurgence, Sereci said. “His continous improvement in member service has also yielded positive results.”
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