As club managers, you have a responsibility to do some “spinning” as part of your job, the promote your club and its activities in the best possible light.
Our Recreation & Fitness feature in this issue (“A New Spin on Fitness,”) notes that group classes for “spinning” (riding stationary bikes) have become one of the most popular activities at club and resort properties across the country.
In my job, I run into another form of “spinning” many times every day that I usually don’t find to be nearly as much fun. It comes from public relations people who want to get coverage for their clients in Club & Resort Business. So they call me or send me e-mails, to “spin” why what their client has done, or has to sell, is so important and would be worth giving space to in our magazine or on our website.
I understand that these people are just trying to do their own jobs—and that in many cases, they do represent companies and clients that have information that would be valuable for us to pass on to you, the reader (their ultimate customer). There are some very good PR professionals who take the time to get to know our publication and save their “spin” for things that are really on target, and I am always happy to hear from them because they help me do my job better and provide you with the information you need and want. Unfortunately, there are also far too many who don’t have a clue about what my job, or yours, is all about, and end up just wasting everyone’s time and their clients’ money.
As club managers, you also have a responsibility to do some “spinning” as part of your job, to promote your club and its activities in the best possible light, both to your members and guests, and to the community at large. But here, too, you need to take the time to learn how to spin in a way that works out well for everyone and will promote, rather than damage, the health of your property and its reputation.
I recently got an interesting article sent to me (yes, this was effective spinning) by someone who used to work in television and is now a consultant who helps clubs learn how to use the media to their best advantage. He provided some good tips for how to break through the inner workings (or in same cases, lack of working) among reporters and TV stations, so you can then get them to provide valuable exposure for your club—usually at no cost at all, other than maybe free golf or lunch.
I don’t have the space to include the article here or elsewhere in this issue (his spinning wasn’t that effective). But if you’d like to read it, follow the link above.
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