What was especially noteworthy as we combed the possibilities for this year’s Ideas Issue were clubs’ descriptions of how their staffs sat down, took a deep breath, and collectively agreed, “We can find ways to beat this.”
When we prepared our annual Ideas Issue last June, we got a first taste of how clubs’ management teams, after the initial shock of shutdowns and restricted operations had worn off, were rebounding to dream up and implement creative new ways to continue to serve their memberships as they had before the onset of COVID-19.
At the end of 2020, our Top Innovators coverage provided a more substantial helping of examples of how club staffs were embracing the challenges posed by the pandemic to rethink many aspects of how they’d traditionally run their properties, and in the process were coming up with new concepts that not only helped them keep their clubs alive and active for the short term, but had proved to be worth retaining as permanent parts of their operating playbooks.
And now, for this year’s 15th annual Ideas Issue, included in the June 2021 C+RB (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/june-2021-issue-rulings-of-the-court-top-ranked-racquet-facilities/), we have a full smorgasbord of noteworthy new initiatives that were spawned out of necessity by last year’s upheaval, but will now be important parts of the way clubs look and function as the new normal returns. And what’s on display is spread across the full variety of operating departments, and is being offered to all segments of clubs’ memberships.
What was especially noteworthy, as we combed through the possibilities to include in this year’s collection of top ideas, was the fresh sense of enthusiasm that jumped through clubs’ descriptions of how they had developed exciting new events, venues and amenities as their staffs sat down, took a deep breath, and collectively agreed “We can find ways to beat this” after the pandemic had appeared at their front doors.
Here’s how Philadelphia Country Club’s Patrick Murphy described the thought process of the Gladwyne, Pa. club’s staff when coming up with a new concept that earned first-place honors in the Alternative Sports and Recreation category of this year’s Club Management Assocation of America Idea Fair:
“The closure of indoor dining was announced just as our weather turned wintry and cold,” Murphy wrote. “So our team was motivated to think creatively to develop a new winter-themed member experience [while] capitalizing on our prior COVID successes.
“We stopped dwelling on things we couldn’t control or ideas that seemed impossible to implement, and instead we asked ‘WHY NOT?’ ” Murphy continued. “Why not take an empty parking lot, not currently utilized because private dining was severely limited, and install an amenity that would provide our members wth safe outdoor social recreation and entertainment. Something that gets members of all ages excited to visit PCC.”
That “something” turned out to be a new skating amenity, using a synthetic rink that was set up in the parking lot and with an unused event space repurpposed to serve as a skate rental/warming room. And once it was established as a new member offering, a host of other ways to maximize its value—including with other events and member services that were thought to be casualties of the time—also presented themselves.
“The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and the usage truly universal, ranging from grandparents or parents enjoying a break with a child who had been learning remotely, to couples looking for an activity before dinner,” Murphy wrote. “[The rink] also provided a way for us to still host traditional member events like the father-daughter, by turning it into a night of skating. And it provided the opportunity to create new events and services, like private skating parties followed by a lunch, and hot chocolate and beverage stations.”
Other descriptions that we found of new ideas born from a determination not to be defeated by the pandemic even included exclamations of “Why hadn’t we done this before?!” But that was followed by noting that late was better than never, and that the new successes would now serve to help mark the pandemic as a time when new traditions were spawned, and not when disaster struck.
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