A rendering tells members what a project will look like. It doesn’t explain how leadership decided the project should happen in the first place.
That question surfaced repeatedly during a recent webinar with Matthew Linderman, CCM, ECM, President, COO and General Manager of Boca West Country Club, and Frederick D. Fung, CEO and General Manager of Bonita Bay Club. Both clubs are undertaking major capital projects, but the discussion kept returning to what happened before the projects reached the membership.
At Boca West, Linderman relies on an annual risk assessment and a rolling 10-year master plan, both of which are updated regularly as facilities age, member usage changes, and new priorities emerge. The documents create a framework for evaluating which ideas move forward, which ones wait, and why.
Bonita Bay follows a different process. Before members approved the club’s $110 million clubhouse project, leadership worked through strategic planning, member surveys, focus groups, facilities planning, a straw poll, and extensive member communication before the formal vote. Each step informed the next.
Those planning tools prompted a different set of questions. How does a club decide one project belongs on the capital plan while another waits? How do leadership teams handle members who oppose major investments? How much influence should department heads have over the spaces they will eventually manage?
Linderman and Fung answered those questions differently, but there was a common thread. Neither described capital planning as something that begins when a building reaches the end of its useful life. Both described it as an ongoing management responsibility that evolves as the club evolves.
