Held at the University Club of Chicago on October 5–6, the Summit brought together leaders in membership, marketing, and communications from more than 30 clubs across the country.
The agenda featured education sessions on branding, social media, email campaigns, and more, along with roundtable discussions that gave attendees time to compare approaches, discuss shared challenges, and exchange ideas for their own clubs and memberships.
Here’s a snapshot of what the speakers covered in each session.
Beyond the Logo: Building a Distinctive Club Brand by Melissa Hansen, Director of Membership and Marketing, The Club at Olde Cypress
Hansen kicked off the Summit with a session on defining a club’s identity and turning it into a consistent brand experience for members.
“The Club at Olde Cypress is a fun club,” she says. “We try to show that in everything we do.”
Understanding that identity, Hansen explains, also helps a club attract the members who are the right fit. To illustrate the point, she invited Ellie McKay, Director of Membership and Marketing at Collier’s Reserve Country Club in Naples, Fla., to the stage. The two clubs may look similar on paper, but the experiences they deliver are distinctly different.
If The Club at Olde Cypress were a person, Hansen says, she would order a spicy margarita with an extra floater at the bar. She loves big, outrageous events and a 10-piece band playing the latest hits. She knows everyone in the room, and if she doesn’t, she will by the end of the night.
“That’s the vibe of Miss Cypress—a Kelly Ripa vibe,” she says.
McKay paints a very different picture of “Miss Collier’s Reserve.” She loves golf in a natural, Audubon setting, appreciates fine wine and dining, and travels the world. She is sophisticated and polished, with an understated elegance that feels personal rather than showy.
“I would describe her as a Diane Keaton kind of vibe,” says McKay.
That brand clarity gives both clubs a framework for making decisions. Hansen and McKay know the members their clubs are designed to attract, the events and experiences that will resonate with them, and the role staff plays in bringing that identity to life.
The Modern Member Experience: Elevating Every Touchpoint moderated by Hansen with panelists Liz Markel, Membership Manager, University Club of Chicago and Hillary Wiedemann, Senior Membership Manager, University Club of Chicago
Markel and Wiedemann took attendees inside the University Club of Chicago’s onboarding process and shared how the club works to integrate new members into its culture after they join.
“We’ve developed a robust two-year onboarding process with touchpoints all the way through,” says Markel.
One of those touchpoints is a “Refresher Tour” after a member officially joins. Their first tour happened while they were still a prospective member, and Markel and Wiedemann acknowledge that the University Club of Chicago was likely not the only club they toured during that time. The second visit gives new members an opportunity to see the club through a different lens and better understand the full range of amenities available to them.
The club also hosts quarterly dinners for new members, complete with curated seating charts. Markel builds each table based on members’ interests, demographics and backgrounds, intentionally placing people together who may have something in common and creating an early opportunity for connection.
The Club Industry’s Identity Crisis by Bonnie Scoggins, Chief Marketing Officer, Concert Golf Partners
Scoggins focused her session on the importance of knowing who you are as a club and making sure that identity carries through every interaction with members and prospects.
“Brand is not only what marketing says—it is what the organization constantly does,” she says.
She walked attendees through how a brand holds together across the member journey, even as expectations change. That requires consistency across every channel, including social media, the website, sales, email, paid advertising and the member experience itself.
“When someone sees your social media ad and they go to your website, is it the same experience or is it disjointed?” she asks attendees.
When the language, tone or overall feel changes from one touchpoint to the next, the club’s identity becomes less clear. Scoggins emphasizes that a strong brand should be recognizable wherever someone encounters the club, from the first ad they see to the experience they have once they become a member.
3 Email Campaigns Every Club Should Already Be Running by Danita Osborn, Director of Membership and Marketing, Shadow Wood Country Club
Osborn’s session centered on a simple premise. If current and prospective members aren’t opening your emails, it doesn’t matter how good the message is.
She shared strategies for writing subject lines that earn attention, using insider language to create a more human connection and making the most of the first communication a prospect receives from the club.
Osborn also emphasized the value of delivering a message in multiple formats. She shared data showing that communicating the same message in two formats can generate a 26% open rate. Expanding that message across four formats can increase the open rate to 69%.
“Use visuals in your emails because visuals are prospective members’ first view of your club,” she says. “It helps them envision themselves as members.”
The Connected Club: Where Technology Meets the Member Experience moderated by Hansen with panelists Lindsey Stella, CCR, Senior Customer Success Manager, Clubessential and Gayle Mortimer, Director of Membership Development, The Loxahatchee Club
Mortimer and Stella explored the growing role technology plays in the member experience and how clubs can keep pace as expectations continue to evolve.
“Pre-COVID, clubs had tech at an arm’s length,” says Stella. “COVID pushed that because it was the only way to communicate with members. Members have now come to expect these technological updates.”
That evolution now includes AI, particularly as more people use AI-powered search tools to research clubs and gather information.
Mortimer says that makes keeping a club’s website current increasingly important. If information on a website has not been updated within a year, she says, AI tools may be less likely to use it when generating answers.
The Social Standard: A Social Media Workshop by Emory Patton, Director of Membership & Marketing, The Standard Club
Patton took attendees inside The Standard Club’s social media strategy, including how she uses separate public and private Instagram accounts to serve different audiences and purposes.
“Our public account is the front door of the club with curated, brand-focused and aspirational content geared toward prospective members and community,” she says. “The private Instagram is the living room. It features immediate, candid and member-focused posts that show the day-to-day club life.”
For clubs developing their own social media strategy, Patton encourages them to start by understanding three things. Know your resources, know your brand and know your capacity. Those factors should determine where a club shows up, what it shares and how much it can realistically sustain.
Scenes From Day One of the Engagement Summit
Day Two picked up where the first left off, with conversations about listening to members, managing disruption, building a recognizable brand and creating smarter systems behind the scenes.
What Clubs Keep Overcomplicating About Engagement by Melanie Halpert, Director of Membership Sales, Desert Mountain Club
Halpert explored different ways clubs can create meaningful opportunities to listen to and connect with members.
Surveys are an important part of that strategy, particularly as members increasingly compare their club experiences with the restaurants, resorts and entertainment venues they visit outside the club.
“A tired member doesn’t skip the survey because they have nothing to say,” she says. “They skip it because they don’t believe anything will change.”
That makes demonstrating what happens after feedback is collected just as important as asking for it. At Desert Mountain Club, one way members can be heard directly is through a monthly coffee with the CEO and a board member, which brings together a small group of 10 members for conversation.
Managing the Member Experience Through the Presidents Cup by Dave Schneider, PGA, CCM, General Manager/COO, Medinah (Ill.) Country Club and Casey Brozek, PGA Director of Golf, Medinah (Ill.) Country Club
Fresh off hosting the Presidents Cup, Schneider and Brozek shared how Medinah Country Club kept members at the center of the experience while one of golf’s biggest events took over the property.
That meant paying attention to details that could make an inherently disruptive event easier for members. With the club’s main gate inaccessible during the Presidents Cup, members parked farther away and were met by staff who shuttled them directly to the event check-in area.
The club also created experiences specifically for members, including a members-only Logo Reveal Party that gave them the first look at new Presidents Cup merchandise and an opportunity to purchase it at a discount.
“The first decision of the event was made by the members and every step after that kept them at the center,” says Schneider.
Branding Matters: Building an Identity Across the Club by Molly Carroll, Vice President of Communications & Marketing, Ocean Reef Club
Carroll used imagery from across Ocean Reef Club to show how the club’s brand comes to life throughout the property, from its private runway to the weights in the fitness center.
She shared how the club uses data to better understand how members feel about Ocean Reef, then translates those insights into a brand identity visible across the campus.
Carroll also highlighted the Ocean Reef Press, the club’s weekly newspaper, as an important expression of both the brand and members’ connection to the club. The publication averages 68 pages and remains the number one way members prefer to receive club news, she says.
Building The Mill Without Losing the Members by Ryan Kenny, CCM, CCE, GM/COO, Philadelphia Country Club and Renee Bickel, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Human Resources & Communications Director, Philadelphia Country Club
Kenny and Bickel took attendees inside the development of The Mill, sharing how Philadelphia Country Club managed construction disruptions, protected the member experience and responded when plans inevitably changed.
Kenny says communicating frequently and clearly about what the club knew helped build trust in both the project and the leadership team.
“How we handled the uncertainty was by naming what was known, giving the next update point and avoiding a date the team did not control,” says Kenny.
That approach helped the club navigate the disruption surrounding a major capital project while keeping members informed and engaged through the opening of its new $16 million second clubhouse.
The Membership Sales Blind Spots Clubs Can’t Afford to Ignore by Justin Kuehn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Hampton Golf
Kuehn led an interactive session focused on the behind-the-scenes systems and workflows that allow clubs to deliver a seamless member experience.
He challenged the idea that multitasking makes people more productive and encouraged attendees to distinguish meaningful progress from simply being busy.
“Distraction leads to the feeling of being busy,” he explains.
Kuehn also turned to the room to explore the CRM systems clubs are currently using and where automation can take repetitive work off employees’ plates, giving them more time to focus on work that requires their attention.
Scenes From Day Two of the Engagement Summit
Engagement Summit Roundtables
To close the 2026 Engagement Summit, Hansen led a series of roundtable discussions that grouped similar clubs together to tackle common challenges, compare approaches and share ideas.
Each table worked through a series of questions, including which events or programs had been particularly successful at their clubs and why. After discussing among themselves, groups shared their best ideas with the full room, giving attendees a final set of actionable takeaways to bring back to their own clubs.
The conversations capped two days of education, discussion and idea-sharing among club membership, marketing and leadership professionals.
The 2026 Engagement Summit was made possible with the support of Clubessential, Reliable Background Screening, KE Camps and ForeTees.
