THE - Club Leaders Forum...13.5 Million Expansion: the University Club of Chicago. 6-7. The Union League Club of Chicago Shares their Art Collection. 18-19. Critical Management Practices

SPRING / SUMMER 2019

THE

CLUB SPOTLIGHTRoyal Palm Yacht & Country Club

10-11

WELLNESS

Wellness, Defined at The Fort Worth Club 34-35

The Professional Approach to Fitness: Technogym 36-37

FOOD & BEVERAGE

What is Remarkable Service? 20

The Benefits of Leaving your Desk for Lunch

30

What and Where is the Real Wagyu Beef?

46

Creating a Sustainable Amenity in Food & Beverage

32-33

LIFESTYLE

The Becker JetVan: Drive in First Class54

The Rise of Flight Sharing Apps

48-49

Dare to Wear Swimwear 52-53

Watches Make a Statement47

Promoting Excellence in Private Club Leadership

Club Leaders Forum Advisory Board Spotlight: Anglin, Clarke and Julien22-24

TOP GUNS Marisu Jimenez, Peter Jackman and Chuck Nelson12-16

5 TED Talks Worth Watching56

The Importance of Digitally Archiving Your Club's Documents

8-9

The Gin Resurgence44-45

Convert Your Website into a SOCIAL HUB 40-41

INDUSTRY

Introducing Joe Trauger of the NCA 4-5

$13.5 Million Expansion: the University Club of Chicago 6-7

The Union League Club of Chicago Shares their Art Collection 18-19

Critical Management Practices for Private Clubs 26-27

Hillcrest Country Club's Successful Summer Kids Camp 28-29

2 Club Leaders Forum | Spring/Summer 2019

Message from the Executive DirectorWelcome to the Spring/Summer 2019 edition of The FORUM, providing Relevant, Informative and Creative content to the Industry. Thanks to all of our Contributors, Subscribers and Platinum Partners for all that you do.

We appreciate the feedback of our readers and we strive to bring you more Club-related articles and hot topics impacting Private Clubs. In this issue, we tailor articles for industry Leaders including General Manager and Club Spotlights, Luxury and Lifestyle, Bespoke trends, Technology, Legal Issues, Food & Beverage and more.

This past February, the annual CMAA World Conference and Business Expo was held in Nashville, Tennessee, also the location for the Club Leaders Forum

Excellence in Platinum Clubs Celebration. This annual event was attended by more than 150 guests including over 125 Platinum Club Managers and has become the must-attend event of the CMAA week.

Club Leaders Forum is excited to hold its third annual Platinum Club Leaders Forum in September. Referred to as the "Un-Conference" event of the year, licensed Platinum Club Managers will convene in The Woodlands, Texas to collaborate and discuss the hottest topics and issues facing the Private Club industry today. This exclusive and acclaimed event will be conducted by a professional facilitator who assists in keeping the discussions moving, poignant and documented.

Our sights are also set on the 2020-21 Platinum Clubs® of the World election this coming Fall. Utilizing the Platinum Clubs of the World Six Selection Criteria, as approved by the Advisory Board, the Panel of international industry experts and connoisseurs will cast their confidential votes in September. New for this year, 50 Yacht Clubs will be voted into the Platinum Clubs of the World family.

The Staff and the Club Leaders Forum Advisory Board are very proud to recognize and serve the Platinum Clubs of America and the World. Equally, CLF is committed to supporting the Leaders of the entire Private Club industry by providing interesting and valuable content in The FORUM, Private Club Assessments and Strategic Planning services. Please enjoy this issue of The FORUM and contact me if you have suggestions or submissions for future articles, or if we can be of service.

On behalf of Club Leaders Forum, thank you, we believe you will find this issue interesting and informative and as always, please give us your feedback.

All the best,

Dennis W. BurnsExecutive Director

Spring/Summer 2019 | Club Leaders Forum 3

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Advocating for the Community of Private ClubsBy JOE TRAUGER, Vice President of Government Relations, National Club Association

A s the National Club Association’s (NCA) new vice president of government relations, it’s a pleasure to appear in The FORUM for the first time.

While new to NCA, my involvement with the private club community stretches back for quite some time and I am currently in my fifth year on the board of directors of Mount Vernon Country Club (MVCC) in Alexandria, Virginia. MVCC has meant so much to me and my family over the years that I felt compelled to serve its membership on the board and I was humbled to have been elected president for 2019. I began my career in Washington working on Capitol Hill for nearly 10 years, four of which were in House Leadership. After leaving the Hill I became an advocate for a number of industries, primarily in the manufacturing and health care space. In April, I joined the NCA staff and am fortunate to be able to combine what I do professionally with the private club community I love.

From its founding, private clubs have been woven into the fabric of our country. While not explicitly written within the First Amendment, the United States Supreme Court decided in Roberts v. United States Jaycees that the Amendment implicitly ensures a “corresponding right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious and cultural ends.” More commonly known and understood, the First Amendment protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It’s the guarantee that clubs, associations, unions and other organizations, as well as individuals, have the right to advocate and lobby for or against things we believe are important. The National Club Association is the advocate for private clubs in Washington and the more members and voices we have, the stronger we are in advocating for the social, economic, educational and cultural ends that bond us all as a community of private clubs.

The First Amendment protects “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the

Government for a redress of grievances.”

As leaders in your field, you know there are many issues that affect private clubs and it’s important for policymakers in Washington and the states to know and understand the effect current or proposed laws and regulations have on our community.


While the term lobbying has taken on a negative connotation over the years—some of it deserved, much of it not—it is primarily an effort to inform legislators, regulators and administrators about the impact the actions they’ve taken or propose to take have on our community. NCA is engaged on issues across the spectrum such as health care, labor, workforce, taxes, environment and immigration. As a board member and president of Mount Vernon Country Club, I see firsthand how all these issues affect the health and vitality of clubs.

Some recent developments in Washington have been positive, such as the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor’s decision to release an additional 30,000 H-2B visas that will allow businesses to hire much-needed seasonal labor. Additionally, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Defense proposed a revised “Waters of the United States (WO-TUS)” rule to replace the one issued during the Obama Administration. NCA recently joined with other golf organizations to file comments with the EPA and DOD. The comments were generally supportive of the new rule and highlighted some areas important to clubs, such as ensuring that artificial, ornamental, irrigation and stormwater lakes and ponds were not covered.

On the tax front, NCA has been working with organizations in Maryland and New York to fend off legislation that would change the property tax treatment of golf courses and increase annual assessments by anywhere from four to 10 times their current amounts. Clearly, such dramatic increases would threaten the existence of a significant number of clubs and force others to scramble to make up the difference.

NCA wants to be engaged in the issues that matter to you. I invite you to contact me at [email protected] or (202) 822-9822 to share your concerns—on the national, state and local levels. Together, the private club community can make a difference. ◘

mailto:trauger%40nationalclub.org?subject=The%20FORUM


Expanding Club Traditions

IN SEPTEMBER 2017, the University Club of Chicago unveiled a $13.5 million expansion

that was two years in the making. The project spanned the seventh and eighth floors of its neighboring building, 30 S. Michigan Avenue, and added nearly 15,000 square feet to the Clubhouse.

“This is the most significant project the Club has undergone since the Clubhouse’s construction in 1909,” said General Manager John Spidalette.

“The purpose of the design for the new space was to integrate the original Clubhouse with a new, mod-ern, fresh take on it but in a way that feels like it’s always existed,” said Club President Steffanie Garrett.

The expansion drew from member survey results that identified a need for casual spaces to work remotely, network and entertain. The expansion included not only new dining facilities but also an updated dress code policy, which welcomes denim in the new spaces.

“We designed the expansion to meet the ever-evolving needs of our mem-bers,” said Executive Chef Mark Baker who led the project. “We aimed to create laid back social spaces with the exceptional food and service we’re known for.”

On the seventh floor, the aptly named Living Room has quickly become the new social center of the Club. Open early for coffee service and late for cocktails, members can work on their lap-tops, grab a bite with friends or colleagues, take a call, or simply kick back on one of the oversized sofas. The bar and lounge also frequently hosts viewing parties with five large screen TVs.


The Club’s Literature & Arts Committee has partnered with the Rockford Art Museum to bring rotating art exhibitions to the Living Room, furthering the Club’s promotion of the arts and adding to the vibrancy of the space.

Also on the seventh floor, the Madison Room provides 2,600 square feet of private event space. Barrel-vaulted ceilings, crys-tal halo chandeliers and custom finishes adorn this contemporary room, which is already in high demand.

On the eighth floor, the Parliament offers year-round dining in a casual yet upscale setting. The stunning 7,000 square foot rooftop restaurant boasts a private dining room and two terraces, one with sweeping views of Millennium Park, the Art Institute and Lake Michigan. Chef Baker’s innovative cuisine is available for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.

“We’ve been able to change the Club in a way that meets the current and future needs of the membership as evidenced by our beautiful new 30 South Expansion,” said John Spi-dalette. “Members are voting with their feet and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the results.” ◘


The Importance of Digitally Archiving Your Club’s Documents and Artifactsby LARRY HASAK, Creative Director and Founder, Legendary Publishing & Media Group

The loss of artifacts in the recent tragedy at Notre-Dame Cathedral is a reminder to safeguard your club’s history

ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 18, 2018, tragedy came to Western Golf and Country Club in

Redford Township, Michigan. A kitchen fire was noticed when golf course workers arrived early that fateful day and by 9 a.m., the 92-year old clubhouse was a total loss.

While the membership and management can rally to rebuild their beloved club, the artifacts and historic documents are now lost forever.

"It's a neat club. Very close-knit. It's devastating. We'll replace the building, but it's the memories…" said Club Vice President Andy Arena.

Over the course of publishing 25 golf club history books, I have heard about many tragedies and close calls:

• In 1951 tragedy struck the Scioto Country Club club-house when a fire started during the evening of Decem-ber 16. Twelve members were having dinner at the time, and while they and club staff made it out safely, historical records of the Donald Ross-designed course where Jack Nicklaus learned to play golf, were destroyed. The New York Times reported that “Firemen were handicapped during the fire due to cold weather and frozen hydrants.” Reports from that time cite damages costing up to $150,000. That would be $1,400,000 worth of damage in present day.

• The Whitney Warren-designed Beaux Arts clubhouse at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island is one of the most classic structures in golf. Visible from every hole, the clubhouse is perched up on a hill and serves as a beacon for golfers as they play the storied course that

hosted the first U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open. During its extensive renovation in 2006, burn marks were found on exposed walls that were caused by faulty electrical. Thankfully, the smoldering never took hold, but imagine the implications of the loss of one of the USGA’s five founding clubs.

• Last April, National Golf Links in Southhampton, New York had a scare when a fire broke out over the outdoor eating area that’s referred to as the “Birdcage” during roof repair. The main gate was too narrow for fire trucks, so 100 fire fighters transported water up a hill to the clubhouse. Luckily, most of the club’s historical docu-ments reside on the other end of the clubhouse and were not damaged by smoke or water, which can be as devas-tating to art and historical documents as fire.

As the owner of a publishing company specializing in golf club history books, I strongly encourage club managers to use the time during book preparation to properly archive club photos, documents and artifacts. While many clubs have archived their club histories, the majority have not. This pre-publication time is a great opportunity to assess, review and catalog the


visual history of your club, as well as purchase the proper archival storage boxes, envelopes and acetates to protect your club history.

As a result of this pre-publication step, Legendary Publishing & Media Group has developed an expertise in digitally archiving records, artwork

and photographs for golf clubs. Whether or not your short- or long-term plan is to publish a book about your club, having your history digitally archived will make sure that those re-cords can be accessed well into the future. Those that have taken advantage of our service include: Eastward Ho!, Scioto Country Club, The Links Club, Wilshire Country Club and Saucon Valley Country Club. LPMG recently finished major digitization of the archives for Garden City Golf Club and The Everglades Club in Palm Beach.

Here’s how digital archiving works:

• All archiving is done at the club at your convenience— no item is ever removed from the clubhouse.

• Proper equipment is brought to the club and a tempo-

rary photo studio is set up. Images are captured with a high-resolution camera suspended perpendicularly and proper lighting set for the best quality representation of the item.

• With proper club organization, it is possible to digitize several hundred artifacts a day.

• In addition to records and photos, valuable art collections can be digitized in museum-reproduction quality.

• The digital images are named and filed and returned the you on several duplicated portable hard drives. Retrieval of the images is simple and fast.

The loss of the clubhouse at Redford broke the hearts of its membership. A digital archive stored on a hard drive kept in a fireproof safety box or on the “Cloud” could have restored the artwork and history on the walls of its new clubhouse. Whether preparing for a club history book or not, digitizing your club’s history is a must in today’s digital world. ◘

Larry Hasak can be emailed at [email protected].


Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club

CLUB SPOTLIGHTA Platinum Club of America 2019-2020

AS ROYAL PALM YACHT & COUNTRY CLUB celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, they are proud to honor their history and traditions while keeping a keen eye on the future. That future began in November 2016, when the Club opened its new Yacht Club and Marina, as part of their campus-wide Club Enhancement Project. The project has not only delivered outstanding new facilities but has helped the Club to refine their focus on the varying needs of a diverse membership. General Manager, Robin Blankhorst, said at the in-ception of the project that “the Club was preparing for decades to come” with facilities, services and amenities designed to meet the needs and expectations of both current and future generations of Members.

One of the highlights of the new clubhouse is a fine dining venue named “1959”, honoring the year the Club was established. This new tradition in dining offers an updated experience reminiscent of days gone by. Members enjoy tableside preparations, sommelier

suggested wine selections (recognized for excellence by the CMAA International Wine Society), and finely dressed tables. While casual dining remains a nightly favorite, the club was sensitive to the needs of tenured Members looking for a traditional dining atmosphere and recognized the trend among all ages for upscale cuisine, and 1959 delivers to all.


Adjacent to the lobby at the formal entrance to clubhouse, the sense of arrival and refinement elevates the entire experience.

At the other end of the spectrum, and at the other end of the clubhouse (thanks to wise logistical planning), is the Kids’ Club. Open several nights each week, this imaginative space offers something distinctly differ-ent for the Club’s youth, or Junior Palmers as they are affectionately known. Accessed via the entrance to Harbor Grille, the Club’s waterfront casual dining, the Kids’ Club is a kids-only fun zone for children ages 3-12, overseen by counselors. Mom and Dad can enjoy some time alone in the dining room while children are encouraged to express their creativity with arts and crafts, challenge their minds with the nightly riddle, or just have fun with video games and interactive activities. This engaging environment provides a great alternative for the youngest members at the Club.

Just outside is a new multi-purpose sports court designed for all ages, but especially with teens and tweens in mind. Basketball, soccer, and a variety of net games, including pickleball, offer friendly group competition or a quick game of one-on-one. Youth Activities Coordinator Chelsea Cohen jumped at the chance to help keep the kids active and fit and has instituted Counselors vs Kids tournaments and other fun activities on the court. Royal

Palm has responded to the growing youth population at the Club by developing diverse activities to engage their Members, no matter what their age.

On the Club’s website, they refer to Royal Palm as a “Club for a Lifetime.” It is a tagline born from the recognition of the many multi-generational families who enjoy Membership at the Club and continues to be a credo for the vision and future. Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club has successfully managed the merging of changing lifestyles, varied expectations and a myriad of uses to maintain a culture hallmarked by camaraderie and enjoyment. It is a testament not only to the leadership of the Club, but particularly to the Members, who embrace their traditions, but understand and appreciate the benefits of a dynamic environment enriched by varied interests. ◘


Private Club Top GunsIn each issue of The FORUM, some of the industry's most respected Managers and Leaders are profiled. Questions about the industry, personal goals and career influences makes Top Guns a fascinating read, with their variety of wonderful insights and stories. This issue's Top Guns are Peter Jackman of the Terminal City Club, Marisu Jimenez from The Athenaeum and Chuck Nelson from the Washington Athletic Club.

Who has had the most influence on your club career and why?

JACKMAN: When I started at Terminal City Club, I was brand new in the club industry. I had been a member for years, but my professional experience was in very different industries. So, I would say that the team I worked with for my first few years at TCC has definitely had a significant influence on my club career. They had to share their experience with me - which they did willingly - and then be patient with me when I sometimes chose a different approach. My learning curve was steep, so I relied on the people around me to help me see all the angles of problems and solutions. There is no question that they helped shape my approach to the club industry.

JIMENEZ: I have been in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years. In the course of my career, there have been several mentors who have ignited my passion for being in this industry. In hospitality school, I admired numerous professors because of their relentless expectations of only the best from their students. They gave me the foundation, aspiration and inspiration to always be the best, especially in stressful situations. This carried into my hotel career, in which I worked alongside many colleagues, peers and managers who kept raising the bar for everyone on the team to avoid complacency. Fortunately, the club industry has also provided me numerous mentors with an excellent work ethic. The indomitable spirits of my teachers and mentors have set the exceptional standards for which I always aim.

NELSON: I was fortunate to spend time with and come into this role following the retirement of a long-tenured, success-ful predecessor, Jim Johnson. He set a powerful example of commitment to excellence and a sincere, deep caring for the club, it's members and, very importantly, our team members. That's a strong foundational premise from which to build

a club/hospitality career. Our club also has an experienced, talented executive team. I think we learn from and teach each other every day.

What sparked you to become a member of the club industry?

JACKMAN: I was a member of TCC already, and I really enjoyed the facilities and everything the club offered to my family and me. A member of the TCC management team, who was also a former colleague of mine, let me know that the club was looking for a new GM and thought I would be a great fit. In the next club newsletter, I saw the President's letter outlining where the Board saw the club going, and it really appealed to me, so I decided to apply. It was a long process and I'm glad it ended the way it did.

JIMENEZ: Service. I started out as a pre-med student, to be of service to humankind. Those lofty dreams were derailed and, instead, I found myself in the hospitality industry. As a student, I told my parents (who were intent on having a doctor in the family) that instead of taking care of sickbeds, I was going to shift courses and manage hotel beds. My career path is a long story, but I don't regret a minute of it. After many years in the hospitality industry, I have come to acknowledge that this is my true calling. It's all about making dreams come to reality, seeing a simple smile, or witnessing someone's face light up when making a gesture as modest as handing them a drink or as ambitious as making a couple's wedding visions come to fruition.

NELSON: Over the years I have been a member of multiple clubs, golf and city, including the WAC. I have always had a great appreciation of the community that clubs provide, the high standards that they generally promote and the wonder-ful enrichment they provide to people's lives. When I was


PETER JACKMANTerminal City Club, Vancouver, Canada

To many of his colleagues and friends, Peter Jackman stands out as a unique

connector—an outgoing individual with an entrepreneurial approach and a track record of growth and business

development. Peter has worked with the 126-year-old Terminal City Club for

five years. He was a member of TCC for several years before becoming

its General Manager, ensuring he'd continue its legacy of providing a truly

member-centric club experience.

After studying economics and marketing at Concordia and McGill Universities in Montreal, Peter began his career path in Calgary,

working on communications for an acquisitions company. He moved to Vancouver in 1999 and has enthusiastically embraced both

business and community-based opportunities in the city. His career experience includes time with Vancouver Board of Trade, where

he contributed to the Board's successful bid for the 2005 American Chamber of Commerce Executive Award for the greatest increase in

revenue in North America.

More recently, Peter spent several rewarding years at Vancouver Foundation, responsible for business development and donor

relationships; working with individual families, corporations, and all three levels of government. During his tenure at Canada's largest

Community Foundation, Peter's team increased the total number of funds and assets under management by one third.

Throughout his career, Peter's passion and talent for networking have led him to participate in several community-based initiatives

and community Boards. He is the past Chair of both Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Downtown Vancouver Association. Also, Peter is a current board member of the Vancouver Fireworks Festival Society; the annual event

generates over $150 Million of annual economic activity.

approached to consider this role at the Washington Athletic Club, I was enthusiastic about the possibility. What a great way to make a living: we get to work in a clubhouse and make people happy. Obviously, there is a lot more to it than that, but that's a good start.

What is your crowning achievement in your club career to date?

JACKMAN: I have two items. Our team has grown every aspect of our business and membership at TCC by at least 25% over the last five years. Our 2019 member survey indi-cates over 96% of our members would refer someone to the club.

JIMENEZ: My greatest joy has been to build a well-performing team and to see some of our staff members get promotions within The Athenaeum or within the in-dustry. Receiving the Platinum Club des-ignation this year is clearly a testament to this. A wise mentor once told me that the greatest compliment a manager can have is when a subordinate is equipped, prepared and ready to replace you or to take the next step forward in their career.

NELSON: We feel good about the progress we have made to speed up the evolution of the WAC. Seattle is America's fastest growing city, largely younger, tech-oriented people moving in. We have adapted our programs and facilities to meet the needs of this population without overly irritating the more traditional member. We are having substantial success in growing our young adult membership.

How do you give back to the industry?

JACKMAN: A strong club industry breeds strong individual clubs. One of the best ways to achieve this is by being open about our policies and experiences and sharing those things with other clubs via CSCM/CMAA and the Platinum Clubs network. I'm al-ways willing to connect with others in the industry and share ideas and information

so that we can all grow individually and as an industry.

JIMENEZ: Mentoring senior and mid-level managers in The Athenaeum to become future club general managers or the best managers in their chosen field. I encourage them to achieve CCM status through continuing education.

NELSON: I am one of several WAC team members involved with CMAA Evergreen Chapter, some current executives and some wonderful emerging leaders. I support one of our VPs as the current President of the Chapter. I have been a speaker at national and international conferences.

continued on next page


What is the primary motivation that drives you to success?

JACKMAN: My wife says I have an innate desire to want to keep pushing things to be better, so that may explain a lot of it! I also see so many great ideas that other clubs are trying, and our team has been keen to try them out at our own club, in a way that works for us as a City Club. I find that encour-aging. Overall positive feedback from Members is also very motivating - although of course, we get our share of Member suggestions too that we listen to.

JIMENEZ: The satisfaction of a job well done, evident in emails or letters received from members. Here is a review from a member at our Easter brunch, where we had 1,500 members and guests who dined with us.

"We loved the idea of hiding some of the golden eggs in the colored eggs – much more fun because opening the eggs was a big surprise.

Everything was delicious and beautifully prepared – we especially loved the omelet station, fresh fruit, waffle station, fresh shrimp and chocolate chunks/pieces!

The Athenaeum is so beautifully decorated – the service staff is top-notch, the spring colored napkins, the lilies and the china and cutlery! The pianist was just fantastic – we all really enjoyed his playing and, of course, the Easter Bunny is excellent and always makes time for us to take pictures with him! "

NELSON: I strongly feel that I have a responsibility to be both a steward of what this great club has been for almost 90 years and also a driver of what it needs to be today and going forward. We owe greatness to the leaders of Seattle who built this wonderful place and to leave it in a healthy position for the management and membership who will ultimately have it after us. I tend to be very competitive and don't like not winning.

If you weren't a club manager what would you be?

MARISU JIMENEZThe Athenaeum, Pasadena, California

When Marisu migrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s, she had to start over and take a job as a front desk clerk at the Los Angeles Hilton, a property that has now been demolished. When she received her first promotion as a catering coordinator in this hotel, one of the managers pointedly informed her that everyone who had previously held her role had been fired. Marisu was dumbfounded. This encounter, however, gave her the determination and spirit to show everyone that she would be a mainstay because of her consistent work ethic.

Fast forward to October 2005, when The Athenaeum Update, the monthly newsletter of the The Athenaeum, announced that Marisu Jimenez was named general manager of the club after a nationwide search. Before being named general manager, she was the club's director of marketing, catering and special events. She previously held

management positions at the Doubletree, Hyatt and Hilton Hotels, and was part of the opening team for two hotel properties: the Manila Hotel, a historic 5-star hotel in the Philippines, and the first Crowne Plaza hotel, located at the Los Angeles airport.

Marisu earned her master's degree in business administration from Pepperdine University in April 2005 and her baccalaureate degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of the Philippines. She joined the CMAA in 2001 and attained CCM status in 2008. Marisu is currently the local area network (LAN) leader for the East Los Angeles sector of the Golden State Chapter, is on the Board of Caltech Y, was previously President of the Executive Women International of Los Angeles and trustee of Chandler School, a K-8 private school in Pasadena.

Outside of work, Marisu is most proud of her role as mom to her two grown children, Raymond, 28, and Francesca, 25. She and her husband, Ray, are empty nesters and have enjoyed their newly-found free time traveling to Asia and Europe.


JACKMAN: I've always been fascinated by the various ways that people find to develop and grow their business, regardless of what industry it is. So maybe something related to that interest... or else, maybe struggling to get a spot in the PGA TOUR. Like, really struggling.

JIMENEZ: A rock star. As a club manager, I perform every day. I would like to do what I am doing now, but to music and to a bigger audience. One problem though, I can't carry a tune!

NELSON: I have already been many things I wanted to be! Professional football player, building and running a professional PGA TOUR Champions tournament, radio/TV work in sports, leadership role here at the WAC…not sure what's left! I believe strongly in the power of culture and leadership, so would likely be teaching in those areas.

What is your favorite activity outside of your profession?

JACKMAN: At home in the winter, skiing in 12"+ of powder at Whistler. I love traveling, and recently spent 15 days in Italy with my family, which I loved. During all the in-between times, I enjoy playing squash, hockey and running.

JIMENEZ: Gardening is one of my passions. Long before there was a craze for succulents, I had a garden filled with various succulent varieties and species artfully arranged in pots and unlikely containers.

NELSON: I play a lot of golf….is there such a thing as too much? Our children are grown and out of the house, so favorite activity is whatever we do when we get them both back with us for a couple days.

What is the "next big thing" in Clubs?

JACKMAN: I believe that the biggest potential growth area is how members use technology in and/or concerning their clubs. Examples are using your phone as your GPS while playing golf and GEO tracker telling us when a member enters the club, ordering lunch on the beach, registering for events,

booking a table or court. There's so much more power in a phone app than just talking on it. 97% of TCC members would not want to have a bunch of people talking on phones in the club, but that doesn't mean there aren't great ways to harness the phones' power to improve their membership experience.

JIMENEZ: Sustainability and more technology, not just in clubs, but in the broader global community. We have to be responsible global citizens and do our part to reduce the carbon footprint of our clubs' operations and processes.

NELSON: Use of technology, both member-facing and inter-nal use. For members, more mobile functionality to apps and web, online access to club programs and video classes. Make it as easy as possible for members to access the club, put your club on their phone and in their pocket. For club management, gathering and activating useful data for predictive analytics,

CHUCK NELSON Washington Athletic Club,

Seattle Washington

Chuck Nelson is the President and CEO of the Washington Athletic

Club, a role he has held since February 2012. He took on the

position after 13 years of being a member of the WAC and a varied

and diverse professional career that developed the skill set needed to

now lead one of America's top city athletic clubs.

A 1982 graduate of the University of Washington, Chuck spent five years in the National Football League. Returning to Seattle

post-football, he entered the investment management world and also began a 20-year side career as the radio analyst for

Washington Husky football games. In 2004 Chuck helped create and served as Executive Director of the PGA Tour Champions

event in Seattle, and later moved into leadership work for a consulting firm. He serves on various community and business

boards and is an active member of the CMAA Evergreen Chapter.

The Washington Athletic Club was founded in 1930. The 20-story clubhouse, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places,

sits at the heart of downtown Seattle, serving the club's 11,000 members. The region's premier social, fitness, and professional

community, in one of America's most thriving, diverse, and rapidly evolving cities, the WAC is nine-time Platinum Club

designee as a top five athletic club in the country.



targeted communication and proper program development. I also think we will see more partnering with other organizations to create opportunities for members. Sharing space with other clubs, having smaller versions of your club in accessible loca-tions, inviting outside vendors/programs into our clubhouses.

If you could give career advice to a subordinate, what would it be?

JACKMAN: My advice to anyone is the same, whatever industry they are in. 1) Pour your heart into whatever you are doing, members are smart people, they can see if you care and enjoy doing what you do. 2) Make an effort to be 1% better today than you were yesterday. Little steps each day will get you to where you want to be.

JIMENEZ: There is no substitute for working hard and working smart.

NELSON: Focus on people and culture first. They must match. Attitude, work ethic, kindness, humility, desire to serve, team players. Then put people in a position to succeed. Focus

on their strengths and turn them loose. Be clear on the tasks and standards, give them the tools and training, and then your job becomes helping and serving them.

What was the last book you read?

JACKMAN: I love to read so will list a few. Thoughtful: The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis. Unique: Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins (Audible). Hard to put down: Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight.

JIMENEZ: I love reading biographies and memoirs. My most recent read was Coming to my Senses by Alice Waters. I tend to read several books at one time. My night table currently holds California Dish by Jeremiah Tower, Small Fry by Lisa-Bren-nan-Jobs and Stretch by Scott Sonenshein. Chef Jeremiah Tower worked with Chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley to transform California cuisine. I am interested in comparing Chef Tower's perspective on his collaboration with that of Chef Waters, who had her own viewpoint on the partnership.

NELSON: Bear Town by Fredrik Backman. ◘

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Hilda W. Allen was the superlative fit

Marketing Luxury Privately-Owned and Member-Owned Golf ClubsHILDA W. ALLEN, broker and owner of Hilda W Allen Real Estate, Inc. is an industry leader in brokering luxury golf real estate transactions in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. Hilda is no stranger to representing exclusive, privately member-owned golf clubs. With more than 1,000 golf course related properties sold over 25 years, Hilda is confident that it is the right time to invest, and she makes it easy for both buyers and sellers to do so effectively.

Currently and exclusively available through Hilda W. Allen Real Estate is The Water’s Edge Private Country Club and 18-hole championship golf course in Smith Mountain Lake, VA. According to Hilda and through research, Hilda W. Allen has represented many member-owned clubs in recent years. One of the recent properties that closed is Indian Spring Country Club in Boynton Beach, FL. South Florida is home to many golf courses and country clubs. However, the board members of the exclusive member-owned Indian Spring Country Club of Palm Beach County knew modifications to their business structure had to undergo some adjustments to enable them to enjoy their club in lieu of running it. A decision was made to hire a professional management company to oversee the general operations and governance issues. This of course was a “short term fix that did not work out” according to Ron Schulman, Indian Spring Country Club President. As the board members began exploring all their options, despite having strong membership numbers, modest debt, and being in sound financial shape, they decided to sell the club. Through the boards research and upon investigating potential brokerages, Hilda W. Allen was the superlative fit for their situation. In addition to Indian Spring Country Club, Hilda brokered the exclusive Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes in Orlando and Seven Lakes Country Club in West End, NC.

Hilda holds many leading industry awards and was present-ed with her sixth consecutive “Excellence in Achievement” award in Real Estate Services by Boardroom Magazine for 2017. Among her many specialties, Hilda is also an expert in accelerated sales and was the first woman, in an otherwise predominantly male dominated occupation, to be inducted into the Georgia Auctioneers Association’s Hall of Fame. When asked what attributes contribute to the successful mechanism behind such a specialized real estate market, Hilda explains it’s combination of her professional team, contacts, as well as her numerous affiliates, and her faith in God. Hilda is never on the sidelines, she is always a part of every transaction and offers several specialized services for industry owners and leaders.

Hilda W. Allen has been a Silver Partner with Club Leaders Forum for some time now, but recently became A Platinum Club® Part-

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History in the Halls, History on the WallsThe Union League Club of Chicago

IN THE PRIVATE CLUB industry, any opportunity to positively distinguish your club against

other prestigious institutions across the country likely grabs your attention and piques your interest.

One factor that can have a huge impact on the memorability and uniqueness of your club is a robust art gallery, similar to a collection you would find at the finest museums around the world.

Dr. Sally Metzler is the Director of the Art Collection at the Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC), a club that is home to one of the most pristine and awe-inspiring art collections amongst private clubs in the world. In total, ULCC boasts more than 700 works, with a collection showcasing a variety of style, geography and history amongst its celebrated works.

The first true art of significance in the ULCC collection was acquired in 1886 when a member donated The Cologne Cathedral, painted by Ross Turner.

While this was initially the pièce de résistance at the club, it is another work from the 1800s that is the most special to Metzler because of the historical value it holds.

According to Metzler, the most popular work of art in the club’s collection is a Monet painting that was purchased in 1895, Apple Trees in Blossom (top, right), painted in oil on canvas. This painting is so rare and holds such value that it is frequently requested by some of the most prestigious museums in the world. Due to the significance that a Monet painting holds, Metzler occasionally obliges. “The club feels it is a civic duty to share this piece of art and history with the world,” Metzler says.

ULCC continues to acquire pieces through either donation or purchase, yet their gallery is not exclusive to the most well-known artists.

One of the most unique pieces on display at the club is Chroma S4 Chimaera (below) by John Collier Sabraw, an environmental painting that was primarily created using purified toxic waste. Visitors enjoy reading about this incredible work of art, and it has become a regular topic of discussion between Metzler and club members.

ULCC also has a long-standing program of featuring emerging artists in Chicago, which allows for lesser-known artists to be prominently featured amongst some of the most famous pieces in art history.

Dr. Metzler believes that a significant art presence cannot only garner interest from existing members, but is also a smart way to attract newer, younger members.

“Society, in general, has a high interest in art and culture, especially the younger generations that want to discover the history behind different pieces of art,” Metzler said. “This is a great way for clubs to appeal to a younger demographic, by offering pristine works of art and allowing unparalleled access to view those pieces and learn about them.”

One way that ULCC has involved members in the club is the offering of a docent program that trains current members about the art collection and allows them to offer private tours upon the completion of their training.

“We have former doctors, retired physicians and law-yers and people from just about any number of backgrounds who have taken an interest in the program,” Metzler says. “This is an excellent op-portunity for members to get involved and to re-ally establish a connection between themselves and the club.”

While it may not be possible for every


private club to put together a collection with as much history and substance as the Union League Club of Chicago has been

fortunate enough to do, compiling different works of art from the surrounding area can still be a strong way to

begin piecing together a gallery for members to enjoy.

“This is [the members’]

second art collection” Overall, Metzler notes that members of all ages visit the

Union League Club of Chicago gallery regularly and that she

strives to ensure there is a collection of interest for everyone who attends.

“This is [the members’] second art collection, their second living room,” Metzler said. “Every one of our members finds art here that they can relate to and that they love.”

Even though an art gallery might not be the first thought on a club manager’s mind when looking into potential upcom-ing club additions or renovations, the Union League Club of Chicago is a prime example of how an art collection can set a club apart in the minds of members.

In an industry that is always looking for ways to distinguish from one another, consider an art collection with some local flare to fully engage current members and potentially attract the next generation to your club. ◘


Qualities of Exemplary Service

HOSPITALITY AND SERVICE go hand-in-hand to create a remarkable dining experience. Hospi-tality is in the realm of attitudes and impressions

including the reading of Members, conveying warmth and caring. Service is associated with actions and manner of presentation, such as providing a soup spoon prior to the arrival of the starters. Combining the intangibles with the tangibles creates a seamless experience for your Members.

A POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTMembers make very quick decisions in their first moments in the restaurant. When they are met by friendly, welcoming hosts, they know that they can relax and enjoy their meal. Be courteous, but not intrusive, with Members who have a more informal relationship with Club staff. A meal-ending thank you is essential.

TRUSTTrust is assumed between the Member and the Club in many ways—menu descriptions, ingre-dients and sanitation are just a few. But it also goes the other way; Members are trusted be respectful of the staff.

KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFFMembers rely on the server’s knowledge of the menu—additional ingredients, al-lergens, specials—to make decisions. All should be pronounced correctly and the server should be aware of dish options for ingredient omissions. The staff should also be able to answer questions about Club events and other services.

EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATINGCommunicating just the right amount of information in a sincere and tactful way best serves the Members. A good

server must read a Member's response to humor/formality and their nonverbal cues and adapt their communication style accordingly. Listening is just as important as speaking. In the kitchen, use the appropriate jargon for efficiency.

EFFICIENCYOutside of being costly to the Club, lack of efficiency can be sensed by the Members, leading to an uncomfortable dining experience. Never enter or leave the dining room with empty hands. Proper organization and teamwork lets the Member know they are in good hands.

TIMINGAnticipation is key. There

are items a Member should never have to ask for if service is prop-erly timed (i.e. flatware,

refills on water). Meals should be served at the right

temperature and pace, checks pro-vided smoothly and Members never

hurried.

FLEXIBILITYBend the rules in the interest of the overall experience when judgement calls for it. Use empathy to make

these decisions. For example, if two Members are deep in conversation, it would probably not lend to the continuing enjoyment of their dining experience if an attempt was made to serve them both from the right.

CONSISTENCYMembers support their Club because they like the food and service. Reliably applying all of the service principles will enhance Member satisfaction.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONSUnfortunately, Members are, by nature, less impressed with the Club dining each time they visit. Service should always be improving so that their experience is always better than their last. ◘


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Club Leaders Forum Advisory Board SpotlightAPPOINTED FROM SOME OF THE MOST esteemed and well-recognized Private Clubs geographically spread across the nation and around the World, the Advisory Board provides guidance to Club Leaders Forum on services and benefits provided to the industry and input into the selection process for Platinum Clubs® of America and Platinum Clubs® of the World. The Board also proposes programs to add greater value and benefits to Clubs who are recognized with Platinum status.

JASON CLARKEChief Operating OfficerSt. George's Golf & Country Club

Jason Clarke has served as Chief Operating Officer at St. George's Golf & Country Club since 2016 and on the Club Leaders Forum Advisory Board since 2018.

Originally from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia on Canada’s East Coast, Jason has held executive positions at six private clubs across Canada over his 21-year career before assuming his current role as Chief Operating Officer at Canada’s historic St. George’s Golf and Country Club located in Toronto.

Undertaking his first private club General Manager position at age 27, Jason gained valuable experience managing a di-verse range of private clubs throughout the years, including golf-centric, dining, social, arts and traditional country club establishments. With strengths in strategic planning, capital projects and a proven financial track record, his breadth of club experience provides Jason with an acute understanding of the unique challenges facing the private club industry in today’s marketplace.

Jason’s passion for golf and a deep appreciation for the cu-linary arts made St. George’s a natural fit when he assumed the COO position in 2016. The iconic Stanley Thompson designed course is ranked among the world’s top 50 courses

and has previously hosted five Canadian Opens, in 1933, 1949, 1960, 1968 and 2010, and is the third oldest tournament on The TOUR. Celebrating its 90th year, St. George’s recently announced the return of the RBC Canadian Open in 2020 and 2024, in addition to hosting US Open Sectionals in 2021 and 2025 as part of a partnership with RBC, Golf Canada and The TOUR.

In 2017, St. George’s hosted injured service men and wom-en as they contested the first ever golf event as part of the Invictus Games in 2017. The event was a meaningful career highlight and hugely inspiring as competitors and spectators were treated to a visit from Prince Harry who cheered on the athletes and chatted with their families.

In addition to his management responsibilities, Jason has held numerous governance roles as part of the Canadian Society of Club Managers. Jason served two terms as the Manitoba Branch President, sat on the CSCM National Board of Directors from 2006 to 2010—where he served as Chair of Professional

CLUB LEADERS FORUM ADVISORY BOARD

Michael McCarthyAddison Reserve Country Club

Kevin VitaleBaltusrol Golf Club

Albert CostantiniCanoe Brook Country Club

Dwight JensonChicago Yacht Club

Joseph "JJ" WagnerEscondido Golf & Lake Club

Christine PoolerIndian Creek Country Club

Matthew AllnattJonathan Club

Atilla KardasJupiter Hills Club


Development Committee—National Board Secretary and Treasurer, and National Board Vice President, and in 2010 he became the youngest National President. Jason is also the Toronto Bailli (President) of the Chaine des Rotisseurs—the world’s largest gastronomic society—a position he’s held since 2012.

SCOTT JULIENGeneral Manager/COOThunderbird Country Club

Scott Julien has been the Gen-eral Manager of Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mi-rage, California since 2015 and has served on the Club Lead-ers Forum Advisory Board since 2018. Scott’s journey began like many others; pur-suing his desire to serve the game of golf.

His leadership philosophy of “Strategy, Structure, People” has directed most of his professional decisions on the path to managing some of the country’s most special private clubs. Without strategy, structure cannot be effectively established. Without strategy and structure, people cannot be effectively engaged.

Strategy: Live a life dedicated to the game of golf and to those organizations and people who serve and support it.

Structure: Establish and execute the steps necessary to fulfill the strategy.

As a caddy at Oswego Lake Country Club in Lake Oswego, Oregon, Scott found the career he would love for the rest of his life. Scott served two General Managers, working in a va-

riety of departments to gain exposure and experience all of the country club's facilities. He began in the Green Department, moved to the Bag Room, then the Clubhouse and eventually became a student assistant manager under Thomas Strader, General Manager.

After his sophomore year at the University of Oregon, and in pursuit of the career path, Scott packed his truck and left for Atlanta, Georgia. Having recently attended a World Confer-ence in Atlanta, he knew the South was the perfect place to continue to hone his club management skills by experiencing Southern Hospitality and completing his degree at Georgia State University.

Scott enrolled at GSU the same month Joe Purdue began his long and successful tenure at the school. Joe served as Scott’s guidance counselor and had a lifelong impact on his career path and success. Joe guided Scott to his first professional op-portunity as a Student Assistant Manager at Cherokee Town and Country Club. Scott credits John Jordan, Cherokee Town and Country Club and the long list of successful Cherokee alumni he worked with as the key to his training, success and longevity in the industry.

John Jordan and David Shepler mentored Scott, making sure that the high Cherokee Standards were consistently delivered day after day, experience after experience. During his time as an Assistant Manager at Cherokee, he graduated from Geor-gia State’s Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Management. Shortly after graduation, and at the young age of 26, Scott was promoted to the position of Country Club Manager at Cherokee Town and Country Club.

During his tenure as Country Club Manager, Scott worked directly with John Jordan and was responsible for the effective execution of running the day-to-day operations of the Country Club and with the added responsibility of working to build the “new” clubhouse. Cherokee’s stunning new country club clubhouse and pool facility would prove to be another shining example of Cherokee’s relentless pursuit of attaining the high-est levels of excellence. This was the tone and the expectation John Jordan exemplified personally and professionally every day from the top and all embraced the journey.

In 1996, Scott took the next step on his career path when he accepted the position of General Manager of Eugene Coun-try Club. A top 100 Golf Digest golf course taught Scott the


CLUB LEADERS FORUM ADVISORY BOARD

Norm RichMultnomah Athletic Club

Javier ReviriegoReal Club Valderrama

Terry AnglinSan Diego Yacht Club

Jason ClarkeSt. George's Golf & Country Club

Scott JulienThunderbird Country Club

Anthony CalaTokyo American Club

Jeff McFaddenUnion League of Philadelphia

John DormanThe University Club, New York


valuable lessons that everything a club executes can live up to the reputation of an outstanding golf course. Every aspect of the club serves to support the members’ enjoyment of the game.

In 2001, Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon was searching for a new General Manager. Having grown up in Portland, Waverley had forever been Scott’s dream job and he was thrilled to be selected as one of the club’s youngest General Managers. After 12 years, that included a total golf course restoration with the talented Golf Course Architect, Gil Hanse; a complete rebuild of most of the Clubhouse facilities and executing the implementation of numerous history displays including two on campus history museums; Scott knew he needed a chance to catch his breath. In his pursuit of a well balanced career, Scott spent 3 years managing The Town Club, an all women’s social club in the heart of downtown Portland. What is it like managing a club of 450 wonderful women? Simply said, it was amazing! If only they had an 18 hole golf course, he would have never left.

The long, wet months in Portland were growing longer and wetter when the Thunderbird Country Club position opened after a successful run by General Manager David Shepler. An excellent and historic club offered the opportunity to return to the game he loves in beautiful sunny Southern California.

People: We are all enriched by the members we serve, the people we have mentored, those who have mentored us, the special people we create lasting relationships with as well as those we have simply crossed paths with. Scott looks forward to continuing to be part of this extraordinary game, to serve its supporters and enjoy the lasting effects of being part of something special.

TERRY ANGLIN General Manager/COO San Diego Yacht Club

Terry Anglin CCM CCE ECM has served as the Gen-eral Manager/Chief Operating Officer at San Diego Yacht Club since 2009. He has been a Club Leaders Advisory Board member since 2016.

Upon his arrival at San Diego Yacht Club, the club began a $10 million-dollar construction project to build a new junior

sailing center, conference facilities, workout room, locker building, amateur radio facility and new maintenance building. This work added 23,000 square feet to the club’s campus that already housed the 22,000 square foot clubhouse. The genesis of the project was to secure a long term lease with the Port of San Diego for the seven acre waterfront plot and ensure SDYC maintained its place as having the finest junior sailing program in the country as voted on by yacht clubs across the country and documented in the monolith prepared by Dennis Keneally for his MCM designation.

SDYC was formed in 1886 and has over 2100 members, a 586-slip marina, a locker building housing 300 member rented lockers, a dry storage boat area housing 300 vessels, 2 tennis courts and a swimming pool. The main clubhouse has been designated as a San Diego historic site and serves 12,000 meals a month as the club is open 364 days per year, 3 meals per day. Its racing schedule calls for 46 weekends each year to be out on the water.

On his management style, Anglin notes “I’m self-taught in the business. I didn’t go to hospitality school and my first job in the business was selling lift tickets at a ski resort. I learned about club management through on the job training and that drove home the importance for me of having a team that knows how to work together.

“I’ve been in silo operations where people who are 20 feet apart prefer to send e-mails rather than talk about things and it’s not hard to figure out why things often don’t work well in those situations. My approach has always been to hire for talent, not skills, and then put a premium on teaching skills that each person will need to succeed at their job. And as you do that, you also need to place a good deal of emphasis on clearing the path of obstacles that can get in the way of their productivity and making sure to recognize the entire team’s effort and achievements.”

Throughout his career, Anglin has been very involved in CMAA. He has served as Chapter President of the Tennessee Volunteer Chapter and served two terms on the Golden Stage Chapter Board of Directors. He also was the Host of the International Wine Society, having served 8 years on the Board. Anglin has served as an adjunct professor in the School of Hospitality at the University of Mississippi and has taught his Wine 101 course at several World Conferences on Club Management.

SDYC has been elected a Platinum Club of America by Private Club General Managers since 2009 and is currently ranked as the number two yacht club in the country. ◘



Critical Management Practices to Limit Liability in a Private Club Operationcontributed by ADDISON LAW

OPERATING A PRIVATE CLUB is a complicated task. In fact, it is often said that operating a Club is like operating a small city. There are liability issues in every direction you look. Here are a few of the most critical steps a Club and its Board of Directors can take to ensure it limits or reduces its liability risk.

Maintain Corporate Formality and FunctionConduct an annual checkup on your Club’s corporate governance by confirming that the officers kept written minutes of Board, Committee and annual meetings. Make sure all state-mandated corporate filings are made in a timely manner. The last thing a Club needs is to learn that its corporate charter has been suspended for failure to file an annual report, etc.

Make sure that all the Board Members and offi-cers have read the Club’s bylaws and membership program as well as its written rules and regulations. Knowledge of the Club’s governing documents is critical to avoiding claims from Members when the Board or its officers may have breached their duties to the Club and its Members. Additionally, many of the governing documents may have been written fifty years ago and may not address many of the issues that arise in today’s legal environment. If there are glaring errors, it is highly recommended that the Board and/or Members take steps to correct the errors. Most well-managed Clubs have clearly written governing documents that address most of the issues that will arise every year. One of the most glaring mistakes is the failure to include provisions on how the Member discipline process works. It is much better for all parties to know how the process works instead of trying to create a process for each situation which may arise in the future.

Maintain Proper Insurance CoverageDoes your Board know what type of insurance


coverage the Club maintains? Does anyone really understand how it works? In other words, does the Board know if there is a deductible and what the policy limits are for various scenar-ios—fire, flood, slip and fall, liquor liability, discrimination?

Additionally, most well-managed Clubs maintain errors and omissions insurance to protect their Board Members and of-ficers from lawsuits by Members or outside parties. Without such protection, some of your brightest and best Members may refuse to serve on the Board or as an officer of the Club. Very few Members who volunteer to serve are willing to take the risk that they will have to pay to defend themselves from a lawsuit. Many Clubs also include language in their bylaws whereby the Board of Directors and officers are indemnified by the Club from such claims.

Act Like a Private ClubIf your Club relies on the Private Club regulations (either state of federal), the Club needs to act like a Private Club. Generally, the courts have held that a Private Club is an association of persons for recreational or social purposes or for the promotion of a common cause with meaningful conditions of limited membership. What does the phrase “meaningful conditions of limited membership” mean? Basically, it means that a Club must have and follow selective membership practices. Normally, this means that the general public does not have full access to the Club facilities and there must be a process whereby the Club selects its Members. Traditionally, this has meant that future Members of the Club must be personally recommended or sponsored by existing Members of the Club and then go

through a selection process, such as an interview with the membership committee, and then be voted on by the current Members of the Club. If your Club does not follow some type of selection process—or even if it does follow the selection process but never really denies membership to anyone—it is quite possible that you will be denied Private Club status. Furthermore, your Club can lose its Private Club status by simply making the Club available for non-member sponsored events such as weddings or by selling food or catering to non-members in the community. Every Private Club needs to step back and look at its operations to determine if it is doing anything that could jeopardize its Private Club or perhaps, Platinum status.

Hire the Right Employees Finally, although this sounds trivial, make sure you are hiring good employees and firing bad employees. The old phrase “hire slow, fire fast” is not a bad practice to follow. A bad employee is probably the biggest threat to a Club. Make sure your Club is doing background checks on all potential candidates as well as obtaining and following up on personal references. Once employed, if a problem with an employee arises, make sure it is dealt with imme-diately. An altercation between a Member and an employee which occurs on a Friday afternoon should not be dealt with on Tuesday morning.

By following these management techniques, a Private Club can significantly reduce its liability. ◘


HILLCREST IS VERY MUCH a family club, and as a result we are always striving to provide an

ever richer club experience for members with kids. In recent years, one of the most significant enhancements for this segment of the membership has been the investments we have made and continue to make to ensure that our summer day camp program is the best that it can be. With registration numbers growing year after year, it would appear that investment is paying off.

Now in its fifth year, Hillcrest Summer Camp offers daily or weekly registration over an 11-week period to kids ages 7-17. Campers choose between Golf, Tennis or combined programs, and may also add on a Swimming program if they like. If they sign up for all three sports, it’s a full, seven-hour day. There is also a “Mighty Mites” program for kids 4 to 6, which exposes younger kids to all three sports, setting them up to become well-rounded junior members. The schedule for the younger kids is compressed into a half day format which is better suited to their shorter attention spans. In addition developing their skills and becoming better junior golfers, tennis players and swimmers, kids make new friends, learn how to be more responsible, work as a team and how to overcome new challenges.

A high-quality camp experience starts with low camper-to-staff ratios which ensure that each camper receives adequate attention from staff members. For the older group (ages 7-17), we ensure a ratio of no more than six campers per staff member, and for the Mighty Mites group the ratio is even lower, ensuring no more than four campers per staff member. Daily schedules include time dedicated to specific technical work, including strategy, movement and the swing, as well as training on the rules of etiquette and sportsmanship which apply to each game. Instruction is provided by professional

staff, supplemented by talented college athletes who we hire on for the summer.

Competitive games and match play are also a regular part of the experience, helping campers to become familiar and comfortable with competition by pushing each other in a

Summer Day Camp: New Skills, New Friends, And Lots Of Fun!by JOSE LIEBERMAN, Director of Tennis and CHRIS MILLER, Head Golf Professional, Hillcrest Country Club, Los Angeles, California


Summer Day Camp: New Skills, New Friends, And Lots Of Fun!by JOSE LIEBERMAN, Director of Tennis and CHRIS MILLER, Head Golf Professional, Hillcrest Country Club, Los Angeles, California

healthy and supportive environment. Ensuring that campers are regularly exposed to competition has had benefits for our Junior programs that reach beyond Summer Camp. Hillcrest now fields several competitive teams in both our Junior Golf and Junior Tennis programs which compete in local leagues. Our PGA Junior League team won the Westside Club divi-sion title last year and went on to place third in the regional competition, scoring an amazing five under par. Additionally, one of our junior golfers recently made it into the finals for his age group at the Drive, Chip, and Putt Championships held at Augusta National.

Keeping campers energized and hydrated with healthy food and drink and ensuring they are protected from the strong southern California sun are also big priorities. We make sure the campers are constantly drinking water and taking breaks, eating healthy meals and snacks, and reapplying sunscreen 2-3 times throughout the day.

The combination of high-quality coaching and high-energy games and matches, all taking place in a safe, fun, positive, and supportive environment, brings our campers and their families a true five-star experience at Hillcrest Country Club each summer. ◘


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Desktop Dining

IT’S NO SECRET that traditional work habits are changing. This is, of course, due to major technological

advances where we now have the ability to conduct almost all aspects of business through our computers and smart devices. Now lunch, in a typical workplace, is taking place in front of our computers with food ordered on our phone.

In the 1987 movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko famously states, ‘‘Lunch is for wimps.’’ People unconsciously perceive an em-ployee as more dedicated and dependable if they are seen at their desk more, but a desk-luncher is as likely as not to be scrolling through Facebook. While there are countless health articles arguing for fresh air, exercise, brain breaks and eating without distractions, the fact is that 62 percent of professionals say they typically eat lunch at their desks, according to The New York Times.

Contrary to the proponents of a desk-free lunch, studies show that fewer calories are consumed (the presence of others makes us eat more) and engaging informally with colleagues over break periods boosts productivity by building a stronger team (providing geography favors this dynamic). There are also many more healthy 'fast-food' options than before.

Ordering traditional take-out food or even ordering online

or from an app is not new. What is different is the group engagement factor of this task. Rather than one take-out menu floating around the office—with one ‘organizer’ taking orders and having to awkwardly divvy up the bill—tech and catering companies like Seamless, Caviar and Lunchloop have streamlined the process while still fostering synergy with the group. In this scenario, the organizer selects a restaurant online to begin a group order, an e-mail is sent to all employees to be included, the individuals order their own food, it is added to the group order to be prepared and delivered at the same time. The company or organizer submits payment or in the case of Seamless, the individuals can pay for their own food. Of course, the choice is then left to the individuals whether to chat over lunch or play games on their computer.

Louise Pilkington, Marketing Director at Compass Group, a leading catering company in the UK and Ireland, said, “Ultimately, employees are more productive when they have opportunities to eat together, interact, think and recharge. Lunch is a really valuable part of the day, both to encourage greater motivation and engagement. Therefore, employers should do more to encourage better lunchtime eating habits through the provision of breakout space and facilitating a more collaborative culture over lunchtime.”

When people are financially invested, they want a return. When they are emotionally invested, they seem to want to contribute. Before implementing a more informal approach to breaks and lunch offerings, confirm with your human re-source professionals that the program you introduce comlies with current labor laws.◘


The New Food and Beverage Modelby MIKE HOLTZMAN, President, Profitable Food Facilities Worldwide

IMAGINE YOU'RE FRESH out of college. You spent four years of your life studying food and beverage manage-ment. You read countless stories and reviewed case studies

of successful restaurants all over the world. You finish school and start your job search and land at a Private Club ‒ one of the best they say, as it is a Platinum Clubs of America or the World. You walk in on your first day as the new 'dining room manager' and you are excited! You meet with the GM again and are congratulated for being part of a great team.

Over the course of the next 3-12 months though, something changes...you become 'clubified' (Trademarked word!). You come in at a young ripe age, streaming with ideas on how to make things better. But you sit down with your AGM and it starts on day one:

"Country Club food and beverage never makes money."

The statement is true. The average Country Club overspends $250,000 a year in their food and beverage operations, or about $700 a day. We have seen clubs that lose over 1 million a year, or nearly $3,000 a day. If you multiply this out to the 5,000 estimated Private Clubs, that amount totals 1.25 BILLION dollars annually in over-spending.

You hear the statement on your first day and you are shocked...why? Why is it that every restaurant model I ever studied shows that there is a small profit at the end of the day? It's a hard business, but most of the good ones are successful. You are also told that this has been the club model forever.

You think on the inside: "Can I be the one to change this model? If I could come up with a way to assist my club with a better model that does not impact the quality of our food or the service standards we provide, then this could be valuable to the industry! What if I could come up with a way to just reduce the overuse by $100,000 at each club...then the club industry as a whole would have 500 MILLION dollars of additional funds available for expansions, improved facilities, golf course improvements or even lower membership dues?

What would it take for this model to change?

I spent my entire career studying this Country Club model. I

understand that we can't compare a Country Club restaurant directly to how a T.G.I.Friday's operates. There are some challenges in the club business including:

• There is a limited number of people we can serve ‒ our Membership.

• Most Member events are food and beverage losers.• We have 'freebies'.• We're open on days we should not be open.• Members want a 'deal' because they are paying dues.• We have minimal outside events to offset our food and

beverage operation.

All of these reasons are viable. But these reasons are not enough to create a loss for most clubs.

The biggest problem with the current club model is that if the combined food and labor costs average over 100%, then every time we bring in a dollar of revenue, we will lose more money - EVERY TIME! So, increasing revenue will make the losses increase unless we change this part of the model. There is also a number of distinct advantages including:

• Utilities and rent are not charged on many club P&L's. This represents 12%-20% to the bottom line because every restaurant on the street has these expenses.

• Overall staff wages are competitive and the benefits


packages are the best in the industry. This should create the ability to recruit top candidates for all positions.

I have come up with a list of six key items to create a sustain-able club food and beverage model. In no particular order:

NEW MANAGER TRAINING. Starting with this new college intern who "knows everything." This manager needs training and to be introduced and respected by the staff. All chain restaurants have 8-14 week management training programs: working as a server for a week, a dishwasher for three days, bartending for a week, etc. This not only teaches the manager the ropes of the operation, it introduces the manager to the staff and the members and creates "one-on-one" time with many staff members as well. Take at least the first three weeks for each manager to work every position.

SPEED OF SERVICE IN A LA CARTE. Over the past 10-15 years, a few major changes have occurred in the club business including the major influx of families, including kids 'crowding' the dining areas. This shift in age of the membership necessitates the need for more variety on the menu, BUT the kitchen isn't set up for these menu trend changes. How do we know? Take a look at your cook line. Do you have five hot wells that are full of ice just to carry the ingredients you need? Do you have a 25' chef table that has minimal cold storage, broken drawers, failing refrigeration that costs $50k to replace? Do you hear the words 'slow service' from the members on a Friday at 7pm? Your Staff does not come to work to provide 'slow service', so what is the problem? IT IS THE KITCHEN! It doesn't matter when you have six or eight tickets, it matters when you have 12 to 30 tickets. The inefficiencies in the kitchen create a one minute lag time for each ticket‚ making the 30th ticket 30 minutes late. The solution: A small kitchen remodel. We have completed more

than 100 kitchens that increase the efficiency by more than 50%, costs around $295K and is completed in 90-120 days with only two weeks of downtime. If your kitchen is more than 10 years old, then you need a remodel!

STAFF TRAINING. Clubs need a complete set of written training procedures. So, what this would include is a specific 10-day server training outline including menu, wine and liquor tests and 45-day follow up training on every server. This would include training procedures for each station, menu costs on every item, including specials, and pictures of every item. The goal is every line cook is cross-trained and proficient on every station within 90 days

TAKE ON THE POOL! The summer pool business should not be looked at as a 'headache' and an 'afterthought.' The reason members make this difficult for you by ordering food from the upstairs menu is because the food at the pool is lousy. The solution? Create a 'resort-style' pool menu. Set up a grill outside and 'fresh grill' (no chafers) for the Members every day. Put a 'personality' at the grill and put on a show with the Membership. Add music, a DJ once a month, and add a small portable bar Thursday through Sunday. We have seen pool operations that break even and operations that create a $100k profit center to offset the a la carte menu inside. With better food that you would rate as an '8' or better, your Membership will no longer need to order food from your main kitchen!

CREATE SOP'S. Restaurant 101, my friend, and if you don't have them, then create them. Opening, closing, prep, thaw list, order guide that is sheet-to-shelf and diagrams of every line (perfect for the staff training manual). This is not an option, this is mandatory.

PAYROLL-NO OT. Enough said. Not only are we mis-managing our Member's money, the Staff, for the most part, does not want to work that many hours. And even if they do, it is financially much better to bring on a new line cook, as opposed to paying time and a half or double time.

By taking on these six key items, you will start to see a reduction in the losses produced in food and beverage. It is our fiduciary responsibility to our membership to not run this status quo. I assure you, if you don't address this issue, food costs will go up, labor costs will go up and the subsidy will only get worse. This means at some point in time, the Board will want to see some changes‚ and it only gets harder if you don't take a proactive approach to this issue. ◘


When fitness becomes wellnessBy RYAN TOMPKINS, Athletic Center Director, The Fort Worth Club, Fort Worth, Texas

The words “fitness,” “health,” “performance,” “medical,” and “wellness” float around our industry without much thought as to what they really mean. What is the difference between these terms? And why does it matter? We will focus on

defining “wellness” here, and what is involved with implementing a true wellness program into a fitness-based facility.

What is wellness?

Depending on the resource, there are a few opinions on what wellness means. When considering most definitions, there are some commonalities that help our understanding a little better.

Wellness is more than the absence of disease, a score on a body fat assessment, VO2 max test, or a bench press max. It’s also more involved than regular visits to the doctor or executive health assessments. It is much more.

University of California, Davis defines wellness as “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” The World Health Organization defines it as “a state of com-plete physical, mental, and social well-being.” Definitions such as these give the impression that wellness is not something one necessarily achieves, but rather something one lives—daily and mindfully focusing on improving one’s physical, mental, social, spiritual and medical state. Most fitness clubs lack in area of mental, social, spiritual and medical wellbeing.

Is wellness programming necessary?

When nearly 7 out of 10 Americans are on prescription

medicine, why wouldn’t we, as fitness professionals, expect our members to be on prescriptions, overweight, or have diagnoses like diabetes, heart disease and mental disorders? If we expect a large portion of our members to be in this category, why would we try to make positive changes when our hands are tied and our toolbox is light?

Our fitness facilities have seas of equipment to build muscle. We have gymnasiums and courts to improve the game of sport. We have multiple rooms for group exercise instructors to make members sweat. However, it is interesting how few clubs have a dietitian, physical therapy, a strong medical resource, or any kind of behavioral resource.

No matter how big, new, nice or technologically advanced fitness facilities and equipment have become, members must overcome pain, injury, mental blocks, medical hurdles, chemical or hormone imbalances, social awkwardness, spiritual conflicts, and more before we can help them accomplish great things.

How do we implement wellness programming?

Having a credible medical source as a partner is one of the most important things to consider when going down the wellness


pathway. A medical presence allows fitness facilities to either refer out when appropriate or provide services internally.

A simple example is the use of physical therapy in a weight-loss program to enhance participant compliance. Other examples include blood chemistry, genetic testing, hormone balancing, cardiovascular screenings and so much more. These services can easily be a part of a toolbox accessible at any time depending on the needs of the member.

When achieving wellness becomes a lifestyle

Live 360 is a 12-month wellness program (six months of which are a maintenance phase) offered at The Fort Worth Club. The program’s logo, which use the words “movement,” “nutrition,” and “mindset,” explains a lot about the program’s goal.

The word “live” means “something that requires action and is ongoing.” Most executives are familiar with a 360-degree employee review. Superiors, subordinates, colleagues and the employees themselves take a multi-source assessment of their strengths, weaknesses and overall personal goals in their profession. In the Live 360 program, a similar multi -source assessment is taken of the client’s strengths, weaknesses, and wellness goals.

Most folks might define “movement” as the sweat side of our industry. In the Live 360 program, we take a deeper look and include soft tissue therapists to evaluate and treat any past, current, and potential areas of increased injury risk.

“Nutrition” typically refers to one’s diet, but at The Fort Worth Club we include blood chemistry testing, nutritional counseling and personalized supplementation.

To quote an old proverb, “as a man thinketh, so he is.” We have our greatest strength and greatest weakness in between our ears. Years of information going into our mind tends to convince us of things that just might not be true at all. In the Live 360 program, “mindset” is addressed with the encouragement to

develop healthy habits, change negative self-talk conversations to positive conversations, and purposefully surround one’s self with people who are facing similar giants. All are necessary for the best possible outcomes for overall wellness. The Live 360 program includes behavioral counseling, mental exercises and training therapies.

Just as the old knee or hip injury will knock someone out of a fitness program, the “brain injury” can flare up with negative thoughts that can also deter someone from continuing a program. Those thoughts might include, “I’m not worth it” or “I don’t belong here” or several other self-deprecating conversations.

More examples of wellness programming

A big component of wellness programming at The Fort Worth Club is in-house physical therapy. We heavily use our physical therapists to do evaluations. The goal is preventing pain from being the reason a person drops out of a program. Dropping out of a program could potentially put another tally mark of failure next to the number of attempts they have made to change their life. By having physical therapists involved, we can work with the onset of discomfort, pain and even full-blown injury when it arises.

Blood chemistry lab work is another avenue for implementing wellness programming. Lab results are used by our dietitian, after a consultation with a physician, to adjust supplements and nutrition plans as the client’s body begins to change.

Intertwining a social component is a form of wellness pro-gramming. All our programs are searched intently to ensure we are taking advantage of a social opportunity if it exists. If a member is going to leave The Fort Worth Club, we want to make sure they have to leave a lot of people they have built relationships with, including fellow members, trainers, the dietitian, wellness manager, program coordinators and more.

Why wellness programming works

Thanks to wellness programming, we can join members in their successes, be it losing weight, completing a program, or doing something they never thought they would be able to do.

By joining members in their successes, we most likely have a lifelong member who trusts us – someone who is now a walking billboard who can connect with others who have tried and fallen short in the past. ◘


The Professional Approach to Fitness

PROFESSIONAL ATHLETIC organizations will stop at nothing to ensure their athletes are able to

perform at the highest level when it matters most. To ensure they remain in peak athletic shape, these organizations provide their athletes with access to the most advanced and effective fitness equipment on the market.

Professionals on the PGA Tour® are no exception, which is why the organization has decided to partner with global leader, Technogym, to ensure PGA Tour Professionals always have access to the best training equipment.

As an official PGA Tour sponsor, Technogym outfits the PGA Tour Player Performance Center with its smart-connected, Golf Performance Portfolio. This portfolio, which is developed with world renowned athletes and trainers, offers elite-level

training for professional athletes as well as programs for am-ateurs and beginners looking to improve their score.

The PGA TOUR Player Performance Center travels the country in four semi-trailers to provide PGA TOUR golfers with access to the best exercise, physical therapy, wellness and training tools. “As training regimens continue to advance in golf, Technogym will help ensure the needs of these world-class athletes are being met,” said Brian Oliver, Executive Vice President Corporate Partnerships at the PGA TOUR.

As the seven-time official supplier to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Technogym has long been known as the global leader of athletic performance equipment that seamlessly blends exercise with technology.

Building upon the PGA TOUR model, Technogym has devel-oped a blueprint for a facility-based golf performance training center that can be installed in as little as 200 square feet of space, offering the same equipment utilized by PGA TOUR athletes. This model can also be expanded to a full, 360-degree, solution for a full-sized fitness and golf performance facility.


A Technogym golf perfor-mance training center of PGA TOUR caliber provides a pre-mium value to the member and creates a unique profit center in the facility. The focused Golf Performance portfolio includes the SKILLRUN, SKILLTOOLS and the KI-NESIS ONE. The extended Golf Performance portfolio includes additional Techno-gym Golf Performance solutions.

SKILLRUN allows golfers to perform traditional cardiovascular training and instantly transition to lower body power training. It provides the golfer with real-time biofeedback on their running efficiency to maximize results and minimize lower body overuse injuries. With the Sled Push feature, athletes can train lower body power development without the need for high-risk exercises, while simultaneously activating their core muscles.

SKILLTOOLS are accessory pieces that the golfers can use for total body mobility, stability and power development within their workouts, before or after a round of golf.

The Kinesis® One (pictured) is the only resistance machine on today’s market that was de-signed for rotational athletes. The resistance is user-defined rather than on a fixed path, and its anti-gravity technology allows for force production to be in a direct pattern of motion without being affected by gravity.

In addition to partnering with the PGA TOUR, Technogym has been working closely with Ferrari and McLaren for many years in Formula 1 racing, as well as being the official supplier to many of the best European football teams, such as Juventus, Inter Milan, A.C. Milan, Paris St. Germain and Chelsea F.C. Technogym has also been the official supplier to the last seven Olympic Games: Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Turin 2006, Bei-jing 2008, London 2012 Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018. ◘

KINESIS ONE

Technogym Trailer


http://www.sportssolutionsinc.com


SPORTS SOLUTIONS INC. has been in business since 1984. That’s over thirty-five years as

the pioneer in hair and skin care ameni-ties designed especially for the athlete’s rehydration needs. Sports Solutions stands apart by providing what no one else can. Laurie Schmidt, President of SSI, personally creates custom Corian® presentations and liquid programs based on our clients’ individual interior designs, amenity needs and branding preferenc-es. With the ability to create, label, etch and order almost anything our GMs can dream of, SSI continues to thrive so our clients can, too.

Sports Solutions creates the industry’s largest selections of bulk, specially for-mulated personal care liquids, designed to rehydrate Olympic athletes’ skin and hair. SSI constantly develops new per-sonal care liquid lines with fresh, new fragrances and packaging for a more modern market place appeal to the hospitality industry as well. We also offer over 700 brand name amenities, towels, robes and linens.

Prestigious custom Corian® bottle covers, brackets, accessories, and organizers create a beautiful, clutter-free amenity presentation for your shower and vanity

amenities, as well as coffee/tea service stations. These custom Corian® organiz-ers create a handsome, orderly display for your locker room accessories, and fit your club’s vanity colors, dimensions, and specific products. Corian® bottle covers and shower brackets hold 16, 18, 32 and custom 35 oz. bottles. We offer over 100 colors that coordinate with any club’s granite or marble counter tops and décor.

Sports Solutions offers the largest se-lections of dispensing options and vanity accessories, to include our own patented “Standard” and “Deluxe” Acrylic Dispens-ers in multiple colors. Our dispensing selections of metal, resin, wood, ceramic, stainless steel, and acrylic complete a finished presentation for any vanity. These can also be custom logoed.

For the club that wants their amenities

“off-the-counter” and theft proof, our newly patented, Magnetic Locking 24 oz. Interlocking Acrylic Dispensers, with black or white lids, house all bulk products for sprays, dry amenities, all pump liquids, and mouthwash cups. We designed these new magnetic locking dispensers, which deter theft and tampering of products, to meet the security needs of our clients. Recently added, are our Corian® “locking strips” to secure bottles into customized Corian® brackets for showers, as well as counter presentations.

We offer custom labeling for all styles of dispensers, bottles and accessories. We can print any color on our unique outdoor-signage vinyl, including any color metalized vinyl, which lasts 7-10 years, and will not peel, crack, fade or deteriorate. We offer Pantone matching for all print colors. Corian® pieces can also be laser etched with precision, in silver, gold, or any color for logo and product names.

Sports Solutions Inc. has continued to strive to be the most dynamic, accommo-dating, and professional amenity provider anywhere, for over three decades. We hope to continue to earn the trust and respect of our industries’ leaders and appreciate the honors awarded from the club management industries.

Laurie Schmidt can be reached at (214) 351-2834 or via email at [email protected].

For more information, please visit www.sportssolutionsinc.com.

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OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS, marketing has changed dramatically in every business, and the golf industry is no exception. Tactics that worked for a

decade or more suddenly and massively dropped in effective-ness. Website traffic has fallen for 11 straight years. Facebook is now a classified ad platform; they show your posts to just 1% of your followers, the same 25-50 people who like or comment on every post. What's the point of that when you have 1,000 fans? Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest never made a dime for anyone in the golf industry. E-mail open rates are worse than ever, and print is a dying platform. Meanwhile, the cost of Facebook ads, which you need to run if you want any members to actually see your posts, has gone up 300%.

The answer is to communicate with your members and guests electronically, in a much more direct and intimate way. A way that you—NOT Facebook, Twitter or Instagram—control. You can go ahead and start by doing away with your traditional website. Instead, replace your site with a social hub: a blog and several landing pages. Landing pages are far more effective if you are a club looking to convert prospects to customers for weddings, memberships, banquets and business meetings. Blogs are far more effective in generating Google rankings and in creating real interaction with your members and guests.

YOU WILL :

• take back control of your club’s communications by making them all something you control.

• set up your own private social hub then use your existing social media—Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube—to drive traffic back.

• dedicate one hour a day, every day, to maintain this social hub.

• do things you have never done before.

• create custom content.

• humanize your staff.

Convert Your Website and Facebook Page into a Private Social HubBy ANDREW WOOD, CEO, Legendary Marketing


• go out of your way to create ongoing discussions with your members and guests.

Communicate with your members in a much more intimate way.

In using this social hub instead of a website or Facebook, you'll connect with your members more frequently and on a human level. 100% of your members will now see 100% of your posts. You'll get to introduce members of staff and share details of their lives; their kids, dogs, background, whatever personal information they're willing to share. Make them

What is a social hub?

A social hub is a digital property for your

business or brand that collects the content you

post on various social networks and displays

it together. It may or may not contain user

generated content. Social hubs allow brands

to tie together disparate content into a more

cohesive presentation that they have more

control over. Anyone from a personal portfolio

site to a Fortune 500 company can benefit from

a social hub, and there are a variety of tools

that can be used for technical novices to put

together a beautiful social hub.

Convert Your Website and Facebook Page into a Private Social HubBy ANDREW WOOD, CEO, Legendary Marketing



real people, people that your members and guests can relate to, not just ‘that guy Bob who cuts the greens’. By turning your staff into real people with real lives, you will automatically create a stronger sense of bonding with your members.

People are tired of Facebook, bombarded with ads and distracted at every turn by polarizing political rants and cat videos. Over one million businesses created private social hubs last year. Get ahead of your competition and improve your communication, retention and income by creating yours. ◘

Check out www.golfoperatornetwork.com for a great examples of a private social hub. If you need help executing, e-mail [email protected].

Example of a Social Hub

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Gin is the New Vodka in the U.K.

THE UNITED KINGDOM’S renewed passion for gin is rapidly creating an entirely new industry, one that includes gin parties, gin menus and even a gin-

themed hotel.

There are more than 300 distilleries in Britain, almost double the number operating just five years ago. According to fig-ures collected by HM Revenue & Customs, who hands out licenses to produce spirits, almost 50 opened in 2018, while just a handful closed down shop.

Demand for interesting gins made by craft and artisan pro-ducers has driven a nearly 20% rise in the total amount of the juniper-flavored spirit sold in the past two years. A total of 47 million bottles worth $1.3 billion were served up last year in the UK alone. Such is its popularity that last year, the Office for National Statistics put gin in the classification it monitors to measure inflation.

There is also the UK’s first gin spa—The Gin Spa in Glasgow, Scotland—where visitors can indulge in a juniper foot soak and a full-service gin tasting menu. Trendy “ginsters” drink from large glasses and increasingly prefer a spray of rosemary or a handful of red berries to the traditional ice and slice.

Early 2019 saw the opening of Chapel Down Gin Works in a 5,000 square foot canal-side building in the heart of London. The English winemakers and beer brewers created a unique space with a gin micro-distillery, restaurant and bar spanning two floors and outdoor spaces.

The Distillery, also in London, is a four-floor working distillery with boutique hotel rooms, private dining and a bar, GinTonica. They also offer The Ginstitute Experience, where visitors are guided through a colorful history of the spirit and a blending room to create their bespoke blend of gin.

Waitrose Supermarket’s spirits buyer, John Vine, said local and regional sales were driving that trend, rather than inter-national brands. Sales of artisan brands at the grocer are up more than 150% since January of 2018, compared with a 30% rise in mass-produced brands. “The rise in craft gin certainly shows no sign of slowing,” Vine said. “To meet demand, we’ve introduced three new local and regional craft gins.”

The craft spirit boom follows a surge in demand for locally

made small scale beers and wines, as the hipster generation looks for drinks with a more unique taste created by real indi-viduals rather than faceless international corporations. Large drink companies are fighting to keep up and have started purchasing smaller brands around the world. One example is London gin maker Sipsmith, which was absorbed by Beam Suntory, the world’s third-largest spirits company.

Miles Beale, chief executive of the WSTA, said the number of new distilleries proves there is no sign that the trend is coming to an end anytime soon. “It wasn’t that many years ago when a pub would stock one gin brand, and now a gin menu offering a range of gins and mixers is commonplace in most pubs and bars,” he said. “It is welcome news that another 49 new distilleries opened in the UK last year, bringing new jobs to the British spirit industry and helping boost Britain’s


export potential.”

Exports totaled 180 million bottles last year, worth nearly $500 million. Sainsbury Supermarket’s spirits buyer, Anne Cooper, said craft gin sales were up 20% in a year-by-year comparison, and correctly forecasted that craft rum would be this year’s trend. “It’s gin that has dominated the craft spirits movement until now but we’re seeing a similar trend starting to emerge in rum, particularly dark and spiced variations. I’d expect to see a lot more of this as we head into the summer of 2019,” she said.

Vine said Waitrose will also expand its craft spirit range. The rise of small distilleries has been likened to the craft beer boom. Cooper King Distillery's founder Chris Jaume says, "People are looking for a really great product and a really great experience. It's more expensive but people are willing to pay more if it tastes better and has got a story behind it."

If London’s gin makers continue to creep into international markets, the growth of this industry should continue to grow exponentially. Porto-bello Road Gin plans to launch in the United States within the year, and Sipsmith plans to host a Gin and Tonic Bar in the Hamptons this summer. Meanwhile, the WSTA continues to lobby Parliament to make an attempt at easing

restrictions on gin sales abroad.

“We want more government support to increase exports to developed markets such as Australia, Japan, China and the US,” Beale says. “The removal of tariffs would allow Britain to maintain its position as the world's largest spirits exporter and further boost the UK economy and provide more jobs.”

With a little help from Parliament, it’s certainly possible there could be a new, more delicious British invasion on the horizon in the very near future. Unless they get Brexit wrong. ◘

Chapel Down Gin Works

“An English winemaker’s twist on the classic ‘French 75’”

ENGLISH 75

Fill a shaker with ice and add

1 ½ oz. Gin

½ oz. lemon juice

¼ oz. sugar syrup

Shake well!

Strain into a sparkling wine flute, top with sparkling wine

“A variation on an ‘English Garden’ cocktail”

GARDEN OF ENGLAND

Fill a shaker with ice and add

1 oz. Gin

½ oz. lime juice

½ oz. sugar syrup

Shake until cold

Strain into a martini glass, top & garnish with 1 ½ oz. Apple Cider, a slice of cucumber

and sprig of mint


Will the real Kobe Beef please stand up?

WHEN YOU FIRST TAKE A BITE into a slice of Kobe beef, it almost instantly melts on your tongue. This Japanese delicacy is filled with high

levels of unsaturated fatty acids that dissolve at low temperatures and fill your mouth with the rich flavor of butter. It’s the idea and the promise of this sensation that has diners drawn to top steak houses across the world. There is only one problem: many of those establishments aren’t even selling Kobe.

The Japan-based Kobe Beef Association only certifies about 5,000 heads of cattle per year as actual Kobe, and then tracks the meat’s movement across the globe. Their strict certifica-tion process requires that the beef comes from pure breed Tajima-gyu cows, whose lineage traces back to the 1600s. The cows also must be born, raised and slaughtered in the Hyogo Prefecture, and the beef must pass a series of stringent marbling standards.

For years, many restaurants and distributors that are not licensed to serve Kobe have claimed to offer it. The fabled beef is cer-tainly not being sold under the table; Kobe is tracked too closely for a black market to have formed. Some sellers might be unin-formed and not sure how to differentiate between Japanese beef varieties, since all Kobe beef is considered wagyu, but not all wagyu breeds are classified as Kobe. Others might be intentionally misleading consumers—something that isn’t too difficult to do, apparently.

“I could give guests another Japanese beef and tell them it’s Kobe, and I guarantee you 95 percent of them would have absolutely no clue,” says David Schlosser, chef of Shibumi, the only restaurant in Los Angeles certified to sell Kobe.

Schlosser chooses not to do that, however. He imports eight pounds of Kobe per week and charges $152 per four-ounce serving. He serves it only one way: lightly salted and cooked medium rare, so diners can taste it “clean.”

“I’m honored to serve it,” Schlosser says. “I lived in Japan for four years and I never saw Kobe. The rest of the world wants it. Just think about London, Hong Kong, and Singapore…

all these cities that can afford this stuff. To actually have it is pretty serious.”

As of September 2018, only 32 restaurants in the United States are certified to sell Kobe beef. Those restaurants include 212 Steakhouse in New York, Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse in Dallas and Cut by Wolfgang Puck in Las Vegas.

Japanese producers are lobbying for a geographic indication label—similar to what is used for Champagne—to distinguish it from other beef. The Kobe Beef Association has also attempted to take legal action against the restaurants and distributors

that falsely advertise their beef as Kobe. So far, those efforts have proven unsuccessful, says Schlosser.

“The Japanese have secrets to maintaining the cattle that they’re not exposing,” he says. “You need to hold on to your intellectual property, and the Japanese do that very well.”

Restaurants are able to prove the legitimacy of their Kobe beef by presenting their certificate of authenticity, which includes a 10-digit ID number that traces that particular cow’s lineage. If you’re paying upward of $600 per pound, it may be worth refreshing your Japanese so you can read the certificate before biting into your next savory steak. ◘


Watches Make a Statement

THE GLOBAL LUXURY WATCH INDUSTRY has historically distanced itself from used watch sales due to the fear of jeopardizing new watch sales, aside from the auction of vintage collectible watches. Used watches have certainly always had a market, but a majority of those sales went through generic sites like eBay and other big com-

panies, with only a few smaller sites completely dedicated to resale.

One company that bucked the trend and found remarkable success in the used watch industry is the retailer WatchBox, who sells only pre-owned timepieces. The secondary inventory is often too large for auction houses to handle, which initially drew several collectors to WatchBox’s unique company vision.

WatchBox has actually been around for many years, started by U.S. luxury industry veteran Danny Govberg, whose family has been in the jewelry business since 1916. For most of that time, the family sold only new watches before seeing the op-portunity to sell used watches online. After he grew the site “WatchBox by Govberg” into a $200 million sales empire, he decided to expand globally and simplify the company name to “WatchBox”.

To help in its global expansion, WatchBox raised $100 mil-lion from a Singapore-based private equity firm in 2017. The market for used watches is continuously growing, with some estimates coming in at $5 billion a year, compared to new watch sales of roughly $45 billion a year.

WatchBox differs from other resale sites in that it takes phys-

ical possession of all watches and restores them. After each watch is repaired by in-house technicians using original parts, WatchBox then provides a warranty for absolute authenticity. Refurbished watches that average $10,000 apiece are then resold through the network at a 15% to 20% spread, netting

$200 million in revenue and 40% compounded growth within one year.

This newly rebranded business opened its first physical location in Asia in Hong Kong's Central district in 2018, and the office houses local office support staff and serves as a popular meeting location for watch aficionados.

Driven by an industry-wide decrease in sales, watchmakers themselves are looking for alternative revenue streams. Boutique Swiss watchmaker MB&F launched an online sec-ond-hand sales program at roughly a 25% discount, and Swiss brand Audemars Piguet is setting up a

similar distribution channel. Many analysts estimate that the pre-owned market in premium watches could eclipse new sales in only a handful of years.

WatchBox, meanwhile, isn’t holding still. Its management wants to expand beyond Asia and the U.S. A Swiss office opened in 2018 to begin their European expansion, and there doesn’t appear to be any sign of slowing down for WatchBox and the pre-owned watch industry in the foreseeable future.

For any individual looking to add to their luxury watch col-lection, or just to put a new memorable timepiece on their wrists without having to pay top dollar, WatchBox has the inventory and pricing to meet even the most stringent luxury watch collector’s needs. ◘


AS THE PRIVATE-FLIGHT MARKET continues to democratize further, it also is increasingly becoming polarized. Some new companies that value price as

their primary focus are looking to make private flights even more accessible and affordable, while more established com-panies are charting a different course by attempting to elevate the private experience even higher for those who value privacy and service above all else.

While jet ownership is certainly the ideal form of travel, charter jets have also made huge strides in popularity of late. The Knight Frank’s 2018 Wealth Report finds that in terms of the number of private flights taking off in the United States, charter has now moved into second place behind full owner-ship. In 2018, Charter flights accounted for 27 percent of U.S. private flights versus the 11 percent share of fractional flights.

JetSmarter is among the companies responsible for the rise of on-demand charters with its flight-sharing app that allows you to create and share flights and their cost. Until recently, the service wasn’t available to everyone—you had to pay an annual individual membership fee of $4,950 and a one-time $3,000 initiation fee. When JetSmarter began allowing non-members to use the app early in 2018, seat bookings increased by more than 100 percent compared to the prior year.

The obvious problem with the flight-sharing model is nearly identical to the problem with a bed-and-breakfast: What you gain in convenience, you lose in privacy. With that being said, the flights do depart from private terminals or hangars, allow-ing customers to sidestep the lines and wait times associated with airline terminals.

JetSmarter CEO Sergey Petrossov says that by inviting non-members to use the app, his company has made more flights available for everyone to share. “With more users to initiate custom flights, the JetSmarter community will continue to grow, ultimately driving the creation of new routes and the frequency of flights,” he says.

Petrossov seems to be implying a more inclusive community of private fliers is beneficial for everyone—even those who are looking for a more elevated experience. Sure, more flights

along more routes is an advantage, and members of JetSmarter enjoy lower per-flight prices, priority booking, and access to special events that are unavailable to non-members—like in-air Champagne tastings and full VIP treatment at The Masters. However, are those perks enough for customers who already have the finest Champagnes aging in their own cellars and can access VIP passes through their own premium credit-card services?

Sentient Jet, the original flight-card com-pany, believes so. It also differentiates itself from lower-cost options by giving customers access to invitation-only events such as a meal at the Kentucky Derby or private tours of art galleries and Sotheby’s headquarters in Manhattan. More traditional private-flight models don’t stop at semi-exclusive access, but they look for ways to make the trip itself special.

Flight Sharing Takes Off


For instance, VistaJet launched a children’s program earlier this year to occupy kids with games, books and even an onboard caretaker. Last summer, Magellan Jets reintroduced a 10-hour card to let families take their high schoolers to visit colleges they are considering via private jet—one fully decked out in

gear from all of the institutions they’re visiting.

Other companies are attempting to appease both sides. Jet-Suite provides traditional private charter flights and also has its JetSuiteX division, which offers private flights along set routes that aren’t necessarily private. However, they are more affordable than jet-card or on-demand charter flights, which has increased their appeal amongst the masses. All flights depart from private terminals or hangars, so passengers still avoid airline terminals and associated miseries like a traditional private flight.

The rise of low-cost services like private-flight ride sharing means that more people than ever will be able to enjoy charter air travel, and that will evidently boost the number of charter flights for all. What that ultimately does for the experience is open to interpretation at this point. Even as that all unfolds, the more privileged end of private aviation will likely continue to become even more exclusive. ◘


Robust management functionality including dues management, classifications, privileges, accounts receivables and integrated PCI certified secure payment services for statements and renewals.

MEMBER MANAGEMENT

Powerful amenity reservation software for: golf, tennis, dining, events, lodging, lessons, fitness, shooting, equestrian, marina, and much more.

ACTIVITY RESERVATIONS

With multiple flexible modules for business processes like accounting, marketing, events, food & beverage, retail, and much more - Total e Integrated builds the perfect solution for your operation.

CUSTOMIZABLE

AND MUCH MORE...

Proud New Platinum Clubs Preferred Partner

Total e Integrated is the latest preferred partner for the Platinum Clubs of America & the World. Now the World’s most prestigious private clubs have preferred access to Total e Integrated and TEI Payment Solutions.

Total e Integrated is the industry leading provider of business management technology solutions for private clubs that need to integrate departments, streamline operations and boost overall revenues.

TEI Payment Solutions provides end-to-end EMV certified and PCI compliant payment processing in combination with instant and significant savings over existing merchant processors.

When combined, Total e Integrated & TEI Payment Solutions in unmatched in its ability to offer everything from front of the house point-of-sale software and payment processing to backend business management and reporting tools.

www.TOTALEINTEGRATED.com | www.TOTALEINTEGRATED.com/TEI-PAYMENT-SOLUTIONS | 888.660.6131

Robust management functionality including dues management, classifications, privileges, accounts receivables and integrated PCI certified secure payment services for statements and renewals.

MEMBER MANAGEMENT

Powerful amenity reservation software for: golf, tennis, dining, events, lodging, lessons, fitness, shooting, equestrian, marina, and much more.

ACTIVITY RESERVATIONS

With multiple flexible modules for business processes like accounting, marketing, events, food & beverage, retail, and much more - Total e Integrated builds the perfect solution for your operation.

CUSTOMIZABLE

AND MUCH MORE...

Proud New Platinum Clubs Preferred Partner

Total e Integrated is the latest preferred partner for the Platinum Clubs of America & the World. Now the World’s most prestigious private clubs have preferred access to Total e Integrated and TEI Payment Solutions.

Total e Integrated is the industry leading provider of business management technology solutions for private clubs that need to integrate departments, streamline operations and boost overall revenues.

TEI Payment Solutions provides end-to-end EMV certified and PCI compliant payment processing in combination with instant and significant savings over existing merchant processors.

When combined, Total e Integrated & TEI Payment Solutions in unmatched in its ability to offer everything from front of the house point-of-sale software and payment processing to backend business management and reporting tools.

www.TOTALEINTEGRATED.com | www.TOTALEINTEGRATED.com/TEI-PAYMENT-SOLUTIONS | 888.660.6131

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ADVERTORIAL

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Founded in 2000, Total e Integrated is a leading provider of end-to-end business management solutions for rec-reation, retail, hospitality and community organizations. For those two decades, Total e Integrated has enabled multi-faceted organizations to integrate departments, automate marketing, streamline operations and boost revenues with our innovative solutions and expert consulting team. Even the most complex operators have lev-eraged Total e Integrated to help simplify their day-to-day business processes.

Having originally grown as a powerful ERP system using Microsoft’s Dynamics GP platform, Total e Integrated has since built powerful integrated solutions in a modular fashion, making it simple for any organization to inte-grate departments and implement modules in stages as needed. Total e Integrated’s success isn’t just internal, co-development from some of the industry’s most innovative companies such as Hot Springs Village and Desert Mountain has allowed them to continually develop, tweak and improve its solutions.

Desert Mountain, one of the finest private club facilities in the world and number 25 of the top 150 country clubs as ranked by Platinum Clubs® of America (2016-2018), utilizes

Total e Integrated as their club management software provider. Desert Mountain’s gated community has 2,000 members, six renowned Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses, nine remarkable dining facilities, an extraordi-nary retail operation and over 42,000 square feet of spa, fitness & recreation offering a 9-court Tennis Complex.

Desert Mountain selected Total e Integrated after they determined they could replace numerous existing non-integrated solutions with Total e Integrated’s robust suite of integrated enterprise software. Now, rather than several non-connected databases, Desert Mountain has a more seamless integrated platform.

The greatest return on investment for Desert Mountain, aside of reducing the number of disconnected data-bases, was the significant improvement in stability and performance which contributed to an improved member experience. With one database, member preferences, activities and dues are managed in fewer systems streamlining operations while providing business in-telligence.

Together, Total e Integrated and Desert Mountain work collaboratively to provide solutions tailored for this unique property. Thanks to the innovative mindset of both organizations, Desert Mountain’s specific needs and desires are accommodated for in the platform, which benefits both the evolution of the software platform and Desert Mountain.

Recently, Total e In-tegrated founded its subsidiary TEI Pay-ment Solutions to of-

fer a much needed industry service: a single vendor for point of sale transactions. Now, in addition to Total e Integrated’s point-of-sale software, the organization can also offer credit and debit card processing services. TEI Payment Solutions is driven to provide instant and significant savings over existing merchant processors in combination with the unmatched value of having a single end-to-end EMV certified and PCI compliant processing partner. TEI Payment Solutions allows businesses to reduce payment processing costs while continuing to receive improved audit controls, security and overall efficiency for their business.

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TEI Payment Solutions offers the latest retail merchant services solutions as they arrive including: NFC, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and more.



Five Summer Swimwear Selections

THOUGH MOST MEN HAVE ALREADY REFRESHED their swimwear wardrobe for the summer, it’s quite possible some of those trunks may already be a little worse for wear after a few Hamptons

weekends and beachside trips. These distinctively patterned pairs from designers such as Orlebar Brown, Frescobol Carioca and Vilebrequin will add a dash of personal style to anyone's collection and will make a bold statement on beaches across the world.

FRESCOBOL CARIOCAAman Sport Swim Shorts Amangiri $250

The designers at Frescobol Carioca are masters at creating bold, transporting patterns inspired by the vibrant sights

and sounds of Rio de Janeiro for its extravagant swim shorts. For these particular trunks, the brand looked

beyond the borders of Brazil, taking inspiration from the breathtaking environment of the Amangiri Resort in Utah as a celebration of the brand’s 30th anniversary. This pair’s

geometric pattern is an homage to some traditional Navajo motifs, and the pink, red colorway is meant to represent

Canyon Point’s sunsets.

ORLEBAR BROWN Without Feather Ado Bulldog Swim Shorts $295

Orlebar Brown has never shied away from countering its well-tailored swim shorts with vibrant prints, even allowing the opportunity for you to play designer by picking a photograph to turn into a pair of shorts with its one of a kind #SnapShorts program. These Without Feather Ado Bulldog swim shorts are a prime example of what the brand does best, rendering a tricky pattern effortlessly elegant due to a nearly monochrome color scheme and perfect fit.


DEREK ROSE Maui 7 Navy Shorts $275

Although Derek Rose is best-known for its lavish loungewear; it shouldn't come as a surprise that their swimwear is equally as luxurious. These Maui 7 swim shorts feature a theme inspired by the iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa Japanese print that is equally intricate and understated. Sport them on your next Mediterranean trip with some dark sunglasses for a look that allows you the opportunity to sun-bathe on the deck and sip cocktails at the bar with complete comfort and style.

HARTFORD Hawaiian Shirt Trunks $185

A nod to the traditional Hawaiian shirt your father likes to sport on vacation, this pair of trunks from Hartford

will have you feeling like you're on another island getaway, running from pool to pool. The mid-length fit helps the

retro pattern feel modern and stylish to make you feel completely well put together.

VILEBREQUIN Danse du Feu Swim Shorts $290

Inspired both by the animate shapes of coral reefs and dancers, Vilebrequin’s Danse du Feu swim shorts are an excellent pair to throw in your bag for your next island getaway. While we certainly suggest wearing them while catching soaking up the sun by the beach during the day, this style truly stands out at night when the flashing lights of that exclusive pool party you’re attending will trigger their lively glow-in-the-dark properties.

The only question now is what will you be wearing poolside this summer? With all of these fantastic choices, there is no shortage of options to choose the best summer looks during beach season. ◘


www.Eustis Chair.com 978-827-3103

Traditional Hardwood Elegance. Sustainably Crafted. Superior Comfort.

With durability backed by our 20 year warranty, your club chairs will truly

stand the test of time: our unmatched design will delight your members for

decades to come, guaranteed.

That’s the promise of Eustis Chair.

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Becker JetVan

IN A WORLD WHERE BUSINESS never stops, the world’s leading business executives, dignitaries and celebrities are all in need of the same amenities offered

on first class flights while traveling in any capacity. This need for constant connectivity is exactly why Becker Automotive Designs continues to provide the highest-quality custom vans to ensure those individuals are connected at all times of the day, even in rush hour traffic.

The most coveted of these Becker luxury vans is the heavily modified Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van -- outfitted with a fully functioning kitchen modeled after an aircraft galley. “The idea is that during your commute, you can do everything as if you were on a private jet,” said Howard Becker, founder and CEO of Becker Automotive Designs.

These all-inclusive models are equipped with a microwave oven, espresso maker and a full array of tableware, all available in the rear of the vehicle. At the touch of a button, the rear seats move forward to enable access to the miniature kitchen.

The JetVan’s interior designer, Natalia Wilner, worked in the aviation industry for years and learned to make the most of

restrictive dimensions. “We collaborated to fit in everything from a blender to a vacuum to three large-screen TVs, all while making the van’s interior look spacious and full of light,” Wilner says.

Philip Rivers, quarterback of the NFL’s Los Angeles Char-gers, relies on his Mercedez-Benz Sprinter Van during his daily three-hour commute from San Diego to Los Angeles for football practice and games. He calls the van “The best Quarterback room ever,” as he can study game film on one of the large screen TVs from the comfort of his van’s back seat.

Becker’s creations are made-to-order and offer an assortment of seating plans and features, including different strengths of armor from bulletproof through bomb-proof. The interior color schemes can be a simple traditional black vinyl or elaborate with two-tone leather upholsteries and exotic wood trims.

The JetVan is also extremely comfortable due to customized air suspension and supplementary noise-reduction and heat-insu-lation materials. These vans utilize a powerful air-conditioning system that includes filtered fresh-air ventilation to keep oxygen at ideal levels throughout the vehicle. In addition to the Sprinter Van, Becker also offers highly customized ver-sions of the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado and other traditional SUV models. ◘


5 TED Talks Worth Listening To

1 How to Break Bad Management Habits Before They Reach the Next Generation of LeadersElizabeth Lyle – Partner, Boston Consulting Group

Companies need their future leaders to manage with more speed, flexibility and trust than ever before. But how do you work your way up the corporate ladder while also challenging the way things have been done in the past? Leadership expert Elizabeth Lyle offers a fresh approach to climb up the corporate ladder, sharing creative ways that organizations give managers the coaching they need to lead differently yet effectively.

2 What Baby Boomers Can Learn from Millennials at Work – and Vice VersaChip Conley – Founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality

For the first time ever, we have five generations in the workplace at the same time. What would happen if we focused on how we all work together? In this discussion, Conley shows how age diversity makes companies stronger and calls for workers of different age groups to mentor each other at work, with wisdom flowing from one generation to another.

3 8 Lessons on Building a Company People Enjoy Working ForPatty McCord – Former Netflix Chief Talent Officer

Most companies operate on a clear set of policies and procedures: mandated vacation days, travel outlines, acceptable working hours, yearly goals. But what happens when a company looks to control less and trust more? Patty McCord shares the key insights that led her to throw away the traditional work manual.

4 A Powerful Way to Unleash your Natural CreativityTim Harford – Author, Economist

What can we learn from the world's most consis-tently creative people? They "slow-motion multitask," actively juggling multiple projects and moving between topics without feeling hurried. Mr. Harford shares how innovators like Einstein, Darwin, Twyla Tharp and Michael Crichton discovered their inspiration and means of productivity through cross-training their minds and changing their mindsets.

5 This is What Makes Employees Happy at WorkMichael C. Bush – CEO at Great Place to Work

There are three billion working people on this planet, and only 40 percent of them report being happy at work. Michael C. Bush shares his insights into what makes workers unhappy—and how companies can improve their bottom lines by fostering satisfaction and productivity amongst employees. ◘

Chip Conley


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Board Self-AuditBoard of Directors, whether they preside over profit or non-profit organizations, know that it is necessary to step back and evaluate themselves and their operations. Often, outside consulting organizations can provide third-par-ty objectivity, opinions and input.

This Self-Audit provides the ability for the Boards of Private Clubs to take stock of their respective operations. The comprehensive form is the outgrowth of thousands of privileged conversations with Club Boards, Search Commit-tees and Managers. Its fundamental purpose is to provide Club Boards—of all types and sizes—with a standard and comprehensive structure by which to assess their Club’s overall condition.

This Self-Audit allows each Director to report his or her own judgment about the Club. Following these indepen-dent assessments, the President may elect to compile a composite of the results.

The five main sections of the questionnaire are:

1. Club Governance2. Financial Analysis3. Club Operations4. Membership5. Human Resources

The Self-Audit contains 87 questions that apply equally to Country, Golf, City, Athletic or Yacht Clubs and allows the Board to take a look at more precise areas of particular interest or concern. This Self-Audit is available for $425.

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“The Club Leaders Forum Private Club Assessment was an incredibly valuable

experience for all of us; the process itself was extremely thorough, touching on every area of our operation (both member-facing and back of the house). Even before the formal report was received the conversation at the club started to change.

Having a sense of how we stack up against the very best clubs in the U.S. and the World is beyond valuable to my Board and me. We are committed to being world-class in all that we do, but defining what that means has always been a struggle. Now, we have a clear road map of which areas we can improve in, and how. In addition, many of our past strategies and decisions were vindicated by the assessment, breathing new confidence into our strategic planning process.

It would be fair to say that the assessment has helped to crystallize our vision and to focus our team of paid and volunteer leaders behind key strategies that will take us to the top of the industry. Moreover, we now have an objective third party partner who can help to steer us in the right direction while also continuing to objectively evaluate our strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats relative to our competitor set and the very best clubs. I highly recommend the process to anyone who is interested in taking their club to the next level.”

Miles TuckerGeneral Manager/COO

Hillcrest Country ClubLos Angeles, CA

FOR MORE INFORMATIONE-mail: [email protected]: (818) 851-3180 Fax: (818) 889-6935

Private Club AssessmentThe Selection Criteria for consideration as a Platinum Club of America is comprised of seven fundamentals of excellence in the Private Club industry. Club Leaders Forum offers on-site assessments to Platinum Clubs® who wish to improve their national ranking, Clubs that are seeking Platinum recognition and Clubs who would like to benchmark against the finest Country, Golf, City, Athletic and Yacht Clubs in the country. A comprehensive evaluation is available to conduct an on-site evaluation for your Club by utilizing the Seven Selection Criteria:

1. Universal Recognition2. Excellence in Amenities and Facilities3. Caliber of Staff and Professional Service Levels4. Quality of Membership5. Governance and Prudent Fiscal Management6. Adapting to Changing Times7. Overall Experience

The Private Club Assessment is conducted over two days. Upon arrival, a Senior Club Leaders Forum staff member will take an in-depth tour of the club. Subsequently, a meeting will be conducted with the General Manager and the Senior Management team. The Club President and/or Board Members will be invited to attend a discussion luncheon that will include an initial assessment. Each of the Seven Platinum Club Selection Criteria will be addressed during the meeting. The afternoon session will consist of reviewing other aspects of the operation with one-on-one meetings with department heads.

A comprehensive Executive Summary Report will be created and provided within 30 days from the conclusion of the site visit.

ASSESSMENT FEE. Starting at $9,500 plus travel expenses that will be agreed to prior to the execution of the Evaluation Agreement.

mailto:dennis%40clubleadersforum.com?subject=Private%20Club%20Assessment