Winter Show Roundup

Big Ideas from the Big Easy

by C&RB Staff (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
April 2005
 

• It also doesn’t hurt your club’s image, and your overall pace of play, if you can qualify golfer’s abilities before giving them a tee time—or at least try to set limited periods of availability for truly “open” play. You don’t want to discourage beginners and learners, but limiting the time they’re on the course with other, more skilled players can have a clear and positive impact on overall average times.

• More widespread application of GPS technology at courses definitely stands to be helpful to pace of play, and it is not inconceivable—perhaps even inevitable—that it will eventually be the standard at even the most traditional of courses, such as St. Andrews.

Power Entertaining

Master Sommelier Eddie Osterland was the first American to receive that status, but he doesn’t let it go to his head. He spends much of his time teaching people about wine so that they are able to spend more energy enjoying it, rather than focusing on its intimidation factor. Here are some ideas to try at your next wine dinner or event:

• The sense of taste is sharpest on an empty stomach, so keep hors d’oeuvres light and lead off with the showstopper, be it food or wine.

• Offer diners “a little something to nibble on.” It should be free, but don’t get hung up on bread. If it’s something special it will impress people and subconsciously lure them into spending a little more on dinner when the menu comes.

• Serve wines in pairings, to allow guests to distinguish the difference between different regions, vintages, etc. This will also create conversation, which can be especially important at events where guests don’t necessarily know everyone at the table.

• Go to www.eddieosterland.com and take the free lessons.

Focus on Tennis

Mitch Adler, USPTA, the head tennis pro of The Princess Anne Country Club, Virginia Beach, Va., lent some insight into running a successful club tennis program. Even for a 7:00 AM seminar, he was wired and ready to go—perhaps a sign of why he has been so successful in his role as head pro. Some of his tennis tips:

• If you have more than one tennis pro, try to have a diverse staff—not just in the legal sense, but in personality, too. Not everyone likes taking lessons from a laidback pro, but not everyone prefers the energetic chatterbox, either.

• Don’t neglect juniors. In today’s world of family clubs, a good children’s program can draw the parents.

• Find the “spark plug” among your members whose stamp of approval will make any event a success. If you can convince her (or him) of a good idea, the friends will follow.

• With the growing strength of Internet outlets, loyalty to the pro shop has diminished. Combat this with superior customer service and strong relationships.

• Encourage your tennis pro to learn to play with both hands. This can not only help him be a better instructor to lefties and righties alike, it can help keep him on the court if he suffers an injury. He can work on his off hand when giving lessons to weaker players who don’t necessarily need him to be at the peak of his game.

• Begin a tennis aerobics class. You can charge $10 a class and draw more people to the club. This uses line-fed drills and gives members a cardiovascular workout, not a lesson.

• The tennis pro should do as much as he can to give back to the community by hosting charity events and helping out high school teams. This brings good press and exposure to the club, and can be a good source of marketing.

Tax Issues for Private Clubs

Kevin Reilly, CPA of PKF Witt Mares, took on a topic that more often than not is “as clear as mud.” The line between private and semi-private clubs, from the government’s perspective, is not always well-defined, Reilly stressed. Even if you have defined your club as private and qualified for tax status as such, there are several ways you can inadvertently void or endanger that status:

• If you change your bylaws, the IRS is supposed to receive a copy.

• The 15/35 test: Investment and nonmember income cannot exceed 35% of gross receipts and no more than 15% can come from non-members. Any income source must be considered all member income or all non-member income. It can’t be split.

• Be careful with trial memberships. They must be significantly long (say three months), the trial member must be awarded full club privileges, and you must be able to show some degree of retention.

• Also be wary of non-traditional activities. They can amount to no more than 5% and that amount will be added to non-member activity even if members are involved.

• Advertising and marketing can get you in trouble, and so can Web sites. If you are truly private, your site should be designated .org and restricted to members only, at least for deeper access beyond the home page (which is where people needing to find or contact the club should be able to easily find address and phone information, and directions).

City Clubs Earn Their Due

The first 20 minutes of the City Club Roundtable was devoted to a discussion among the 50 or so city club managers in the room that they still feel they don’t always get enough respect either within the CMAA, or as part of the golf-dominated club industry as a whole. Then the Rodney Dangerfield segment of the session ended, and the moderators and attendees launched into an idea-packed exchange that showed why this segment of the industry merits attention from anyone looking for workable ideas to attack the challenges common to every type of club and resort. Some of the best concepts offered:

• Turn your club into a place to “see” the Food Network “live.” Several clubs reported great success hosting “Celebrity Chef” nights, with big-name “media chefs” brought in to take over the dining room for a night. Members have eagerly been paying $75 or even $100 a head to attend, the club managers reported. One club even set up a “duel” between well-known English and American chefs, and attracted 100 diners to a traditionally dead night of the week.

• Earning their chops. Session moderator Jonathan McCabe, CCM, General Manager of the Union League Club of Chicago, reported that when his club planned a new concept for its dining room, it was warned that “the last thing Chicago needs is another steakhouse.” But the Union League forged ahead with its new “65 West” concept, modeled after the Ruth’s Chris chain (with menu price points strategically set $1 lower). “We brought in a superstar chef, created a steakhouse menu with USDA prime cuts, redid our dining room, retrained our wait staff, and expanded our wine list to 400 wines,” McCabe reported. “The response from the membership was spectacular; not only did covers shoot up, but sales of bottled wine grew almost 50%, and dessert sales went up, too. Overall, nightly dining room traffic nearly doubled, and our check averages went up 18 to 20%.”

• Filling the vacancies. Several city club GMs noted good success target-marketing new members by partnering with real estate developers and agents who were converting abandoned downtown office buildings into loft apartments. Not only were club promotional materials included in leasing information packages, but in one case, a developer who was also an existing club member folded a sponsored, fee-paid membership into an incentive program for his leasing agents.

• Hold that spot. Several club managers described “corporate replacement programs” that allow businesses with multiple memberships among their executives to transfer memberships, without an initiation fee, when existing members are transferred or leave the firms. In some cases, the slots are held open indefinitely. “It keeps membership levels in those key businesses stable, and now that it’s become better known, the companies are being proactive about finding someone new to fill a spot after it becomes open,” said one GM who’s had such a program for six years. Other managers described various forms of corporate discount programs for multiple memberships; these make it very easy to get an open spot filled when total membership falls below the discount threshhold, they reported. “It just takes one call to remind everyone at the firm that they’re all going to lose out unless they find someone at their company who can become a new member,” said one GM with such a program.

• Who says city clubs are stuffy? The General Manager of an Atlanta club said his club has attracted double the usual weeknight dining crowds through Comedy Nights that feature local comedians—and even some standup acts from within the membership.

Never Too Sensitive

In a lively interactive session on “Sensitive Membership Issues,” Stephen Barth of HospitalityLaw-yer.com probed the crowd to draw out these insights:

• No-smoking policies won’t burn your club down. A show of hands indicated that about half of the represented clubs had banned smoking, and no one said yes when Barth asked if the policy had had any negative impact on sales (food and beverage or otherwise). After most of the attendees indicated they had not yet extended the ban to outside buildings or the grounds, Barth pointed out that if “extinguishment receptacles” aren’t moved 15 to 20 feet away from building, “you’ll have people standing right outside the door and exhaling inside.”

• Get off the phone and play. Barth’s questioning of the crowd about how they are dealing with cell phones in their clubs revealed that members now seem to be adapting to any restrictions or bans that are imposed—but violations by guests remain a problem. Some clubs even reported that they have taken the step of notifying members that they would be subject to suspensions for violations by their guests. Barth reminded the club managers to make sure their policies also cover picture phones. “ High-end clubs can be especially vulnerable to compromising situations,” he noted. “ If your policy makes sure to state specifically that picture phones can’t be used, you can then take steps to impose enforcement criteria if any pictures surface.” Barth also noted that extending the cell phone ban to the golf course can help with efforts to speed up play. “If you’re yapping, you’re not playing,” he said. “ Plus it’s distracting to, or delays, others who are trying to play.” To get around the objection that no cell phones on the course limits the ability to get response in the event of an emergency, one club manager reported that his club strategically placed five phones on the course that are programmed to only go to the golf shop; another reported that wireless speaker posts have been installed to contact the pro shop and front desk.

• Errant golf ball liability—“It’s like a dog bite—the first one is free,” Barth said. “The primary issue is if it’s foreseeable. If it is, steps should be taken to prevent it from occurring. And once it happens someplace once, that’s considered putting you on notice that it will happen, and you’ll be more liable if it happens again.”

• Settling up when it’s Splitsville—The consensus of the group seemed to be that establishing a “member of record” up front, as part of the initial membership process, is the best way to avoid messy disputes over who’s still the member if a marriage breaks up.