Murphy’s Laws

Tips for hosting successful events— even when things don’t go exactly as planned.

by Erin Brereton (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
July 2007
 

Summing It Up • When participants are paying a premium for charity tournaments, there’s a lot of pressure on clubs to make sure things go right. • Staffing can make or break the profitability of an event; build the cost of additional staff into the event price. • Event preparations should include contingency plans for unforeseen circumstances.

The Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation (DMSF) holds only one golf event a year—the DMSF Classic—and it’s never a small affair (C&RB, May 2007, pgs. 36-37). Held at three different private Chicago-area clubs per year, the 2007 (and 18th annual) Classic took place at Knollwood Golf Club, Shoreacres Country Club and Onwentsia Club in early June, with a full schedule that included lunch, full caddy service and a dinner at Knollwood with a live auction.

For any club, successfully hosting a fundraiser of this scope requires precise planning and the flexibility to deal with unexpected issues. Those key considerations are compounded when an event like the DMSF Classic is spread over three venues and requires close coordination betweeen the event organizer and the staffs of all of the properties that are involved.

The DMSF—a non-profit organization that provides high school scholarships and educational support to prepare economically disadvantaged, academically gifted Chicago eighth-grade students for college—has learned over the years how to work closely with its three hosting clubs to produce a successful result. This year was no different, despite some unforeseen delays—making the behind-the-scenes details worthy of close study by any club seeking lessons on how to ensure an effective event, no matter what challenges may arise.

Choosing a Course
Foundations like the DMSF often change venues for their regular events, so participants who attend each year get the chance over time to play a variety of courses. This can be a huge selling point, organizers says.
“Each year we rotate the courses that we choose to hold our annual Classic,” says Andrew B. David, DMSF Execu-tive Director. “The clubs are selected based on [proximity] to one another, their facilities, their staffs, and recommendations from our Board members.”

Because private clubs are governed as non-profit entities by the IRS, they must also meet the requirement that events must be sponsored by an existing member, says Neil Smith, General Manager of Onwentsia Club.

“[Our sponsoring member] was involved in the beginning in writing letters to the Board for approval,” Smith says. “The Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation stepped in and worked out the rest of the planning.”

Knollwood Golf Club

"When participants are paying a premium, [the event] really has to go well,” says Morris McCann, GM, Knollwood Golf Club, which hosted dinner for 300.

Participating clubs stress that they host these kind of golf events for members, but not necessarily for their membership.
“We don’t do it for promotional reasons,” says Knollwood’s General Manager, Morris McCann. “We do it because a member of the club has requested we sponsor the event. Being one of the premier clubs in Chicago, [participants] like to go to a club where people normally cannot play. It gives the opportunity for someone to be exposed to your club, but with most private clubs, an individual [who is joining] is usually sponsored by a current member.”

Pre-Tee Off Planning
Hosting any event requires meticulous planning. But when clubs take on fundraisers, there can be an extra push to provide value and experience, so participants feel they’re getting the most of out their entry fee—and are willing to give more.

At a high-end event like the DMSF Classic, where tickets sold for $850 a person, providing a unique experience is especially critical.

“When participants are paying a premium, [the event] really has to go well,” McCann says. “The momentum of the evening has to give a good flow, so you keep people’s interest going.”

Knollwood worked to ensure success through a series of planning sessions.

“The logistics for the evening event were quite detailed,” McCann says. “To host a dinner for 300 and have, at the same time, ample room to set up for a silent auction and have proper service, we [had to go] through everything. I did a proposal.”

Plans included using Knollwood’s clubhouse and outdoor tent for dinner, at which participants dined on filet mignon with grilled scampi shrimp. The live auction would also be held in the dining area. “We needed to have dinner tables where everybody could also see the live auction and presentations by the recipients,” McCann says.

The two other clubs, relieved of dinner-hosting duties, also worked to ensure that the daytime portion of the event would go smoothly, and not at a greater-than-estimated-cost to the club.

All three clubs said they did not offer a discounted rate for food or beverages.

“This is our price, regardless of the non-profit [status of the organizer] or the fact that a member is hosting,” Smith says. “It’s just a normal piece of business at the club, no different than having a function here like a member dinner or wedding.”

After a day of torrential rains, the award dinner and auction at Knollwood Golf Club “was an opportunity to shine,” says GM Morris McCann. Despite the nasty weather, 280 guests showed up for the evening event, including the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation Board President, Bob Murphy, and Beth and David Shaw.

Part of making an event profitable involves arranging for a necessary, but not excessive, amount of staff.
At Shoreacres, General Manager Michell Dubuc says the club used its typical golf staff of “about 16 people—maybe five people in the pro shop and other people who do other food and beverage work.” Onwentsia also tapped its usual talent to help, Smith says.

Knollwood, however, felt it needed extra help. “When you do a dinner for 300, we’re going to have 25 servers,” McCann says. “We usually staff one server for every 15 people. We also added four bartenders. You don’t want people standing six-deep taking 12 minutes to get a drink when they are being asked for this kind of money. It has to be perfect.”

However, the club kept costs reasonable by estimating additional staff needs early in the planning process.
“It’s included in the event price,” McCann says. “We have a service charge we apply to food and beverage, but [staff] is in the equation.”

Tournament Scramble
No matter how much planning went into the Classic, there was one element no club could prepare for: the torrential downpours that hit all three courses on the day of this year’s event.

“It has rained on the day of the Classic before and we’ve been able to play a few holes,” David says, “but never to the extent we experienced [this year].”

Some clubs let golfers try to play until lightning was detected. Others encouraged them to relax indoors.
Knollwood let 25 to 30 event guests play 12 fast holes. A two-hour power outage at Onwentsia caused a delay and eventually discontinued play because, without electricity, the club’s lightning detection system wouldn’t function.
“It got too late in the day, and our biggest concern was the storms,” Smith says. “Most everyone was planning to walk the course to use their caddies, but it was too wet to use carts [anyway]. Without carts, we couldn’t clear the course quickly if we needed to.”

Participants at Shoreacres were a bit luckier, due to that course’s design, Dubuc says.

“It was an hour-by-hour situation,” she reports. “Some people completed 18 holes. We have very good drainage on our course; we didn’t have the [wet green] problems like some other clubs.”

Late in the afternoon, Knollwood adjusted the cocktail hour’s start time.

“At a certain point we knew we’d lost the golf, but we still ended up with more than 280 guests at the evening function,” McCann says. “We were able to work straight through the day and move the evening event up by an hour; that helped to accommodate a lot of the golfers who did not get to play.

“I saw the evening part as an opportunity to shine,” he adds. “The foundation set a record level of live auction contributions and purchases, which is a good sign for us.”

Even with the rain, the event raised over $750,000 for the foundation, with the help of all three clubs’ preparation and willingness to adapt.

“The clubs and staff were really accommodating to the needs of the foundation,” David says. “The money raised from the event will allow DMSF to pay for tuition and educational support programs for our over 400 scholars.”