Golf Club Promotions.......

I understand that the joining fee can act as an extra tie to the club and aid retention, I just don't believe that this is anywhere near as much a factor as other things.

Things like:

Quality of Course - Would you really leave to save £50-£100 a year to join a club with an inferior course?

Friendly Membership - If you are at a friendly club whose membership has welcomed you warmly, are you going to move on save a few quid?

Regular Playing Partners - Would you really leave for pastures new if you have a regular group that you play with and whose company you enjoy?

Good Social Aspect - Is there a strong social side to the golf club, events, dinners etc that you enjoy and participate in? If so, why leave?

To my mind, all of these factors are much more important in retaining membership than a joining fee. Clubs need actively to focus on these things to help retain members.

I know quite a few people who have left club because of unfriendly members, difficulties breaking into cliques etc but none who have stayed because of the joining fee.

Specifically, Brough does have a big advantage in that it is one of the best courses in the area. That will always be a huge factor in retaining its membership. Unless you're off to Ganton (quite a trek!), you're probably taking a step down or at best a sideways move in terms of quality of course.
 
As a club attached to a municipal its getting tough. We could be down to less than 100 playing members soon and with more people passing at the club than joining! it’s a worrying fact that has been ignored by the club over the years, we have about a handful of members between 20-40 myself included and its really something that should have been picked up a long time ago. The boards answer to this is... No joining fee for Juniors (I nearly cried), it’s ok having a few juniors in the club but they leave when booze and women come into fashion or get cheap membership at a top track and so leave.

So what am I doing, I stared a website for the club got a little cash for the domain and updating it on a daily basis, I also linked in a Facebook page for the club to have some banter and members funny pictures on. I know it’s not going to draw members on a large level but pushing out the fact that you can afford golf with a mortgage and child and still enjoy the benefits of club golf at a low cost is an option.

We see what else can be done to entice people to play municipal golf with one hand tied behind your back.
 
Ganton has its own unique niche - and is perhaps very lucky considering its location, - potential Members have to write and express an interest in joining, and then wait for a possible Invitation........at whatever the cost required is.

Its a lovely lovely course, and I know a few that are Members....... but it is a hike to get to, and I couldnt afford it anyway !

very few places like that perhaps.......or then again.........
 
Ganton has its own unique niche - and is perhaps very lucky considering its location, - potential Members have to write and express an interest in joining, and then wait for a possible Invitation........at whatever the cost required is.

Its a lovely lovely course, and I know a few that are Members....... but it is a hike to get to, and I couldnt afford it anyway !

very few places like that perhaps.......or then again.........
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Bizarrely, we've got a member who is a member at Ganton and at our. He plays way more at our place than he does at Ganton. :eek:

I thought he needed his head examining when he told me. :)
 
I think a lot of Ganton's members are exactly the same, fella's who have dual Memberships, and maybe only play Ganton once in a while.
But hey, they can afford it........so why not.
 
There is a club in Edinburgh who dropped their entry fee a couple of seasons back. For years this place had maintained a good membership and had a waiting list. However as times are hard even they had problems adding to their number. Upshot was drop the entry fee and get lots of new members in at one fell swoop.

Great :D

or was it ?

The following year, when it came to membership renewal time they lost a very large proportion of their new members from the previous years intake. They had gone off to pastures new and saved £50 or so by taking up another clubs special 'no joining fee' offer. With a season ticket for the municipal courses costing just under £400, people may be taking a punt on a club membership and then moving on to try somewhere else the following year.

There's no loyalty with an itinerant golfing public I'm afraid and a club will find it very hard to budget if it cant determine what it's membership levels are going to be.
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Sure, it's more difficult to budget etc But as I said above, IF the club can hold it's own in terms of the product it offers (course, comps, social etc) then it has nothing to fear. The situation you describe happens more at clubs where people join to save money then find the club isn't that good and are then free to move somewhere else. Some would say this is a good thing in a free market as it should drive up standards generally. The clubs that suffer in this scenario are the ones that don't offer a good value product.
 
There is a club in Edinburgh who dropped their entry fee a couple of seasons back. For years this place had maintained a good membership and had a waiting list. However as times are hard even they had problems adding to their number. Upshot was drop the entry fee and get lots of new members in at one fell swoop.

Great :D

or was it ?

The following year, when it came to membership renewal time they lost a very large proportion of their new members from the previous years intake. They had gone off to pastures new and saved £50 or so by taking up another clubs special 'no joining fee' offer. With a season ticket for the municipal courses costing just under £400, people may be taking a punt on a club membership and then moving on to try somewhere else the following year.

There's no loyalty with an itinerant golfing public I'm afraid and a club will find it very hard to budget if it cant determine what it's membership levels are going to be.
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But that is the demographics of todays society. Macster I can appreciate what your saying but todays society is so different from the 1980's where golf club memberships were probably at their peak.

People will always move on, its society, jobs move, friends move, its easier for people to move. You will always get an element of golfers in every club who are hard core and you will also get others who see the grass as being greener on the other side, they will move on because X golf club is £40 cheaper or they believe it was in better condition last year than their current club, or they dont like the current committee, or the future plans.

Golf clubs have to accept that this change is here and its more than likely going to get worse. Macster as your clubs hardcore get older, you will experience problems!
 
I don't get why golf clubs should be entitled to charge a joining fee to encourage "loyalty". Several posts in this thread have made the point that clubs won't be able to budget properly if they don't know what their membership levels will be like next year but guess what - that's how every other business operates! If a club is so worried about being sustainable that they effectively blackmail members to stay, it's got problems.

When I was a member at a local golf centre, (7-day card at a decent pay-and-play course with affiliated club, so no joining fee), it was a well known fact that the centre manager would have liked to get rid of the club altogether and rely solely on the pay and play side of things. Presumably he didn't foresee any problems with budgeting.
 
I would be interested to hear what view the clubs take on leaving members who are paying a joining fee over a period of time. At my interview I asked and was told categorically that the club does not pursue leaving members for the whole of the fee if, lets say, they pay it over 5 years and left after 2.

If that is the case then it really does not keep members in situ as proposed. My issue is others charging the fee stopping me joining rather than my club's fee keeping me there.
 
If we get 20 new memberships paying a joining fee every year, then if the fee is abolished all the subs will have to go up to compensate for the lost income. I'm not paying for that.
 
If we get 20 new memberships paying a joining fee every year, then if the fee is abolished all the subs will have to go up to compensate for the lost income. I'm not paying for that.
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For that 20, you'll have passed up on about 200 potential new members, joining fees should be seperate income to operating income and expenditure as you can't accurately forsee what if any JF's you will have.
 
You can come up with a load of reasons not to drop joining fees. 'I'm not paying out of my subs ..., my club is a quality club etc'

however if you're struggling for members you have to change the way you operate. Golfers are consumers and need to be treated as such. As soon a clubs realise this then they can get on with the job of attracting more.

People in the whole don't want the status of membership they want a quality golf experience, provide this and members will stay.
 
I think a lot of Ganton's members are exactly the same, fella's who have dual Memberships, and maybe only play Ganton once in a while.
But hey, they can afford it........so why not.
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I wish I could afford it. The downside (or the upside depending on how you look at it) would be that I'd be off about 17 round there! :)

Back onto the topic (ish). Does anyone know if their club has done exit interviews with non-renewing members to see why they haven't renewed? Fairly standard in industry and could well be a useful exercise for clubs.
 
With referance the Brough website is any one really interest in what the captains look like?

A waste of a picture,that space especially on the front page could be used soooo much better,apart from that it is pretty decent,better than either of mine.
 
Dodger - in its defence, it does have 3 photo's of every hole in the Course Gallery
:cool:

Henry - strangely, I played to my Handicap easily at Ganton, (back 9 in Level Gross :eek:) - whereas at Brough, its totally accurate and well earned.
 
If we get 20 new memberships paying a joining fee every year, then if the fee is abolished all the subs will have to go up to compensate for the lost income. I'm not paying for that.
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There is an alternative that happened with my club. When it opened there was a joining fee, but competing against more established clubs it was decided to drop the joining fee. Instead of existing members having to pay more their joining fee was taken off their subscriptions over 3 years.

All in all though I think that clubs will have to accept that as with every thing in life now loyalty cannot be taken for granted. If you want loyalty give your members what they want at a reasonable price and they will generally stay.
 
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