How efficient are your Council/Committee/Group running your Club?

[Bunkermagnet]

Surely you would if the course was a tip?

I don't play at a tip, but with anything I have been involoved in through my life, if you aren't prepared to help out don't moan about those who are and do.

 

[Hobbit]

Most courses is full of members willing to critisize the management of the club and coutrse, but very few are willing to actually put themselves forward to do anything about it.
I would never bemoan the committee or the direction of the course. I don't have the time to put myself forward so how can I comment on them.

When on committee, a lotta years, I didn’t mind people coming to me criticising providing it was done in the right way. Questions can lead to positive change. Quite often I’d ask them to put it in writing, a) because I didn’t want to give knee jerk answers, and b) I wanted the committee to give the issue fair consideration. I’d be surprised if more than 2 in 10 could be bothered writing in once they’d vented.

Are committees filled with well intentioned amateurs? Without a doubt there’s a mixed level of abilities but, in the main, those that end up Head of Comps/handicaps/house/greens etc will have ‘served their apprenticeship’ on various committees.

Obviously, paid professionals that have the business acumen is ideal but they come at a cost. Not all clubs can afford them.

At the end of the day, members get the committee they put there. If they don’t like it there’s always the AGM, or if they feel really strongly about it, an EGM. Members can affect change.

 

[Jigger]

No idea to be honest. I go there to play golf and as long as it’s open I’m happy. If I find somewhere better I move.

 

[Crazyface]

Ours is run by the owners and the manager. I'm not sure how efficient they are, but the course looks good at the moment. They keep us well informed of what is going on (eg, major works on all tee boxes where required over the winter starting now, but brand new winter mats already in place). Greens were lovely this year too. I'll be here another year.

 

[Bdill93]

The clubs owners make the vast majority of decisions for our club.

There is a golf club committee which is seperate, the owner will always attend this too - they work together to identify the key areas for course works etc.

Seems to work pretty well - but the majority of the committee are older 65+ (everyone but the captain and comp sec) and I dont know if there is much of a succession plan in place.

 

[sunshine]

Eh! Money.

Bit of an odd comment. I would hate to be somewhere like that.

If the primary objective of running a golf club is to save money, you end up with a poor experience for the members.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Ours are brilliant ?

 

[sunshine]

Through the years most of our volunteer Directors have run their own businesses.

The Captains committee is not responsible for matters of finance.

I always think that there should be separation between dedicated staff who run the club on a day to day basis, and the board / committee who should provide oversight and governance only... and leave the day to day minutiae to the people they have recruited to do the job.

At many golf clubs, the committee consists of successful people who have run businesses. That's great to support broader business / commercial decisions, but rarely helps with greens maintenance and deciding which trees to chop down.

 

[jim8flog]

I always think that there should be separation between dedicated staff who run the club on a day to day basis, and the board / committee who should provide oversight and governance only... and leave the day to day minutiae to the people they have recruited to do the job.

At many golf clubs, the committee consists of successful people who have run businesses. That's great to support broader business / commercial decisions, but rarely helps with greens maintenance and deciding which trees to chop down.

We have 3 levels of management/committee.

The board of Directors who are responsible for all things financial. (voted on to the board by the members)
A captain's committer who are responsible for all course matters, competitions, handicaps, 5 year plan and add hoc items.
We have a club manager and a course manager who are responsible for the day to day running and management of the club and course and all staffing matters including the pro shop . Buy and large the Course manager does what he thinks is necessary and produces a plan of works which is presented to the Captain's committee for comment.

We are a members golf club and it is important that there is a 'vehicle' for comments from the members to be discussed/implemented and this is done by referral to the Directors or Captain's committee as appropriate.

 

[GB72]

In all honesty, I think that at my old club there were too many vested interests and factions for the club overall to be run efficiently. The course and competition side was all pretty smooth but to facilites and overall club management were an eye opener at the meetings I went to.

The bar side of things is simple, it needed someone with professional catering management experience to deal with the bar and the kitchen. The time and the knowledge was not there to deal with menus, ingredient costs, mark up on dishes, drink pricing etc.

As for the overall running of the club, there were those that wanted to up the fees, increase the exclusivity and return it to some sort of 1960s middle aged, male fifedom and those who wanted more members, more families, more inclusivity and more involvement in the community (you will never guess what side I was on from how I have described the 2 main camps) and the meetings I went to pretty much ended up with a blazing row and a fudged set of decisions that really did not help anyone.

 

[Orikoru]

I will caveat my answer by first saying I know nothing of running a golf club, all of the difficulties and so on. But my impression is simply that they are not very proactive. The tee booking system they've come up with makes no sense, and prohibit play at certain times, and my complaints fall on deaf ears (albeit it may be that I'm the lone voice in the wilderness of course). We are having problems with our 14th as well which is by the main road - a chap whose house is just beyond the green has been pressing for them to make changes for a while after his window got broken, and another incident of a ball being sliced into the road has forced the club to make changes. They've decided putting a big net up all the way around is too expensive, but their plan to reverse holes 14 and 15, which was due to start this month, has been declined planning permission (I think) based on some other complaints about the work. I could be wrong but it seems like they are lurching from one solution to the next without having a proper plan or any research really. So for now we continue with a pathetic 110 yard temporary hole instead.

Again, I don't know anything about it, but is it really cheaper to totally rebuild two holes to be played the opposite way round, than to put some netting up above the fences down one side of a hole?

 

[sunshine]

Some of our well meaning amateurs run (or ran) large multi national organisations!

Exactly! But probably they have very little idea of how to run a kitchen or hollow core a green. In my experience these successful people understand when to get involved and when to step back (seems to be all about asking the right questions).

One of these people recently informed me that slope rating isn't actually anything to do with the slope of the greens. He's right of course but he described it as some sort of revelation. Imagine him being in charge of handicaps or course committee!

 

[IanM]

I dunno. One was the Gen Manager of the Cardiff Marriott

 

[2blue]

We've got pretty good owners....... many Millions invested in the last 7/8 years + plans to take the course foreward

 

[HeftyHacker]

Ours appear to be the typical old boys committee however they do seem fairly receptive to any suggestions.

One of my PPs sent an email about the state of the bunkers earlier in the year (they were compact and rock hard) - stating that the course was in great condition and that the bunkers were the only thing letting them down. Within a couple of days they had all been broken up and raked and were in great condition again, and they seem to have kept on top of them since.

The only thing i would openly criticise them on is their use of social media. Some of the views from our course are stunning and should really be showcased but the social media seems to consist of dull photos on cloudy days and the occasional blurry, zoomed in photo of ducks on the pond at the 11th.

 

[Neilds]

The one 'complaint' I have with my club is the communication - or lack of it! They are doing a lot of work on the course, removing trees, altering bunkers etc and, whilst we are told what work is going on, we are not told the reasoning. This leads to the inevitable rumours about the ladies/seniors ruining the course because the trees are being removed to make it easier for them, etc. When you actually talk to people in the know, the trees were dying and becoming dangerous so had to be taken out before they fell down. If members had the reasons explained it would stop the rumours and make a more harmonious club without rumours trying to alienate groups.

 

[SammmeBee]

The one 'complaint' I have with my club is the communication - or lack of it! They are doing a lot of work on the course, removing trees, altering bunkers etc and, whilst we are told what work is going on, we are not told the reasoning. This leads to the inevitable rumours about the ladies/seniors ruining the course because the trees are being removed to make it easier for them, etc. When you actually talk to people in the know, the trees were dying and becoming dangerous so had to be taken out before they fell down. If members had the reasons explained it would stop the rumours and make a more harmonious club without rumours trying to alienate groups.

But then you’d start questioning more important parts of the club then….smoke and mirrors….!!

 

[Robster59]

Ours is pretty good. We went to a Board of Management a few years ago. All volunteers but people who are skilled/trained in their area. They sit on the board for three years and can be re-elected for an additional three years but then have to stand down. We have a Chairman and then Directors of Finance, Marketing, House & Greens. We also have a salaried club manager with a secretary who runs the day-to-day functions of the club. The Captain and Vice-Captain no longer have the onerous task of having to run everything at the club (too much for one person to do in the modern world, and changing every year is not good continuity for the club). We also then have a committee which is mainly handicap but covers anything else. Again all volunteers.
I'm not saying it's perfect, but I think it has really helped our club keep some form of stability. I was Captain, but there was no way I would have been Captain if I had had to do everything. I was up at the club a lot during my tenure. If I had to manage everything, I would never have been out of it.

 

[Sats]

There's quite a few changes happening at my club - the junior section is growing healthy, the greens staff are doing their bit (does help that the head greens keeper at RSG is a member so I'm sure they are picking his brains.) I don't get too involved with the minutes or AGM - I'm just one of the members that rocks up and plays. Can't say there is anything that I'd ask to change that wouldn't be at an unreasonable cost/impractical.

If I'm honest I don't know whose on the committee apart from the chairman because I played him in a match!