How has a Secretary’s role changed at a Golf Club Over the past 25/30 years?

3offTheTee

3offTheTee

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Heated discussion re above after the round today. One guY thought this role was basically the same where the Sec. was the fountain of all knowledge fro Rules, H and S, general running of Club, collecting subs, financials and forward planning. The other thought the role changed dramatically, more managing staff, aware of current legislation pensions.

Ant thoughts please?
 
3offTheTee said:
Heated discussion re above after the round today. One guY thought this role was basically the same where the Sec. was the fountain of all knowledge fro Rules, H and S, general running of Club, collecting subs, financials and forward planning. The other thought the role changed dramatically, more managing staff, aware of current legislation pensions.

Ant thoughts please?
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Think the second guy is right. We don't have a secretary anymore and its a GM position. Far more admin and marketing based and although they play they don't have an in depth knowledge of the rules. I think there are elements of the first guys thoughts in terms of H&S, financials and planning although the board of directors have ultimate governance on this
 
Really is club dependent imo.

Plenty of old school clubs out there with old school sceretaries, doing a similar role to the one they did 20+ years ago for pretty much the same membership.

Plenty of other clubs where the role is very different and often under a different title these days, if the role exists in that guise at all
 
IanM said:
In 2007 when I took redundancy from Nationwide, I got info from the Association of Golf Course Managers. (Or whatever they were called)

Thought I'd go into that. Bit on reading the job descriptions, seemed loads of elf n safety and other aggro for appalling money!
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Any idea what the average Manager /Secretary of a Golf Club gets paid? Realise there is a wide variation from say Wentworth to a 9 hole in The Scottish Highlands
 
3offTheTee said:
Merely an analogy Paddy!
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i think you answered your own question i doubt there is an ind standard, i think our CEO, who came from running Carnoustie is on about £60K plus other sweetners. the guy at Dornoch Sim, i did hear of one that was 100K but i can't remember which club, might have been troon
 
IanM said:
The big jobs must be well paid. Entry level a different story
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Tis the same with any industry though. You need to get a foot on the ladder and then work hard and get the breaks (like any job). I get on well with our GM and have helped out in the office (envelope stuffing etc) and it seems a long and thankless task with the majority of calls and emails from members being a complaint or moan. Of course there many other facets but if that's the bread and butter of a working day doesn't seem much fun
 
I managed Local Authority courses for over 20 years.
I was paid well but more importantly there was good pension/holiday/workplace systems in place.

Reminds me of the greenkeeper joke about a head greenkeeper who was sent on a course by an ambitious club captain.
When he came back he was quizzed by the captain about what he had learned.
He replied that he learned that he was the lowest paid HGK in the South of England.:love:
 
My father was Secretary at my club in the late 70s / early 80s. He & the Hon. Treasurer worked around 4 mornings per week & effectively ran the club between them. Now we employ a full time manager who seems to put in around 70 hours per week. The result of Health & Safety, Employee Relations & other matters which were not half as hard to deal with in the "good old days"
 
3offTheTee said:
Heated discussion re above after the round today. One guY thought this role was basically the same where the Sec. was the fountain of all knowledge fro Rules, H and S, general running of Club, collecting subs, financials and forward planning. The other thought the role changed dramatically, more managing staff, aware of current legislation pensions.

Ant thoughts please?
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Our club secretary is still like this, he practically does everything himself, occasionally delegates the odd task to another committee member. But for all intents and purposes he runs the club and if he upped and left it would fall apart.
 
Orikoru said:
Our club secretary is still like this, he practically does everything himself, occasionally delegates the odd task to another committee member. But for all intents and purposes he runs the club and if he upped and left it would fall apart.
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There's a huge difference between a secretary at a public course (like Stuart) who administers competitions and handicaps, and a secretary at a private course (aka general manager), who is managing a team of greenkeepers, team in the office, catering team, pro shop team. Plus looking after members and visitors, societies, functions, budgets, turnover, inventory, assets and capital expenditure, marketing, suppliers.
 
sunshine said:
There's a huge difference between a secretary at a public course (like Stuart) who administers competitions and handicaps, and a secretary at a private course (aka general manager), who is managing a team of greenkeepers, team in the office, catering team, pro shop team. Plus looking after members and visitors, societies, functions, budgets, turnover, inventory, assets and capital expenditure, marketing, suppliers.
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Without being awkward (and I don't know the answer) wouldn't a public course still need to deal with societies and while the local council may pay the wages of the staff wouldn't the secretary still need to day to day manage the catering, office staff etc
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Without being awkward (and I don't know the answer) wouldn't a public course still need to deal with societies and while the local council may pay the wages of the staff wouldn't the secretary still need to day to day manage the catering, office staff etc
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In this case, the course and clubhouse are managed completely separately from the club which plays comps on the course. Membership of the course ie a green fee season ticket is completely separate from membership of the club managing comps / handicaps / matches
 
sunshine said:
There's a huge difference between a secretary at a public course (like Stuart) who administers competitions and handicaps, and a secretary at a private course (aka general manager), who is managing a team of greenkeepers, team in the office, catering team, pro shop team. Plus looking after members and visitors, societies, functions, budgets, turnover, inventory, assets and capital expenditure, marketing, suppliers.
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Yes - they are completely different things!!!!
 
Absolutely yes - indeed I think we did away altogether with the role of Secretary some years ago when we appointed a Business Manager and now also have an Assistant Business Manager - with the latter managing most 'club' golf matters that in the past might have been the main focus of the Secretary.
 
Played with an old-school secretary earlier this week and his plan is to wind down and get a pro in who can overtake everything in time in a general manager type of role
 
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