Are Your New Members Ready to be Members?

How to harness the transformative power of a proper orientation program.

Imagine spending years cultivating the perfect private-club experience—a carefully nurtured culture, a devoted membership, and a staff that takes genuine pride in delivering exceptional service. Then one afternoon, a new member walks onto the terrace, pulls out a cell phone, and begins a loud business call during a quiet Sunday lunch. Or worse, tees off out of turn, ignores the pace-of-play guidelines, and dismisses the range attendant’s polite correction with visible irritation.

Now imagine that this member simply did not know better—because no one ever told them.

This scenario, which often occurs in private clubs across the country, is not a member-character problem. It is an orientation problem. And it is entirely preventable.

At the McMahon Group, we have worked with thousands of private clubs over decades of consulting. Again and again, we see a direct correlation between the strength of a club’s new-member orientation program and the strength of its culture, its member-satisfaction scores, and the morale of its staff. Orientation is not an administrative formality—it is the single most important investment a club can make in the long-term health of its community.

The High Cost of Skipping Orientation

Many clubs assign membership numbers on the day that dues are processed and consider onboarding complete. This approach, though well-intentioned and efficient on paper, creates an invisible fault line between new members and the community they have joined. The consequences are predictable and costly.

Bad Member Behavior Becomes the Norm

When new members are not educated on club standards, they default to behaviors from wherever they came from before, be that a public golf course, a hotel, another club with different customs, or simply their own instincts. These behaviors, left unaddressed, quickly become habits.

Consider these common examples from clubs that lack formal orientation:

• A new member repeatedly makes tee-time reservations for groups of eight, not understanding that the club’s policy limits prime-time bookings to foursomes—and then does not understand why longtime members don’t welcome them on the first tee.
• A new member shows up to the men’s grill in gym attire after a workout, unaware that the space maintains a dress code, creating an awkward scene for staff and existing members.
• A new family brings outside food to the pool terrace for a child’s birthday party, not knowing or having been told that outside food and beverage is prohibited on club property.
• A new member parks in a reserved space consistently used by a founding family, having never been shown the parking layout or apprised of the club’s informal traditions.

None of these members is malicious. They are simply uninformed. But their behavior still damages the experience of everyone around them and erodes the culture the club has worked to build.

Existing Members Become Frustrated and Disengaged

The ripple effect of poor onboarding lands squarely on your existing membership. Long-tenured members notice when the culture slips. They notice when the dining room becomes noisier, when pace of play deteriorates on the golf course, and when the spirit of reciprocity and graciousness that once defined the club begins to feel diluted.

This frustration rarely surfaces in the form of a formal complaint. Instead, it manifests more quietly and dangerously: Members begin to use the club less, participate in fewer events, withdraw from committees, and ultimately question the value of their membership. Retention suffers not because the club’s facilities declined, but because the culture did.

Staff Are Left in an Impossible Position

Perhaps the most overlooked casualty of inadequate orientation is the club’s staff. When new members are not educated on club customs and standards, staff members are placed in the uncomfortable position of either enforcing rules the member was never taught, or allowing violations to go uncorrected.

A locker-room attendant who must tell a new member for the third time that towels are not to be taken poolside is not delivering hospitality. They are managing a gap in communication. A dining room manager who must tactfully ask a new member to silence a phone during a formal event has been put in that position by a systems failure, not a personnel failure. Over time, these repeated encounters wear on staff morale and undermine their confidence in leadership.

A well-designed orientation program (see pg. 9) eliminates this dynamic entirely. When members know the expectations before they walk through the door, staff members can do what they were hired to do: deliver outstanding, friction-free service.

Culture Cannot Be Assumed — It Must Be Taught

Every private club has a culture. But culture is not transmitted through an e-mail with a link to the club’s bylaws, or absorbed by reading the member handbook in the car before one’s first round of golf. Culture is lived, modeled, and communicated with intention.

The McMahon Group takes a firm position on this: if we do not tell new members what it means to be a good member of this club, we have no right to expect them to behave like one.

This is not about blame—it is about responsibility. The club bears the responsibility of defining its culture and communicating it clearly. When that responsibility is abdicated, the results are predictable: inconsistency, friction, and a gradual degradation of the very qualities that made the club worth joining in the first place.

Think about the experience from the new member’s perspective. They have made a significant financial and personal investment. They want to fit in. They want to be welcomed. They want to get this right. A comprehensive orientation program is not an imposition, but a gift that gives new members the knowledge and confidence to participate fully and authentically from day one.

The McMahon Group Standard: No Number Without Orientation

The McMahon Group is unequivocal on one point: No new member should be assigned their membership number until they have completed a formal orientation program.

This is not an administrative delay. It is a statement of values. It communicates from the very first interaction that membership at the club carries meaning and is not merely a financial transaction, but an entry into a community with standards, traditions, and expectations. It also conveys that the club cares enough about its culture to ensure that every new member is fully prepared to participate in it.

Clubs that make orientation a prerequisite to full membership activation consistently report:

• Higher new-member engagement in club programming and committees within the first year.
• Fewer disciplinary incidents and rule violations among members who completed orientation.
• Greater satisfaction scores among both new and existing members in the 12 months following implementation.
• Reduced early-year attrition in that new members who feel welcomed and prepared are far more likely to renew.
• Improved staff morale and confidence in leadership.
• Orientation is not a cost center—it is a cultural investment with measurable returns.

A Final Word: Membership is a Privilege and a Practice

Being a good member of a private club is a skill—and like any skill, it must be taught before it can be practiced. The club that assumes new members will simply ‘figure it out’ is the club that will spend the next decade managing the consequences of that assumption: Dealing with friction between members, managing staff burnout, coping with cultural drift, and seeing declining satisfaction among the very people whose loyalty sustains the institution.

But the club that invests in a thoughtful, structured, and personal orientation program is one that combines the operational expertise of staff with the cultural wisdom of existing members. This is the type of club that will look back five and ten years from now and recognize that its culture did not happen by accident—it happened by design.

At the McMahon Group, we believe private clubs are among the most extraordinary social institutions in American life. They preserve traditions, build community, and create experiences that endure across generations. Protecting those institutions begins with a simple commitment: to ensure that every new member walks in knowing exactly what it means, and what it takes, to be part of something truly special.

What an Effective Orientation Program Looks Like

The most successful new-member orientation programs share a common architecture: They are structured, personal, and involve both staff and existing members in meaningful ways. No single element is sufficient on its own; the program must work as a whole.

PILLAR ONE:  STAFF-LED OPERATIONAL EDUCATION

Club staff are the custodians of operational knowledge. The first pillar of a strong orientation program is a comprehensive walk-through led by department heads or their senior staff that covers every system and service the member will use. This portion of the program should include, at minimum:

• Golf Operations: Tee-Time Reservations. How the booking window works, peak vs. off-peak times, guest policies, pace-of-play expectations, and cancellation procedures.
• Food & Beverage: Dining Reservations & Private Events. Reservation systems, dress-code expectations for each dining venue, private-event booking process, reciprocal guest privileges, and billing procedures.
• Tennis & Pickleball: Court Reservations & Instruction Programs. Booking protocols for racquet sports courts, lesson scheduling, round-robin and league sign-ups, and equipment storage.
• Aquatics & Wellness: Pool, Fitness & Spa Access. Guest policies, reserving lanes for lap swimming, class registration, locker assignment procedures, and facility-specific rules.
• Member Engagement: Committee Structure & Volunteer Opportunities. An overview of active committees: golf, house, social, finance, membership, youth; how to express interest, and how committees influence club direction.
• Finance: Billing, Dues & Accounts. How monthly statements work, minimum spending requirements, how to add family members to the account, and contact information for billing questions.

This operational education demystifies the club’s systems and removes the friction of uncertainty. A member who knows exactly how to make a Friday dinner reservation is a member who will actually make one and show up.

PILLAR TWO:  MEMBER-LED CULTURAL IMMERSION

Operational knowledge, while essential, only prepares a new member to use the club. Cultural knowledge prepares them to belong to it. This is the dimension of orientation that no staff member, however skilled, can fully deliver. It must come from fellow members.

The second pillar of a strong orientation program pairs new members with experienced member ambassadors. Ideally, these individuals reflect the diversity of the membership in terms of how they use the club and how long they have been involved. These member mentors serve as cultural guides, sharing:

• The informal norms and unwritten courtesies that define the club’s character and the customs that are felt but never printed in a policy document.
• The history of the club: How it was founded, key moments in its development, the traditions that carry meaning for longtime members.
• The decorum expected in specific spaces: How the card room operates, the customary etiquette in the men’s or ladies’ locker rooms, the expected level of formality at Friday evening events.
• How members tend to engage with one another: The warmth, reciprocity and expectation of mutual respect that distinguishes a private club from a public amenity.
• The unspoken expectation of involvement, emphasizing that membership is not merely a consumer relationship, but a commitment to participate in and contribute to a living community.
• This peer-to-peer transfer of culture is irreplaceable. When a 15-year member sits across from a new member and says, “Let me tell you what makes this place special,” they are doing something no orientation video or welcome letter can replicate—they are extending belonging.

PILLAR THREE:  A STRUCTURED, SEQUENTIAL EXPERIENCE

The most effective orientation programs are not one-time events. They are sequential experiences, delivered over the new member’s first several months. A strong structure might include:

• A formal Welcome Orientation Session within the first two weeks of membership, covering operational basics with department heads and a facility tour.
• A New Member Social Event (a dinner or cocktail reception) within the first month, where new members meet one another and are introduced to the Board President, General Manager, and Committee Chairs in a relaxed setting.
• An on-course or on-court experience within the first 60 days, facilitated by the Head Professional, where new members play alongside staff in a low-stakes, instructional format.
• A Committee Interest Meeting in month two or three, where new members learn about volunteer opportunities and are encouraged to get involved.
• A follow-up check-in from either the Membership Director or an assigned member mentor at the 90-day mark, to answer questions, address any friction, and reaffirm the member’s sense of belonging.

This sequenced approach ensures that new members are not overwhelmed on day one, but also ensures that their integration into the club is actively managed and not left to chance.