Facility Planning
The Clubhouse – New or Renovated?
Every older club sooner or later has to deal with this issue. Does the club pour good money into an older clubhouse or does the club replace it? More and more clubs today are faced with facilities approaching the end of their useful lives. The cost to transform these older clubhouses into compliance with current…
Read MoreThe Essential Relationship Between Strategic & Facility Planning
Club facility planning for major capital projects is probably the most challenging task a private club manager and Board will do. Good facility planning sets a club up for success or lost opportunities. But interestingly, true facility success is more dependent on initial strategic planning than on architectural elegance. Historically, clubs have approached facility planning…
Read MoreMastering Club Master Planning to Assure Club Success
Over and over again, as the specialty club consulting firm which is ultimately responsible for getting many club facility projects approved, we see master plans developed that propose many improvements, but have little bearing on assuring the future success of a club. Such improvements address today’s facility shortcomings, but they do little to address the…
Read MoreGoing from “Good to Great” & Great to Exceptional”
Good things are happening at private clubs today as boards and general managers are partnering to achieve club success. The proof is the many very satisfied members we are finding in today’s clubs. The positive results coming from high membership satisfaction are strong membership retention and new member attraction. Based on the last five years…
Read MoreKnow What You Need Before Drawing Useless Plans
Quick fixes can quickly backfire Time and time again, we find boards and their architects approaching club facility needs with little thought about the long-term strategic, financial and member-attracting needs of their club. Since these club leaders have no real strategic understanding of their club’s true mission or its purpose (other than offering what they…
Read MoreThe Checklist
Ensconced in popular culture by the pilot and co-pilot dialog before the flight: Flaps? Check. Rudder? Check. The goal is to check all the vital systems on the ground, before the flight, just to make sure. Make sure all critical elements are working before going past the point of no return. This procedure has a…
Read MoreTrend Two: Health & Fitness
The road to developing a fitness center at your club is often blocked by strawmen. In reaction to a suggestion that he consider adding fitness to his prestigious club, a club president once told me he opposed it because, “It would lead to people eating in the dining room with their hats on backwards.” He…
Read MoreHow Achieving “Favorite Place Status” Drove $20 Million Club Improvement Project
In 2014, Country Club of New Canaan surveyed its members, which exposed opportunities for growth in upgrading facilities, programs and services. They then developed a club improvement master plan to upgrade their facilities; but, there was a problem. Over the years, the Club’s membership had not been very happy with their experiences in a la…
Read MorePools: The Gateway Amenity
The amount of money country clubs spend to rebuild or renovate their pools can be staggering these days. Multimillion dollar projects are common with recent reports of a club in the southeast hitting the $10 million mark. While the budgets might be eye-popping, most of the clubs that have completed their improvement programs will tell…
Read MoreThe First Steps in Strategic Facility Planning
The temptation that most club boards have in their enthusiasm to begin planning a needed facility program is immediately hiring the architect. Board members think they know what their club needs, so off they go, hiring the architect and designing what they want; but, not what members want or what the club really needs. This…
Read More5 Essential Steps for Successful Club Facility Programs
Our new 5 Essential Steps for Planning & Approving Successful Club Facility Programs is a handy and effective resource for any manager and/or board member Whether you are just starting out or well into the process, our new 5 Essential Steps for Planning & Approving Successful Club Facility Programs is a handy and effective resource…
Read MorePlanning Realities & Realistic Planning
Frank Vain During a recent on-boarding process for a new client, they made their Strategic Plan available to us. They boasted about the work prior to our engagement, and we were excited to look at it. I must admit first surprise, then dismay as I paged through the plan. Stretching well over 100 pages, I found boilerplate information, new ideas, some…
Read More