T H E S O U R C E F O R P R I V A T E C L U B E X C E L L E N C E™ JUNE 2026 McMahon Report® THE Prioritizing Aquatics in Your Club’s Master Plan Discover a variety of club topics and in-depth insights in this issue - Contact McMahon with any questions Hillwood Country Club
FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT Dear Club Leaders, The June 2026 issue of The McMahon Report arrives at a pivotal moment for the private club industry — one defined by evolving member expectations, governance challenges, and the growing pressure to invest strategically in facilities and culture. Published by McMahon Group, the premier private club planning and consulting firm serving clubs worldwide since 1983, this issue delivers expert insight across five compelling topics that speak directly to where the industry stands today. Leading the issue is a deep dive into aquatics planning, exploring how the modern private club pool has transformed from a seasonal convenience into a lifestyle anchor — one capable of driving membership growth, family engagement, wellness programming, and outdoor dining revenue when integrated thoughtfully into a club's Facility Master Plan. The issue also examines the often-misunderstood world of yacht clubs, pushing back against the narrative that these institutions are in decline. The authors argue that clubs embracing tiered membership models and revitalized programming are thriving — not sinking — and offer a roadmap for staying relevant without abandoning core identity. Two culture-focused articles round out the editorial content. Martha McMahon Acker makes a compelling case that new-member orientation is not an administrative formality but the single-most important investment a club can make in long-term cultural health. Meanwhile, Chairman Frank Vain takes an unflinching look at micromanagement in club governance — tracing it to structural causes and offering practical, actionable remedies. We hope that your club has enjoyed a successful first half of 2026 and would welcome the opportunity to assist you with any upcoming needs or projects. Sincerely, Scott B. Fairbairn, CCM, CCE McMahon Group Vice President of Club Consulting ABOUT MCMAHON GROUP Our Mission: “To be the premier club consulting firm dedicated to private club excellence by providing clubs and their management with the best possible strategic and facility planning expertise. We are committed to identifying the key trends impacting the club industry, enhancing the profession of club management and to assisting presidents and Boards with adopting the best practices to foster effective governance to create successful clubs.” Family- and managementowned since 1983 with an outstanding professional staff. We have served clubs and communities throughout the world in all aspects. OVER 2000 CLUBS SERVED OVER 150 HOA’S SERVED McMahon Group, Inc. 670 Mason Ridge Center Drive, Suite 220 St. Louis, Missouri 63141 • 314.744.5040 info@mcmahongroup.com www.mcmahongroup.com www.clubmanageraward.com www.mcmahoncommunity.com WHATWE OFFER • Strategic Planning and Implementation • Facility Planning and Funding Programs • Membership Surveys and Research • Existing Facilities Condition Analysis • HOA Community Consulting • McMahon Quality Index™ Rating Program $3.5 BILLLION RAI SED 40+ I N BUSI NESS YEARS 2 The McMahon Report® For more information or to schedule a First Impressions Visit, please contact Alison McMahon at amcmahon@mcmahongroup.com. CONNECT WITH US ONLINE FOR VIDEOS, BROCHURES AND EVEN MORE UP-TO-DATE CLUB INFORMATION! Florida | Illinois | Missouri | New Hampshire | North Carolina | South Carolina
By Christian W. Coulter, CCM, ECM and Scott Fairbairn, CCM, CCE, Vice Presidents of Club Consulting Yacht Clubs Aren’t “Sinking” And for many that have properly engaged their memberships, the sailing has never been smoother. The McMahon Report® 3 membership model allows members to participate at different levels—serious sailors pay one rate, while families or social members join for roughly $500 per month. This approach sustains inclusivity without diluting the club’s identity or purpose. Experience Brings Value The “lower the price, open the doors” argument was compelling a decade ago when many clubs were struggling—but the market has since moved on. Since 2020, dues are up roughly 60%, initiation fees have doubled—and membership numbers and engagement are at record highs. The lesson is clear: People will pay more when the experience justifies the cost. Success is coming from investment in programs, facilities, and community, and not by discounting dues. At their core, all private clubs—whether yacht, golf, or social—thrive on the same foundation: belonging, community, and social connection. The Chicago Yacht Club’s marketing campaign—“No Boat. No Problem.”—is a great example of how to address high barriers to participation and reach those who simply want to get out on the water. That’s smart positioning—but what keeps those families engaged once they walk through the door? That’s where the next generation’s priorities come in. Today’s yacht club members are placing greater emphasis on social and family amenities—tennis, pickleball, paddle— over traditional racing, powerboating, or heritage. That shift presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Yacht clubs, like all clubs, must evolve without losing their core identity. Achieving Unique Relevance Golf clubs have benefited from golf’s surge in popularity; boating, by contrast, still faces higher costs and steeper learning curves. The task ahead is to modernize, stay relevant, and expand participation—while continuing to celebrate what makes these institutions uniquely yacht clubs. At McMahon Group, we work with private clubs across North America facing these same challenges. The most successful ones don’t compete on price—they invest thoughtfully in the member experience, strengthen their community connections, and evolve their facilities to meet modern expectations while preserving what makes them special. That’s how yacht clubs—and all clubs—can truly stay afloat. A n article titled “Yacht Clubs Are Sinking—And It’s Their Own Fault” appeared recently in a boating publication that serves the Great Lakes region. As it circulated through yacht-club circles, it set off some choppy waves and distress signals. The author’s primary premise was that time has passed many yacht clubs by, and they remain stuffy, dated and aging, with no remaining sense of a community shared by those who love the water. As consultants who have spent much of our own careers managing leading yacht clubs and nowwork with many others, we agree that some of the author’s prescriptions for saving yacht clubs from “sinking”—by becoming more family-oriented, offering community boats, and finding creative ways to get more people on the water—rang true. Where we think the article veered off course, however, was with its conclusion that price and exclusivity are the main problems that need to be addressed. Because if you remove membership requirements altogether, what remains isn’t really a yacht club—it’s a marina. The real opportunity lies in rethinking howmembers engage, through scalable membership structures and revitalized programming. At the American Yacht Club in Rye, N.Y., for example, a tiered Contact us today at 314.744.5040 or www.McMahonGroup.com A TIERED MEMBERSHIP MODEL ALLOWS YACHT CLUB MEMBERS TO PARTICIPATE AT DIFFERENT LEVELS AND SUSTAINS INCLUSIVITY WITHOUT DILUTING THE CLUB’S IDENTITY OR PURPOSE.
In the modern private club, the pool area is no longer just a summer amenity—it’s a “capital wave” that, when planned correctly, can lift the entire club. F or many years, the swimming pool at a private club was viewed as a seasonal support amenity. It opened around Memorial Day, closed around Labor Day, and served primarily as a summer outlet for children and swim teams. At some clubs, the pool was physically separated from the clubhouse and disconnected from the broader member experience. That thinking is changing quickly. Today’s most successful clubs are beginning to understand that aquatics is much more than a pool—it’s a lifestyle platform. A well-planned aquatics facility can support family engagement, wellness, By David Dew, CCM, CCE Vice President of Club Consulting casual dining, youth programming, social events, outdoor recreation, and member retention. When properly positioned within a club’s broader Facility Master Plan, aquatics can become one of the most dynamic areas of the campus—and one of the most visible expressions of a club’s commitment to serving the entire family. Aquatics as an Anchor Amenity The most successful modern private clubs are no longer built around one dominant activity alone. Golf remains central at many clubs, but members increasingly judge the value of their membership by howwell the club serves their daily lives and their entire family. This is where aquatics plays a powerful role. A strong aquatics complex reaches multiple generations at once. Young children need a safe, fun, and engaging place to play. Parents want a comfortable environment where they can relax, socialize, dine casually, and supervise their children. Teenagers need informal gathering spaces that feel active and relevant. Grandparents enjoy watching family activity unfold in a setting that is comfortable, shaded, and accessible. Adults without children may value lap swimming, wellness programming, resort-style lounging, or evening poolside events. That broad appeal makes aquatics one of the few club amenities capable of serving the full family at the same time. It can be recreational, social, athletic, and wellness-oriented all at once—but only if it is intentionally planned that way. More Than a Pool When clubs think too narrowly about aquatics, they often focus only on the pool vessel itself: its size, lanes, depth, decking, and mechanical systems. These are all important, but they are only part of the equation. The real member experience is shaped by everything surrounding the water. 4 The McMahon Report® Prioritizing Aquatics in Your Club’s Master Plan IT IS NO LONGER ENOUGH TO MAINTAIN AN AGING POOL AND HOPE IT SATISFIES SUMMER DEMAND. MEMBERS ARE LOOKING FOR PLACES THAT SUPPORT HOW THEY ACTUALLY LIVE, AND AQUATICS CAN BE ONE OF THE STRONGEST EXPRESSIONS OF THAT LIFESTYLE. Hillwood Country Club
A successful aquatics environment may include a resort-style pool deck, shaded seating, cabanas, splash pads, zero-entry areas, lap lanes, family restrooms, towel service, outdoor bars, casual dining, quick-service food options, fire pits, event lawns, and adjacent recreation. The best aquatic facilities are not simply places to swim. They are places to spend time. This distinction is critical. Members may swim for 30 minutes, but they may stay for three hours if the environment is comfortable, social, and convenient. With the right amenity mix, members may often use the aquatics area without ever getting in the pool. That is why aquatics should be planned as a campus experience, not just as a water feature. The Importance of Campus Clustering Aquatics becomes far more powerful when it is planned as part of an integrated campus strategy. In many clubs, the pool, fitness center, casual dining, racquets, youth spaces, and outdoor recreation areas are located in different corners of the property. This can create operational inefficiency and a disconnected member experience. A thoughtful Facility Master Plan should ask how these amenities relate to one another. When the pool deck is clustered near casual dining, members can move easily between swimming, lunch, snacks, drinks, and social gathering. When aquatics is adjacent to fitness and wellness, clubs can support lap swimming, aquatic fitness classes, recovery, and healthy lifestyle programming. When the pool connects to youth rooms, lawns, playgrounds, or racquets, the club creates a family activity zone that keeps members engaged longer. This type of clustering transforms separate amenities into a cohesive lifestyle campus. It also supports stronger operating efficiency because food service, restrooms, storage, staffing, and circulation can be coordinated, rather than duplicated. The McMahon Report® 5 Dining Drives the Pool Experience One of the most important considerations in aquatics planning is food and beverage. Pool dining is no longer an afterthought. Members expect better quality, faster service, convenient ordering, cold beverages, healthy options, and casual food that feels appropriate to the setting. The pool grill, outdoor bar, or quick-service dining venue can become one of the most popular seasonal gathering places at the club. But it must be properly planned. If the kitchen is too far away, service will suffer. If the menu is too complicated, speed will suffer. If the bar is poorly located, energy and supervision can become a problem. If seating is insufficient, members will leave earlier than they otherwise would. A strong aquatics Master Plan should address the full dining ecosystem: kitchen access, service windows, point-of-sale locations, covered seating, shade, trash handling, storage, beverage service, and staff circulation. The goal is to not just feed members at the pool, but to create a relaxed and financially sustainable outdoor dining experience that supports the club’s broader social mission. Aquatics also deserves a larger role in the wellness conversation. Many clubs are investing heavily in fitness centers, personal training, group exercise, recovery spaces, and wellness programming. Aquatics can complement these investments in meaningful ways. Lap swimming, water aerobics, aqua therapy, low-impact exercise, and recovery programming can serve members across a wide range of ages and physical abilities. For older members, aquatic fitness can provide an accessible path to wellness. For younger families, swim lessons and youth aquatics create early connections to the club. For competitive swimmers or triathletes, lap lanes can support serious training. The question is not whether aquatics is a wellness amenity. It clearly can be. The question is whether the club has planned it intentionally enough to serve that role. Designing for Families Without Losing Adults One of the challenges in aquatics planning is balancing family energy with adult comfort. A pool complex that is entirely child-focused may alienate members who want a quieter resort-style experience. A pool that is too adult-oriented may fail to meet the needs of young families. The best solution is thoughtful zoning. A modern aquatics complex can include distinct but connected areas: a splash zone for young children; a family recreation pool; lap lanes; lounge areas; shaded cabanas, and adult-oriented seating or bar areas. These spaces do not need to be isolated from one another, but they should be organized so that different member needs can coexist comfortably. Contact us today at 314.744.5040 or www.McMahonGroup.com
6 The McMahon Report® the club in a way that felt easy, relaxed, and relevant to our family life. That experience reinforced for me an important lesson in club planning: Aquatics is not just about swimming. It is about lifestyle. It is about creating a setting where families want to spend time, where children and teenagers build friendships, where parents connect with other parents, and where the club becomes part of the family’s weekend rhythm. For prospective members, that can be decisive. Golf, tradition, and reputation may bring a family to consider a club, but the ability to envision the entire family using and enjoying the club often determines whether they join. A resort-style aquatics complex, supported by casual dining and outdoor social energy, can make the club feel indispensable before a family ever studies the full amenity list. Planning Before Building Because aquatics can be so visible and emotionally important, clubs should resist the temptation to treat pool improvements as a stand-alone project. A new pool, splash pad, or deck expansion may solve an immediate problem, but if it is not coordinated with the Facility Master Plan for the broader campus, it can create long-term limitations. Before embarking on a project, clubs should ask several strategic questions, including: • What role should aquatics play in the club’s future member experience? • Should it primarily serve families, wellness, resort-style relaxation, competitive swimming, or all of the above? • How does it connect to dining, fitness, youth programming, racquets, golf, and outdoor social spaces? • Are support facilities adequate? • Is parking sufficient? • Can staff serve the area efficiently? • Does the current location allow for future expansion? • Will this investment still make sense 10 or 15 years from now? These questions should be answered through member research, Board discussion, operational input, and professional planning. The goal is to avoid spending significant capital on a project that solves yesterday’s problem, but fails to support tomorrow’s club. The Next Wave of Club Planning Aquatics is entering a new era in private club planning. It is no longer enough to maintain an aging pool and hope it satisfies summer demand. Members are looking for places that support how they actually live, and aquatics can be one of the strongest expressions of that lifestyle. The clubs that gain the greatest returns from their aquatics investments will not be those that simply build bigger pools. They will be the clubs that understand how aquatics fits into the entire member experience. In the modern private club, the pool area is no longer just a summer amenity. It is a "capital wave" that, when planned correctly, can lift the entire club. This is where planning matters. Noise, sightlines, safety, shade, furniture selection, music, service points, and circulation all influence whether the environment feels chaotic or well-managed. Aquatics as a Membership Tool For clubs seeking to attract younger families, aquatics can be one of the most persuasive amenities on campus. Parents often evaluate a club through a simple but powerful question: “Will my family use this?” That question is not theoretical for me. A number of years ago, I joined a highly regarded club that serves as an anchor site for the U.S. Open, and while the quality of golf and the prestige of the club were certainly important to me, one of the primary drivers in my decision to join was the resort-style pool complex. At that stage of life, my wife and I had two teenagers, and we were looking for a place where they could enjoy socializing with their friends and we could spend time together as a family on weekends. The pool complex gave us that. It was a place where our teenagers wanted to be, where we could listen to live music, relax by the pool, and enjoy a casual family outing without the formality of changing clothes and moving into the main clubhouse. The casual grill near the pool became part of the experience. It allowed us to eat comfortably, stay connected to the activity around us, and enjoy
How to harness the transformative power of a proper orientation program. I magine 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 newmember 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 By Martha McMahon Acker President 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 newmembers and the community they have joined. The consequences are predictable and costly. Bad Member Behavior Becomes the Norm When newmembers are not educated on club standards, they default to behaviors fromwherever 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 newmember 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 newmember 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 newmember 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. The McMahon Report® 7 Are Your NewMembers Ready to be Members? CLUB MANAGEMENT NEW-MEMBER 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.
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 newmember'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 newmembers 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 newmember 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 newmembers 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. Staff Are Left in an Impossible Position Perhaps the most overlooked casualty of inadequate orientation is the club's staff. When newmembers 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 newmember 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 newmember 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 8 The McMahon Report® NO NEWMEMBER SHOULD BE ASSIGNED THEIR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER WITHOUT FIRST COMPLETING A THOROUGH ORIENTATION PROGRAM.
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 newmember 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 fellowmembers. The second pillar of a strong orientation program pairs newmembers 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 onetime events. They are sequential experiences, delivered over the newmember'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 newmembers are not overwhelmed on day one, but also ensures that their integration into the club is actively managed and not left to chance. What an Effective Orientation Program Looks Like The McMahon Report® 9 Contact us today at 314.744.5040 or www.McMahonGroup.com
The governance structures we inherited are producing the behavior we resent. Here’s an honest look at why—and what to actually do about it. Walk into almost any private club boardroom in America and ask the General Manager what keeps them up at night. Somewhere near the top of the list, just below capital funding and membership retention, you’ll find micromanagement. Board members second-guessing hiring decisions. Directors fielding complaints in the Grill Room and dispatching instructions to department heads. Committees approving the font on a menu. It’s endemic, it’s corrosive, and the club industry has been bemoaning it for decades. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: We built this system. And we can’t fix it with a memo. HowWe Got Here Micromanagement doesn’t usually start with bad intentions. It starts with a structural void that someone steps into. The most common cause is a leadership chain with a weak link at the top—specifically, a Board chair or club President who was never told what the job actually is. By Frank Vain Chairman CLUB GOVERNANCE Most club presidents are elected because they’re popular, connected, or simply willing to serve. That’s not a criticism—it’s a reality of how volunteer governance works. But popularity doesn’t automatically confer an understanding of governance boundaries. When no one coaches the new chair on their role before they take the gavel, you have a predictable outcome: a well-meaning leader who either drifts into operational territory themselves or fails to stop others from doing so. The chair is the linchpin. When that position is strong and clear-eyed about its responsibilities, the boundaries between governance and operations hold. When it’s not, everything downstream becomes negotiable. Beyond the chair, there are several other structural contributors worth naming directly: • Nominating committees that fill seats instead of building Boards. Many nominating committees operate under deadline pressure to find any qualified volunteer willing to serve. Skill sets, temperament, and governance aptitude are secondary. The result is Boards assembled more by availability than design. • Elections that reward popularity over competence. In many clubs, Board seats are still contested by popularity vote among the full membership. A beloved member who has never sat on a governing board and has no background in fiduciary responsibility can be elected to oversee a $10 million operation. We then act surprised when things go sideways. • Weak or nonexistent director orientation. New directors are often handed a binder, introduced at the first meeting, and sent into the breach. Orientation programs that actually explain the difference between governance and management—and reinforce it with specifics—are the exception, not the rule. • The member-governor paradox. This one is structural and unavoidable: Board members are also members. They use the club. They eat in the dining room, play the course, stand at the bar. Other members approach themwith complaints, suggestions, and grievances. It’s entirely natural for a director to feel a sense of obligation to respond—and all too easy for that response to bypass the General Manager and land directly on a department head’s desk. • A title that sets the wrong expectation. In most organizational contexts, the “president” is the chief operating officer—the person running day-to-day operations. In private clubs, the president is actually the head of a governing board. The title sends exactly the wrong signal, and many presidents unconsciously act accordingly. The Real Cost of Micromanagement The damage from chronic micromanagement is not abstract. It shows up in concrete, measurable ways. The most immediate casualty is clarity. When Board members are issuing instructions directly to staff, no one is entirely sure who’s in charge. Policies shift from administration to administration. Department heads learn to wait and see which directive will stick, rather than executing with confidence. Staff morale erodes, and the club’s ability to maintain consistent service standards suffers. Then there’s the talent problem. Good general managers—the ones who have options—do not stay in environments where their authority is routinely undermined. They leave. The managers who remain in chronically micromanaged clubs tend to Micromanagement in Private Clubs: A ProblemWe Made Ourselves 10 The McMahon Report® THE CLUB INDUSTRY WOULD BE BETTER SERVED BY SPENDING LESS ENERGY LAMENTING THAT THE SYSTEM ISN’T MORE LIKE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND MORE ENERGY LEARNING TO WORK THE SYSTEMWE HAVE MORE SKILLFULLY.
The McMahon Report® 11 Contact us today at 314.744.5040 or www.McMahonGroup.com be those who have learned to accommodate the dysfunction, which is not the same as managing effectively. The knock-on effect reaches deep into the organization: With excess turnover at the GM level, departmental managers follow, institutional knowledge walks out the door, and the training cycle never ends. Legal exposure is a less-discussed but serious consequence. Volunteer directors who become entangled in employment decisions, personnel matters, or operational directives create genuine liability for themselves and the club. The fiduciary duty of a Board member is to the institution—not to fix whatever complaint came up at the 19th hole last Saturday. When those lines blur, so does the legal protection that comes with proper governance. Capital can also become a casualty. Boards that are operating in the weeds tend to lose the strategic perspective required to make sound, long-range capital decisions. Projects get funded based on who advocates loudest in the boardroom, rather than what the membership actually needs. Three Things That Would Actually Help There is no shortage of advice about micromanagement in the club industry. Most of it focuses on the symptoms. Here is a short list of structural changes that address the causes. 1. Replace the Nominating Committee with a Board Development Committee. A nominating committee has one job: fill seats before the annual meeting. A Board Development Committee has a broader mandate—identifying and cultivating governance talent throughout the year, designing meaningful orientation programs, establishing performance expectations for directors, and evaluating Board effectiveness on an ongoing basis. The shift from reactive seat-filling to proactive governance development changes the quality of who ends up in the boardroom and how prepared they are when they get there. 2. Change the title from President to Chairman or Chair. This is not a cosmetic change. Titles shape behavior and self-concept. A “president” runs something. A “chairman” leads a Board. Making this change sends a clear signal— internally and externally— about where the line between governance and operations actually sits. Combined with proper orientation, it reinforces that the chair’s job is to govern strategy and capital, not to manage the club. 3. Train the chairperson before they take the position. The chair’s most critical function is setting and enforcing the boundaries between the Board and the management team. That requires a clear understanding of where those boundaries are—and the willingness to act when a fellow director crosses them. That understanding doesn’t happen by osmosis. It requires deliberate preparation: What the role is, what it is not, and how to handle the specific situations that arise when a well-meaning director starts drifting into operations. AWord in Defense of the System Having laid out the causes and costs of micromanagement, it’s worth stepping back from the industry’s collective frustration with it to acknowledge something: Micromanagement is, in many ways, a byproduct of what makes private clubs special. These are member-owned institutions. The members are the governors. That is not a bug—it is the fundamental design, and it is what distinguishes a private club from a resort, a restaurant, or a hospitality company. A for-profit business can install a clean reporting structure with clearly delineated authority. A private club will always have a more complicated human dynamic, because the people who set policy are also the people eating dinner three nights a week and watching how the staff treats their guests. The industry would be better served by spending less energy lamenting that the system isn’t more like corporate governance and more energy learning to work the systemwe have more skillfully. That means managers who understand the dynamics well enough to channel Board energy productively. It means executives who can build strong relationships with Board chairs and coach them quietly when needed. And it means governance professionals who recognize that a little healthy engagement from directors—when properly directed—is not pathology. It’s ownership. The goal is not a Board that disappears into the governance manual and never asks a hard question. The goal is a Board that understands where strategy ends and operations begin—and has the discipline to stay on the right side of that line. That’s achievable. It just requires more intentional work on the front end than most clubs have been willing to invest. Private clubs are a special business model. The governance structure that comes with them is imperfect, but it is also what creates the bond between the institution and the people it serves. Our job is not to make it look like something else. Our job is to make it work.
12 The McMahon Report® We would like to congratulate all the 2026 Excellence in Club Management®Award Winners View More Images at www.ClubManager.com Recipients of the 2026 Excellence in Club Management® Awards, founded by McMahon Group in 1996 and now co-sponsored by the National Club Association, were honored at a gala dinner sponsored by KOPPLIN, KUEBLER & WALLACE that was held on April 19 at the Ocean Reef Club in beautiful Key Largo, Florida. Here are the 2026 ECM winners, who will also be recognized throughout the year in ceremonies held at their clubs and featured with in-depth profiles published in the Summer and Fall issues of Club Trends magazine. A Selection Committee comprised of a peer group of leading club managers conducts the judging for the ECM Awards. A full listing of the judges, in addition to information on past winners and on how to nominate candidates for the 2027 awards, can be found at ClubManagerAward.com. JAMES H. BREWER AWARD™ Country/Golf Club with 600 or More Full-Privilege Members Matthew Linderman, CCM, ECM Boca West Country Club MEAD GRADY AWARD™ Country/Golf Club with Under 600 Full-Privilege Members Ali Sezgin, CSW, CS, CCM, CCE, ECM The Patriot Golf Club MEL REX AWARD™ City/Athletic/Specialty (Non-Golf) Club Ian H. Munroe, CCM, ECM Winter Park Racquet Club JOHN FURLONG AWARD™ (TIE) Canadian Managers Toni-Marie Ion-Brown, CCM, CCE, ECM Calgary Petroleum Club RISING STAR AWARD™ Assistant Managers Joseph Callison, CCM, ECM Belle Meade Country Club JOHN FURLONG AWARD™ (TIE) Canadian Managers Michael Ridout, MBA, ECM Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club
The McMahon Report® 13 T H A N K Y O U T O O U R 2 0 2 6 A W A R D S E L E C T I O N C O M M I T T E E *Photo Credit: Shawn Lam Visuals / National Club Association 2026. Congratulations!
By Pat Conroy, Club Research Consultant successful approval starts with involving the members—and making any project the “members’ project” before any vote is taken. The Reality of Funding Every dollar that’s put toward capital improvements at private clubs comes from the same source: the membership. Whether it’s through a special assessment, increase in dues, adjustments to the initiation fee, or debts that are repaid over time, the source remains the same. As a result, member alignment should be a financial precondition for any capital project, and not an afterthought once designs are already drawn and execution is in motion. Clubs that treat member input on capital projects as a precondition consistently outperform those that view it as a step for further down the road—or ignore it altogether. For these clubs, McMahon Group has developed a project-opinion survey to pre-test project approval before member voting. Administered digitally (with paper options if requested), these surveys can quickly provide a snapshot of member sentiment and readiness that can help save valuable time and resources and set things in motion towards a favorable result. What Does an Opinion Survey Measure? A properly designed opinion survey measures three things that, taken together, tell a Board and management exactly where to direct the club’s capital and energy. 14 The McMahon Report® ising costs continue to add new challenges to planning a club’s capital project, primarily by placing greater scrutiny on how a new project will be financed, and especially on howmembers will be asked to contribute. More than ever, how a project will be funded is the most important issue affecting project approval—and the source of the greatest uncertainty as projects are considered. But that uncertainty can be erased through the simple step of testing the membership. After over 40 years of work with over 2,000 private clubs, McMahon Group has found that no single factor will separate successful capital initiatives from stalled ones more reliably than testing member readiness and approval through a properly designed “opinion survey” that is conducted before any design commitments or timelines are established. Reaching the goal of Are Your Members Ready to Approve Your Facility Project? AN OPINION SURVEY IS NOT A VOTE ON PROPOSED PROJECTS—BUT IT CAN HAVE TREMENDOUS VALUE AS A PRE-APPROVAL STRAW POLL ON A PROJECT’S ACCEPTABILITY THAT FORECASTS TO THE BOARD AND MANAGEMENT WHAT A VOTE WILL LOOK LIKE, BEFORE THAT VOTE IS BINDING. SURVEYS
survey will clearly tell the Board and management which projects need to start immediately, which can wait, and which should be set aside entirely. HowDoes the Opinion Survey Help the Project? A well-designed opinion survey provides the club with a data-backed defense. When a vocal minority pushes back at the next member meeting, the Board and management can point to results that clearly showwhere the broader membership stands and why that input should direct the club, rather than hallway conversations or the loudest voices in the room. A well-designed survey also diagnoses what would actually change how a membership votes. Opposition rarely lives in one aspect. It can sit in the scope, the cost, the financing structure or the timeline of a project, and a properly designed opinion survey provides clear insights into which factors are most in play. With that insight, instead of guessing at the cause and adjusting the wrong variable. the Board and management can determine whether resistance is concentrated in the project’s scope, rather than its financial terms, and see exactly which phases should be pulled before binding the vote. Surveying also shortens the timelines, rather than lengthening them. Boards and management sometimes resist testing member readiness because they fear a delay, but a survey conducted early prevents the much longer delay, and negative sentiment, that would be caused by a failed vote and forced restart. When a project stalls mid-stream, the cost is rarely just embarrassment. Months of architectural work get scrapped, negotiated loan terms expire, and construction scheduling is lost—all of which the membership ultimately pays for in the next attempt. An opinion survey is not a vote on proposed projects. But it can have tremendous value to help lead to a successful vote, by acting as a pre-approval straw poll on the acceptability of a project that forecasts to the Board and management what a vote will look like, before that vote is binding. The McMahon Report® 15 The first is the difference between importance and satisfaction. Importance measures howmuch members value a given project, while satisfaction measures howwell the proposed structure of that project aligns with what members actually want— and the two can move independently. Consider a proposed new racquets facility offering tennis, pickleball, and paddle. Members may report high importance and support for a new facility, but low satisfaction with the proposed plan, because they don’t see paddle as a fit for the club. Capturing those distinct signals— members support the project in concept, but not as currently scoped—is exactly what the opinion survey is designed to do. And catching that gap before architects are engaged is the difference between adjusting a proposal on paper and scrapping a finished design. The second important indicator is “want, versus willingness to fund.” A project may receive strong support in concept, but the opinion survey measures whether members would actually fund it through assessments or dues. It also tests the proposed funding mechanism as its own dimension. Members can endorse a project and indicate their willingness to contribute to it, but still reject the proposed assessment size, payment terms, or timeline. Supportable projects routinely fail on the funding structure alone, and an opinion survey will help catch this potential pitfall at the start of the process. The third key measure is members’ clear preference for whether potential facility improvements should be undertaken “now, later, or not at all.” The priorities that emerge when this question is asked in an opinion Contact us today at 314.744.5040 or www.McMahonGroup.com CLUBS THAT TREAT MEMBER INPUT ON CAPITAL PROJECTS AS A PRECONDITION CONSISTENTLY OUTPERFORM THOSE THAT VIEW IT AS A STEP FURTHER DOWN THE LIST—OR IGNORE IT ALTOGETHER. AWELL-DESIGNED OPINION SURVEY GIVES THE GOVERNING BODY A DATA-BACKED DEFENSE FOR A PROJECT, AND ALSO DIAGNOSES WHAT WOULD ACTUALLY CHANGE HOWMEMBERS VOTE.
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