Refresh Before You Reinvest in Your Club

When McMahon Group was spawned from McMahon Architects some 36 years ago, the initial intention was to provide architectural services for clubs looking to renovate their facilities. Clubs typically own multiple buildings for social and recreational purposes, making them a good market for design services. What immediately became evident was that it was difficult to create solutions for clients that did not have a clear understanding of their current and prospective members or a vision for the future. Their rotating system of governance and other factors lent an urgency to completing one-off projects, often without a lot of thought on longer term needs or synchronicity across the campus.

Our experiences made two things very clear. First, it is very important to address your facility improvements within a strategic context. Second, improvements should be considered within an overall Master Plan instead of discrete projects. Without these two elements, the tendency is only to fix depreciation and aesthetics while undershooting the larger issues related to changing societal values that will impact demand for membership. It is critical to visualize where your club wants or needs to be five to ten years into the future before you start developing an improvement plan.

Thus, your initial conversations about facility improvements shouldn’t be so much about buildings and grounds as they should focus on changes in lifestyles, values and target markets. This environmental scan sets the stage for reviewing or developing mission and vision statements to clarify the organization’s purpose and aspirations. These, in turn, provide the clarity that is required to identify the physical environment that would best serve the type of club that will be required by your end users.

It is important for club leaders to invest the time and resources to develop or refresh their Strategic Plan before forming a committee or hiring an architect to start designing improvements. This exercise sets the direction for the entire club and provides the insight the Planning Committee ultimately needs as they evaluate the existing plant and begin creating concepts. It provides the insight they need to create the transformative and enduring investments that create clubs of excellence. 

Read another facility article – Understanding Your Club Facilities is Key