1. The education sessions offered by the chapter attempted to address the ten competency
areas set forth from National. To offer a unique venue and a very innovative
presentation, the chapter was a guest of Sysco, a local hospitality industry service
provider. At this on-site visit, Sysco detailed new products, new services, and pricing
and inventory practices to those members in attendance. The material covered in this
meeting encouraged the chapter’s members to bring their culinary staff, clubhouse staff,
and banquet staff so that they could gain first-hand knowledge of the products and
services offered by one of the chapter’s largest vendors (Food and Beverage
Management). Later in the summer, our managers held a roundtable discussion to cover
budgetary and long term capital planning practices, policies, and formulas. Through
brainstorming, Q&A’s, and direct examples the members shared their successes and
challenges in an effort to create a better, more efficient, more effective methodology to
formulate a quality budget and long range forecast (Accounting and Financial
Management). During a CMI session, Scott Samuels of Horizons Hospitality presented
a six hour seminar covering harassment policies, hiring and firing processes and
practices, evaluation procedures, and employee records keeping requirements (Human &
Professional Resources). Vincent Phipps addressed the chapter with his leadership tips
that included communication skills, leadership dynamics, listening skills, and adapting to
respond as a leader (Leadership). Lee Silber, author of The Wild Idea Club, presented
membership marketing ideas that get the entire staff focused on finding solutions to
increase member satisfaction through creative collaboration and wild ideas (Membership
and Marketing). Bryan Gillis brought the chapter into the social network age by
discussing how interpersonal skills have changed and evolved to accommodate the
increasing presence of the social networking sites in the club industry, not just with staff
but with membership and the club’s boards as well (Interpersonal Skills).
2. In planning the 2011 education calendar, the ten competency areas were reviewed by the
education chairman to ensure that as many of these areas as possible is attempted to be
addressed at least once throughout the year. The chapter’s Board also works to ensure
that the educational offerings are taught by qualified representatives in that particular
field. Relevancy, demand for a particular topic (via a survey), timeliness of topic, and
budgetary considerations are also involved in the scheduling process. Industry trends
such as social networking sites, member marketing, enhanced training initiatives, and
technology-based membership efficiencies were among the current topics that were
deemed important to address through our education sessions.
3. To market the educational calendar and encourage attendance, a yearly calendar is sent
electronically to the membership and posted on the chapter’s website as well. Reminder
emails, evites, and personal phone calls from fellow chapter members are also utilized to
ensure each event is well attended by managers and their staff.
4. To ensure the education topics are pertinent to a multitude of job levels, the chapter
engaged speakers that addressed issues relating to a variety of department levels, not just
from the perspective of the General Manager. The chapter also utilized speakers from
affiliated organizations to ensure the various departments of the club would have interest
in the educational offerings. Finally, many issues during the presentations were
addressed from both sides of the equation, meaning from the employee to the manager
and vice versa.
5. Technology plays an integral part in the chapter’s educational offerings. The process
begins with emails, evites, and advertising on the website to encourage attendance. At
the meeting itself, powerpoints and Mac based slide shows were used. The minutes of
each minute are posted to the chapter website to enable managers to review the events of
each session. We also post our vendor sponsors on our website to provide additional
marketing outlets for them and thus further our relationship with those specific
purveyors. The chapter is currently developing the techniques to be able to incorporate
iVideo/Mac video into its presentations as well. The chapter also takes advantage of
video conferencing (i.e. Skype) so that managers who are unable to attend the meeting in
person are still able to participate in the education session and contribute to the discussion
of the topics at hand. This option proves to be both economical (free) and efficient for
those managers with who are able to take advantage of this conferencing tool.
6. To encourage member attendance and involvement in the educational portion of the
chapter meetings, two times during the year we conducted roundtable meetings that were
directed by the individual chapter members. Rather than being passive and merely
“attending” the meeting, we encouraged our members to be a part of the education
session by conducting mini informational and Q&A sessions that covered a specific
member’s area of expertise or field of study.
The overall result of these initiatives was
to make the members feel more involved, and more invested in the chapter and its
activities. A sense of involvement creates a deeper commitment to the chapter and its
viability in the future.
To help keep things fresh, we also went outside of the clubhouse and took a “field trip”
for one of our education sessions. The meeting was held at Sysco, a main vendor of
many of our chapter members. At their facility, the membership was given first hand
demonstrations of product development, introductions of new products, and detailed
discussions regarding product lines and services that their company can offer clubs of
every size. Not only did this field trip offer new insights and expertise to a main expense
area for our member clubs, it also fostered a better relationship with this important
vendor which will prove worthwhile to the chapter and its members alike.
7. Prior to creating the current year’s education calendar, an electronic survey is sent to the
membership to complete. This survey requested input regarding preferred days of the
week for scheduling meetings, topics of interest, locations of meetings, cost limits for
meetings, and frequency of scheduled events. Following a CMI, surveys are distributed
requesting information regarding the quality of the speaker, the topic, and the facilities;
the timing and duration of the event; and the relevancy of the information provided. All
feedback obtained is shared with the Managing Director, education chairman, and the
chapter President so that they can use the information garnered to help shape a relevant,
efficient education calendar for the upcoming year.