BROOKSIDE COUNTRY
CLUB
Jen Golembiewski / Nate Perez / Austin D. Power / Robert Young
Information System
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History
Brookside Country Club in Canton, Oh was established in 1923. It is the oldest private,
member-owned country club in the area. It was originally known as “Lakeside Country Club”.
In 1903 the club members purchased a casino and began to add a 9-hole golf course which was
located at Myers Lake. In 1920, they had acquired more land for an additional 9-hole of golf,
which brings us to the Club’s current location. Other amenities were also added that year such as
four clay tennis courts. Brookside really takes pride in their family and tradition based
membership. Their mission statement expresses that; “When you enter Brookside Country Club,
you will immediately sense through each employee’s enthusiasm, that our membership and Club
are special.”
The beautiful grounds of Brookside offer many amenities that will keep you engaged year-round.
The state-of-the-art fitness center is equipped with Cybex machines. They also have certified
trainers and massage therapists on staff for member use. The tennis facilities include four
outdoor clay courts and four indoor hard courts for year-round play. The tennis pro is one of 120
USPTA Masters Professionals in Ohio. He holds private lessons, clinics and traveling teams for
the members. The 25-yard, 6 lane swimming pool is open from Memorial Day through Labor
Day and is staffed with Red Cross certified lifeguards and instructors. There is a zero-entry
shallow end for the little swimmers and there are group and private lessons held twice during the
summer. The Brookside swim team competes with area clubs and culminates with a sports
banquet at the end of the season. The most spectacular part of the club is its Donald Ross
designed golf course. It is one of the finest 18-hole par 71 courses in the area. Since 2000,
Brookside has been featured in Golfweek Magazine’s Top 100 “America’s Best Courses”.
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
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History – 1923
Variety of entertainment and amenities
Location
Staff
Tradition
Weaknesses
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Information Systems
Tradition
Web-site
Opportunities
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Update web-site
New Technology
Membership
Threats
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Public courses
Public recreation centers
Other Country Clubs
Technology
Economy
Local dining facilities
Strengths:
Brookside Country Club is a historic private club which has been in the Canton, Ohio
area since 1923; making it a great location and accessible for all Stark county residents who may
be interested in becoming a member. BCC offers a challenging golf course for its members along
with many other amenities; such as in and outdoor tennis courts, pool, fitness center and dining.
They are well staffed to serve their members and offer a variety of family oriented entertainment
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throughout the year. BCC believes its business model allows members to be serviced in all
aspects of their lives by creating an environment that offers all things from entertainment, fitness
and special occasion.
Weakness:
The strong tradition has become somewhat of a weakness for BCC because they have not
fully changed with the times. They’re an organization like any other that have multiple business
units, processes and functions that really on information systems. This seems to be a weakness
within the BCC organization as they still really heavily on paper receipts and transactions. The
web-site is somewhat outdated and not very functional for members or the public and could use a
major overhaul. The inability for the internal system to communicate with each other is also
something that they should look at addressing and making an investment in. They seem to have a
“State of the art facility” with an archaic IS system to track daily business transactions.
Opportunities:
There are multiple opportunities for improvements that BCC could take advantage of;
one simple item would be to update the web-site that would be more user friendly and appealing
to the members and general public. They have a strong membership pull that they could pull
technical knowledge from; these individuals are successful and business and in their personal
lives so they could offer some insight on new technologies that could be useful for the club to
take advantage of. Also there is software available that specializes in the functions of a country
club and golf setting. There are other CC’s in the area that they could learn from also, but that
requires the barrier of “pride” to be removed which they could view as challenging the tradition;
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knowledge leveraging is something that can strengthen an organization and should be used when
needing to address upgrading an Information System.
Threats:
Brookside faces many of the same threats as most other organizations, but one that may
affect them the most is a weak economy because its ownership is based on membership and
unfortunately in a down economy discretionary spending becomes a little tighter and individuals
look to cut cost where they can. This causes individuals to seek these needs elsewhere; it could
be other country clubs, public courses or public recreational facilities that may be at a lower cost
that satisfies the need of the customer. There have been some unbelievable public courses that
have opened up in the area that give the same feel as a private club and offer more technology
driven amenities; for example the “The Quarry” has been opened for a several years and it offers
memberships and entertainment to the general public and offer state of the art golf carts and
facilities the have a GPS feature along with the ability to place food orders from the golf cart
while on the course; very technology driven.
Brookside must assume that in today’s economy restaurants, local recreational facilities
such as the YMCA, Massillon Recreational Center and local gyms are a threat to take members
away as they may be tightening up their spending and dropping the high cost of private club fees
and seeking an alternative that may fit their needs. Making the transactions to their consumers
more convenient to their members will help them combat these threats and in order to do so they
will need to improve on their information systems and implement processes and training to the
staff that will allow them to have a successful transition.
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Issue / Questionnaire
In order to get a more comprehensive inside on how Brookside Country Club is run, we
were able to obtain information from the Accounting Manager Kelly Casey. As times have
changed over the years, there are some things that Brookside has adapted. These technological
advances have helped, but there is still much more that needs to be done in order to keep up with
the times, compete with other country clubs in the area, and to maintain an interest from
members and guests.
Brookside Country Club employs 10 people in the office. No matter a small or large
company, communication in an office setting is key to a successfully run business. Brookside
mainly uses phone, inner office memos, and email to communicate back and forth however, only
department heads have email. This to our group is something that would be an easy and quick
change. Brookside needs to provide email capabilities to relay information more quickly and
effectively around the office. Whereas inter office memos can get lost, misplaced, or be hard to
read, email between every employee would be a solution to that problem.
A recent technological advancement has been the implementation of new accounting
software, and a new server. For a small country club, costs can add up quickly. The finance
committee which is composed of Brookside members makes these decisions and then passes the
information to the board where it will be approved. With the new server, Brookside was able to
become wireless. This was a large advancement within the past ten years for the club. Are more
changes necessary and important? Brookside seems to think so. They feel it is so important that
they have recently started an IT committee. This will allow focus to be put in the right areas to
continue to move Brookside into the future.
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Billing and member activity is a focus that should be on the forefront for Brookside. With
billing, everything is currently done on a chit sheet. Basically it is a three piece carbon copy
receipt paper that goes to the specific area you are at (golf, swimming, dinner, etc), to billing,
and to the customer. The cost for these chit sheets yearly is $700. This is a very minimal cost;
however it is also very out dated and inefficient. With basic technology in today’s world, there
are ways to track bills, pay bills, and manage activity cheaply and easily.
For billing, currently Brookside sends out bills through the mail to all members at the
beginning of the month, with payment due by the end of the month. The bill is now able to be
emailed to members who requested it, but it is still also mailed. Even though the can get the bill
through email, they can’t do anything with it. There is no option to pay, just view. With the bill,
a newsletter is also sent out in the mail. They do charge $2.00 for postage to all members.
Speaking of members, Brookside currently has around 200.
Member activity is hard to manage unless you as a member develop a way to manage
spending on your own or keep a detailed pile of chit sheets. There is a ticker on the bill to let the
member know how much more they have to spend for the year, but that only comes once a
month. There is currently nothing in place to view and monitor history or activity on a daily basis
If you have never been to Brookside Country Club, it is a beautiful area in Canton
surrounded by a neighborhood with many stunning homes. Right now, there is no way to track
how many people who live in the neighborhood are actually members. Wouldn’t having a
member directory online be a neat way to meet, network, and know all the people in or around
Brookside? Since they are a private club, there is also no way to do any type of advertising or
member recruitment. Basically, new members need to be sponsored by a current member. They
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need reference s and then they ultimately get voted into to Brookside Country Club by the
committee.
Austin - Section
References
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Brookside Country Club - Home. (n.d.). Brookside Country Club - Home. Retrieved
October 4, 2011, from http://www.brooksidecc.com/
Golf Software & Golf Course Marketing. (n.d.). Golf Software & Golf Course Marketing.
Retrieved October 4, 2011, from http://www.activegolfsolutions.com
Plastic membership cards Online., y. c. (n.d.). Plastic Membership Card Printing. Plastic
Membership Card Printing. Retrieved October 4, 2011, from
http://www.plasticmembershipcardsonline.com
Hamilton, T. (2011). IBISWorld Industry Report 71391. Golf Courses & Country Clubs
in the US. Retrieved February 23, 2011 from IBISWorld database.
Quarry Golf Club - Home. (n.d.). Quarry Golf Club - Home. Retrieved October 4, 2011,
from http://www.quarrygolfclubggp.com
Glenmore Country Club. (n.d.). Glenmore Country Club. Retrieved October 4, 2011,
from http://www.glenmoremember.com
Dear, T. (2010). Golf Industry US: Road to recovery. Retrieved October 4, 2011, from
http://www.golfmagic.com/equipment-news/golf-industry-us-road-to-recovery/6807.html
Casey, K. (Interviewee). (2011). Brookside Country Club – Information Systems,
September, 26, 2011).