For the thirty-years I've belonged to my club, I have only mathematically made sense of my membership in the past five years since I retired. But, never in those thirty years did I even think about quitting. I started a new small business after retirement, but was still able to play 5-6 days per week. Drinks and sandwiches are probably 20-25% cheaper than other local eateries.

As soon as I hear someone say, “Well, if I play 7 times per month and the kids use the pool 3-4 times per week…”, I know if he joins his membership is tenuous at best. The first month he gets a bill (Jan, Feb, Mar) when he did not use the club at all, his wife has already made the 'membership' decision.

It's tough out there. The pressure is on the club to do everything they can to preserve genuine value for every member dollar spent. Same thing at the non-private courses. Cheap is not necessarily value. Cranky bag boys and inattentive pros, waitresses and bartenders will chase people just as quickly as high prices…

I hope people appreciate the time and effort you put into this area of the golf industry. It is not glamorous or fun. But, unless people start listening to you, golf is going to continue to struggle for years to come.

I have done a number of financial and psychological analysis on joining a private country club and find that I am sane to be a member of of a private golf club primarily due to how much I value my professional and personal time. I sent my time on the public links waiting on every shot and spending 6 hours for a round..I will stay with the private club four hour rounds, thank you.

We do have a good chef and the food is pretty good, but the facility was built back when Donna Reed was a housewife. It needs to be bulldozed. I am seeing a large number of aged clubhouses in my travels and hear from their membership that is the number 1 deterrent to recruiting new or younger members to join the clubs.

There are a number of options the private member own or the semi-private corporate owned country clubs can do, but they will need to hire none country club management background personal to reach new solutions.

Good news is..the investors who are losing tons of money are now realizing they will just have to walk away from clubs they built on borrowed money and, as your said, let the members run it..I am sure they could do just as well as these guys and gals demanding 18% ROI each month..geez..

If you put a pencil to every membership promotion, you will never have a membership promotion. In the past twenty-four months on our board, more older members (hell, I'm sixty) ask about getting new members than the course condition, food quality and our nude female swimming policy.

If ANY members choose other restaurants over your club's dining facilities, you are gouging your members or your food quality sucks. I certainly hope you are not trying to make a profit on food and beverage.

Your (My) board and General Manager only really have two responsibilities. Recruit new members to replace normal loss through attrition and run the club in such a way you ONLY lose members to normal attrition – death and Florida.

If your 'private' club has an owner and he is against any of the above, find a club where the members own everything.

For the thirty-years I've belonged to my club, I have only mathematically made sense of my membership in the past five years since I retired. But, never in those thirty years did I even think about quitting. I started a new small business after retirement, but was still able to play 5-6 days per week. Drinks and sandwiches are probably 20-25% cheaper than other local eateries.

As soon as I hear someone say, “Well, if I play 7 times per month and the kids use the pool 3-4 times per week…”, I know if he joins his membership is tenuous at best. The first month he gets a bill (Jan, Feb, Mar) when he did not use the club at all, his wife has already made the 'membership' decision.

It's tough out there. The pressure is on the club to do everything they can to preserve genuine value for every member dollar spent. Same thing at the non-private courses. Cheap is not necessarily value. Cranky bag boys and inattentive pros, waitresses and bartenders will chase people just as quickly as high prices…

I hope people appreciate the time and effort you put into this area of the golf industry. It is not glamorous or fun. But, unless people start listening to you, golf is going to continue to struggle for years to come.

I have done a number of financial and psychological analysis on joining a private country club and find that I am sane to be a member of of a private golf club primarily due to how much I value my professional and personal time. I sent my time on the public links waiting on every shot and spending 6 hours for a round..I will stay with the private club four hour rounds, thank you.

We do have a good chef and the food is pretty good, but the facility was built back when Donna Reed was a housewife. It needs to be bulldozed. I am seeing a large number of aged clubhouses in my travels and hear from their membership that is the number 1 deterrent to recruiting new or younger members to join the clubs.

There are a number of options the private member own or the semi-private corporate owned country clubs can do, but they will need to hire none country club management background personal to reach new solutions.

Good news is..the investors who are losing tons of money are now realizing they will just have to walk away from clubs they built on borrowed money and, as your said, let the members run it..I am sure they could do just as well as these guys and gals demanding 18% ROI each month..geez..

If you put a pencil to every membership promotion, you will never have a membership promotion. In the past twenty-four months on our board, more older members (hell, I'm sixty) ask about getting new members than the course condition, food quality and our nude female swimming policy.

If ANY members choose other restaurants over your club's dining facilities, you are gouging your members or your food quality sucks. I certainly hope you are not trying to make a profit on food and beverage.

Your (My) board and General Manager only really have two responsibilities. Recruit new members to replace normal loss through attrition and run the club in such a way you ONLY lose members to normal attrition – death and Florida.

If your 'private' club has an owner and he is against any of the above, find a club where the members own everything.