July is here and we’re joined by Ryan Kenny, CCM, CCE, General Manager/COO of Dedham Country and Polo Club in Dedham, MA. Ryan shares with us Dedham’s fun (and delicious!) response to social distancing safety requirements. The Club repurposed an area into an outdoor dining area that has become a popular spot for members to enjoy local brews and wood-fired pizza, showcasing the creativity and ingenuity that has come to the surface during the pandemic. Take a listen and see how your club could adapt this idea! Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

And the men who hold high places
Must be the ones to start
To mold a new reality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart

The Blacksmith and the artist
Reflect it in their art
They forge their creativity
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart 

Philosophers and Ploughmen
Each must know his part
To sow a new mentality
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart

You can be the Captain
I will draw the chart
Sailing into destiny
Closer to the heart
Closer to the heart, yeah!

Many of you will know that this is a song by a Canadian Band called Rush. It came out just over a month after I stopped being a teenager. That was in 1977. Perhaps the message is still valuable 43 years later.

In January, Jeff Morgan and I had the chance to attend an event for Tee It Up for the Troops. We had been at an event all afternoon and when we got a chance to check our devices. At the moment that I could see that my phone had blown up with messages, Jeff let me know that Neil Peart from Rush had passed away. People were reaching out to me to give me comfort. My son Danny’s message was that Neil had passed and Alex might need some of my heart. It was all happening as we were at an event, where we could show our hearts, our compassion, our caring, and our support for some people who had given so much.

There is a message in this song that is profound for the world, for countries, for cities, for organizations, and for clubs. I would like to focus on what it could mean for you and me as individuals. It is easy to point at leaders and artists, thinkers, and doers, captains and navigators and hope that they will do something.

This is a song of hope, wisdom and wishful thinking!

Instead of wondering if we will see this way of thinking from others, this is our time to see all of these roles and this approach in us.

Maybe some people feel that “being closer to the heart” is a position of weakness. Maybe some think that counting on logic and strategy and not being distracted by caring and compassion makes us stronger and more powerful. That is one way of thinking.

What if being closer to the heart was seen as courage? What if closer to the heart was about heroism? What if closer to the heart meant passion? What if closer to the heart was about love and compassion? What if closer to the heart meant strength?

When we can see the fact that we are the ones in high places, we are blacksmith and the artist, we are the philosophers and the ploughmen, we are the captain and the navigator, we might create a new reality, closer to the heart.

If you would like to talk about being closer to the heart as an individual or a leader please give us a call.

Kevin MacDonald and Shelley MacDougall are the coaches for CMAA. If you would like a copy of the poem “A Friend” that Hugh Alexander Campbell wrote, please e-mail kmacdonald@dccnet.com

The newest CMAA Master Club Manager (MCM), Boris Gradina, MCM, CCE, joins us this week to share his research on the importance of onboarding new employees. He takes us through how he arrived at this topic for the MCM Monograph, the difference between orientation and onboarding, and why timing of the onboarding process is so crucial in ensuring long-term employee retention. 

Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

In this first episode of June, we sat down with Steve Buck, CCM, CCE, General Manager of the Stock Farm Club in Hamilton, MT. Steve’s club was hit by COVID-19, with eight of his golf course maintenance crew going down with the virus. He shares with us the experience of containing the virus, communicating with the local community and the state, and the biggest takeaways of the incident. From making sure his staff were cared for to navigating the politics of living and working in a small town, Steve’s story of crisis management is a must-hear for any club management professional. Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode! 

Joining us on the podcast this week are Josh Gay, a recent graduate of Florida State University and the outgoing President of the FSU Student Chapter as well as our colleague Christina Krueger, manager, Member Communities & Student Development. Josh shares with us a quick pulse check on how things are going down in Florida as well as his student chapter’s innovative efforts throughout the spring semester of social distancing. Relying on virtual meetings, the FSU chapter has been able to maintain regular check ins as well as experience virtual club tours. Even more exciting is the work the FSU Student Chapter and the FLCMAA Chapter have done to create a virtual summer internship program to help students fill the gaps left by employment and experience loss this summer.

Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

What we have been going through for the past few months has given us negative realities that range from boring, inconvenient and frustrating to devastating, painful and catastrophic. It is easy to find things to be frustrated, sad and angry about. I hope we can all find things to appreciate, celebrate and be grateful for.

This pandemic has allowed me to get closer to my Grandfather.

People in my family may be shocked to hear this because my maternal Grandfather died 50 years ago. I was alone with him in my family’s living room telling him stories of the school trip that I had arrived home from the night before. He was grilling me with questions and listening intently to hear about my adventures and learning when his breathing became loud and scary. He was rushed to the hospital and I never saw him again.

He died in June of 1970. In January of 1970 his book “The Life and Adventures or a Pioneer” was published. Last weekend within a few weeks of 50 years of our living room conversation I spent two days with the stories he left behind. When I was 12 or 13 I found them so boring that I couldn’t get through them. Now at a more advanced age and having life experiences that in some ways paralleled his I was enthralled.

In 1905 when he was still in his teens he learned that if he travelled to the new frontier to the north he could buy 150 acres of land for $75.00 if he would clear at least two acres to plant crops and have a house built on it within three years. He decided to take it on to make his fortune and the story of a pioneer kicked off.

There are many lessons that I learned from my Grandfather last weekend. Here are a few of them.

Perspective
He lived in a time when transportation was a train or a horse drawn carriage. He lived in a time when not everyone had electricity or indoor plumbing. He lived in a time when there may or may not be a road to get to where you want to go. He lived in a time when if you were injured or sick you may get to see a doctor and he may or may not have been able to help you. He lived in a time without modern day safety nets like unemployment insurance or health insurance. He lived in a time when if everything you built was burned in a fire you started again. He lived in a time of a worldwide pandemic and he got the Spanish Flu. He lived in a time when World Wars changed or stopped everything. He lived in a time when communicating with someone that was not in your town meant writing a letter or sending a telegram. He lived in a time when your concern was not having a variety of food, it was simply having food. He told a poignant story of my Grandmother and their first child (my uncle) going to visit friends in a town where they used to live. A forest fire came through and wiped out most of the town they were visiting. Their friends’ home was spared. She asked the friend to go to the telegraph office to let her husband know they were ok. He went to the telegraph office and was told the town he wanted to send the message to doesn’t exist anymore and that he couldn’t send a message. Even if it did, the wires were burnt.

Last week a couple of times people froze up for a few seconds on one of our zoom calls. Perspective!

Perseverance
My Grandfather’s story was a series of successes and his words “reversals”. He would build something up and it would burn down. He would build something up and a pandemic would stall or reverse things. He would build something up and an economic depression would take it away. He would build something up and a World War would tear it down. He would build something up and a poor choice of a partner might bring it down. At 72 years of age he had a business and three other jobs. Maybe when you get knocked down a lot it is easier to deal with getting knocked down.

The Law of Attraction
There is a wonderful story of meeting a man on a train. He shared part of his vision with a man on the train. He had to build a house so he could marry my grandmother and have a place to start a life with her. He didn’t know how he was going to be able to it but he had the vision. A few weeks later the man showed up with a proposition for him to build his home. Within two weeks the man showed up with a crew of men and built a two story log cabin exterior and roof in 8 ½ hours. I look back on my own life to notice how many “man on the train” stories I have in my life.

Friends and Family
Without a doubt, the biggest lesson of the book is that through all the trials and tribulations, through all the successes and reversals of health and wealth, and through all the years of a life well lived and beyond all the gold he prospected and mined, the real gold comes in the form of family and friends. In 1939 my Grandfather had a poem published in the New York World’s Fair Anthology of Verse. The poem was entitled “A Friend”. Like my Grandfather, I have been blessed with three children, a wonderful wife and hundreds of dear friends and acquaintances.

Thank you worldwide pandemic!

Kevin MacDonald and Shelley MacDougall are the coaches for CMAA. If you would like a copy of the poem “A Friend” that Hugh Alexander Campbell wrote, please e-mail kmacdonald@dccnet.com

We're joined again this week by Steve Graves and AJ Redetzke - principals of Creative Golf Marketing, a CMAA Education Partner. Steve and AJ dive in to answering some hot button questions that we're hearing right now as the club industry begins to think about reopening and what strategies and changes may need to be implemented over the next few months. This second installment covers questions surrounding current Club members and discusses what allowances and adjustments may (or may not) need to be made as we move forward.

Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!

We’re coming at you this week with some bonus content! We are excited to welcome CMAA's newest team member: Katherine Lord, MSW. Katherine came on board as the Director of Club Services and the Managing Director of the Club Spa and Fitness Association (CSFA)right as we all transitioned to working remotely - but that hasn't stopped her from jumping in feet first! We sat down with her to discuss her background, her interests, and some fun facts - enjoy!

Stay well and remember, you can find us on iTunes! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe so you don't miss an episode!