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Since joining CMAA just under three years ago, I have been part of club management events in several countries. Our core focus areas of CMAA – professional development, peer-to-peer interaction, and information sharing – are each a global focus for club management professionals. The value of CMAA around the world, specifically the value of holding the Certified Club Manager (CCM) designation, is a strong anchor worldwide.

Last year, I attended and spoke at the Canadian Society of Club Managers (CSCM) conference. While many club managers attend CMAA events, CSCM also has a solid offering in Canada. Canadian club managers have a similar focus to their American counterparts. They value the CCM designation and have the most CCMs outside of US managers. We recently worked with CSCM to modify the exam to strengthen the CCM’s value by adding questions that are specific to Canadians in the areas of external and governmental influences, accounting and finance, and human and professional resources.   

Last year we also held a BMI International in London. I was able to better understand club management while there and learn from our European club management professionals. The Club Managers Association of Europe (CMAE) is a strong CMAA partner. They have invested deeply in the CCM and just recently hosted their 50th BMI program. It was great to compare and contrast clubs and club management in and around London. As you might expect, managers in both Canada and throughout Europe have similar challenges to managers in the US. This might help you to understand why holding the CCM is a great way for managers inside and outside the US to show their professional skills and dedication to the club management profession.

I visited mainland China and Hong Kong in May for a mix of vacation and CMAA business travel. It was incredibly rewarding to be the keynote speaker to a group of 200-plus club management professionals in China as well as terrific to lecture in a BMI General Manager/Chief Operating Officer class alongside Richard Bruner and Dr. Jack Ninemeier. I am so impressed with the focus and dedication of club management professionals in China. China has some unique challenges as clubs and golf continue to develop, but the managers with the CCM designation are at the top of their profession there. It looks like we should have a good contingent of Chinese attending our World Conference in San Francisco to celebrate a brand new class of Chinese CCMs! While in Hong Kong, I had the opportunity to attend part of their conference as well.

It was great to see several city clubs as part of the conference club tour and talk to many managers. It’s clear that managers there share the same purpose for belonging to their local association as CMAA members do in the US.

While I haven’t yet been a part of club management visits to countries like South Africa, Southeast Asia, Colombia and New Zealand, the CCM programs in these areas, along with regular BMI programs, are prospering. So as I end this month, I want you to know that I have personally observed that the CCM is a global brand and CMAA is recognized around the world.  This doesn’t happen without global partners focused on professional development involved in producing BMI programs and helping their members obtain and retain the CCM. We appreciate all of these groups and we are also honored to have so many non-US managers attend CMAA’s annual signature club management event – that’s why it is the World Conference!

Until next month,

Jeff

Late last month we kicked off the official planning for CMAA’s 2018 World Conference on Club Management and Club Business Expo with a Conference Committee meeting on location in San Francisco, CA. That meeting had multiple purposes including:

1. A staff site visit of the Moscone West (convention center) and host hotels;
2. A review of the 2017 World Conference survey results;
3. A review of the 2018 World Conference schedule draft;
4. A site visit of potential locations for the Networking Event; and
5. A discussion of potential general session speakers.

 It was a very successful meeting, but this is just the beginning of many efforts by members and the staff team to create a world-class event for CMAA members. Member involvement now turns to the work of the Conference Education Committee. Last year this group reviewed 325 speaker submissions for approximately 70 session slots.  While everyone is welcome to submit (during April to mid-May) for consideration to speak, those chosen are truly the best and most relevant, as rated by member peers. 

The process of selecting speakers and sessions is a mix of art and science. In addition to covering the ten core club competencies, CMAA members want the education experience tailored to their needs.  Half the membership wants to learn from their peers through sessions with club professionals; the other half wants to listen to speakers from outside the industry. Many attendees want to attend sessions led by tried and true repeat speakers, while the other half prefers new speakers. The challenge of speaker mix is magnified with session times. About a third of our attendees want 60-minute sessions, another third wants 90-minute sessions and the final group likes a mix. As you can imagine, all these combinations and permutations can create a logistical challenge. 

After the Conference Education Committee completes its annual review of the speaker submissions, they work with the CMAA team throughout the summer to assist in filling sessions so we get a good mix of topic areas, session times and types of speakers. David McCabe, CMAA’s Senior Director of Education, oversees this selection process and manages the schedule to ensure members are given options that best meet their educational preferences. 

Member involvement continues as we approach the World Conference and on site as well in areas like the CMAA national election process, the International Wine Society auctions and events, Club Executive of the Year selection and award celebration, and judging for Idea Fair, Chapter of the Year and the Student Club of the Future award programs.

As you can see, there is a great deal of member involvement that goes into the creation of a World Conference and how we do our best to tailor educational and networking offerings to meet your desires. We listen hard to your comments and I am glad you share them with us. I am also appreciative of the assistance of all the CMAA volunteers who give their time and talent to making it a great event for their peers.

Finally, if you’ve read this far along in my blog, I feel you deserve a bit of the insider scoop regarding the 2018 networking event... We’re hitting the town for a spectacular Monday night event at one of San Francisco’s most storied clubs. There are many more developments about next year’s World Conference to share, but hopefully this is just enough of a teaser to get you a little bit more excited about next year’s event!

Until next month,

Jeff Morgan

A few weeks ago I received a new research study done by my professional association – the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE). ASAE’s latest research is titled “Mutually Beneficial Volunteerism.” Like associations, clubs share the importance of volunteers in our organizational success, so I thought the research results might help you to spend a few moments to think about your club’s volunteer experience.

The research focuses on what factors most ensure that a volunteer makes a contribution to the organization, while at the same time, the volunteer receives personal satisfaction for volunteering. It makes sense and if this healthy, mutually beneficial system exists, your organization is likely to be more successful. What is interesting is that the healthiest volunteer environments also include:

• A collaborative system where staff and volunteers trust and value each other;
• A system where volunteers are well-matched with the skills for the roles they are asked to fulfill;
• The volunteer experiences both personal and organizational satisfaction; and
• An environment is created where the volunteer can see measurable results.

Don’t you think the above “healthy” factors would be essential in clubs too? Do you and your Board work to actively manage the volunteer experience? A big focus of the research and also a huge challenge was evaluation or appraisal of the actual performance of volunteers. Almost half of associations surveyed indicated they do not have a process to evaluate volunteer satisfaction; conversely, more than a third of volunteers said they wanted more feedback and more clear expectations. I must admit I struggle with volunteer evaluations as well as getting feedback from those who serve the Association. CMAA can do better and we will spend some time working toward how to provide a more effective volunteer feedback system in the future.

Some other take-a-ways for a healthy volunteer process include:

• Having a Board liaison on committees;
• Having strong cross-departmental coordination and cooperation among staff committee liaisons;
• Having an organization-wide system to periodically invite all members to consider volunteering;
• Having a system that ties committee work to organizational priorities or a strategic plan;
• Ensuring there is effective communication to volunteers;
• Having a fair process for volunteer selection and/or nomination that is based on merit and selection of the best volunteers, free from bias;
• Having an orientation for volunteers with clear volunteer expectations; and
• Ensuring that the schedule and time requirements for volunteers are considered reasonable.

Those who serve as volunteers also provided input in the areas that impacted their experience or noted areas for improvement:

• Having confidence in staff liaisons;
• Feeling valued and respected;
• Helping volunteers feel like they’re giving back to the organization with a good sense of how the committee activities fit into the big picture;
• Being more open and inclusive to newer and younger members serving as volunteers;
• Confirming the Board liaison is interested and has passion for the committee’s work; and
• Facilitating better information flow pre- and post-committee meetings, as well as during meetings.

I hope this blog topic gives you some ideas and thoughts to reflect on regarding your club’s volunteer practices. Many, including me, would say that healthy club governance creates better club environments for members and staff. Healthy club committees and volunteer experiences are certainly part of this equation.

As I end this month, I have one request: CMAA’s revamped Club Management magazine was unveiled this month. I hope you like the upgrades and additions! We want to share CMAA member, club and chapter news (promotions, interesting club projects and/or cool chapter outings) in every issue. Please send your news to goodnews@cmaa.org. 

Until next month,

Jeff Morgan

In last month’s blog, I wrote about CMAA being 90 years young as we focus on the future of club management ensuring members are served with energy, enthusiasm and foresight. Did you know that the original name of the Association in 1927 was the National Association of Club Managers? It didn’t take long for that name to change to the Club Managers Association of America or more fondly CMAA. Our name has been with us ever since, but is it the right name for 2020 and beyond?  

When I came on board two and half years ago, there were several things at CMAA that made me wonder, “Why is it that way at CMAA?” As any new CEO would, I asked questions and then quickly learned why. Some things were logical and made sense; other things seemed ripe for change as the reasons no longer appeared to be relevant for how CMAA had evolved over the years.

As you can imagine, some of those things were within the staff’s control and were changed as part of CMAA’s evolution, just as you would do as a new manager at a club. Other items were discussed and included as part of our 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. For me, one of the items that seems outdated is our Association’s name. Hear me out, please, before you call for my dismissal! I believe our name should be the Club Management Association of America and here is why:

1. The new name, replacing “manager” with “management” better represents our membership as a cross-section of positions focusing on serving our clubs through excellence in club management.
     
2. The focus of CMAA is the overall management of clubs and helping our club management professionals. Changing the name positions CMAA to have stronger value to clubs and their boards versus solely the needs of the manager who may be seen as a transient position at the club.
     
3. While club manager is a generic industry term, we want our club managers to be seen as professionals and executives with our club boards with progressive titles and responsibilities of CEO, COO and General Manager. Changing our Association’s name acknowledges this progress.

So, in my opinion, CMAA – as the acronym – remains! However, the small nuance of changing our Association’s name could have a significant impact as your organization moves forward to serve you in the best manner possible. This matter will be discussed by CMAA’s Strategic Planning Committee and then by the National Board before it would be voted on by the membership. If you have a thought on the matter, please e-mail so I can share your comments with the Committee when they meet in May.

Before I end this month, I want to ask you if you have begun to enter your financial and operations data into CMAA’s annual survey process through Industry Insights. Last month I shared that going forward, CMAA will be funding the collection of industry analytical data using an organization called Industry Insights. This organization has been in existence for 35-plus years and works with more than 200 associations on benchmarking.

Industry Insights will be collecting data on CMAA’s behalf and will keep it secure, providing CMAA with summary analytical data to provide to CMAA members. Participating clubs will receive a complimentary copy of the report including a static Club Performance Report, which is an individually customized report of a participant’s own financial and operational statistics shown alongside appropriate industry comparatives.  Industry Insights will never contact you directly to sell you additional services or share your information to any service provider in the industry. I want CMAA to have the most robust club analytical database possible and if you add your financial and operational data, we are one step closer.

At CMAA, further Industry Insights efforts will be accessible to you via our Club Resource Center (CRC) subscription area that gives you a plethora of club resources, including online staff training, white papers, operational resources, etc. Participating CRC subscribers will also receive an interactive, online portal to compare your club’s results with others.  

Members own CMAA and members should own their industry’s data too. This 2017 CMAA initiative will make that a reality!

Until next month,

Jeff Morgan

A few weeks ago, my wife Susie and I went to visit her parents in North Carolina for the weekend. As my father-in-law approaches 90, I am impressed by his ability to stay young. He continues to be eager about learning, trying new things and ensuring he is staying up to date. I greatly admire my father-in-law and I hope I have the same mindset when I approach his age. He is 90 years young, as there is nothing old about him!

I feel the same way about CMAA as we begin our 90^th year – we are 90 years young! CMAA was formed in 1927 by a group of visionary club managers predominantly in the New England, New York and Chicago areas who wanted to learn from each other and ultimately ensure their clubs would grow and prosper. The Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) was born and as they say, the rest is history. 

In 2016, CMAA took a step forward to ensure we remain 90 years young by approving our 2016-2020 Strategic Plan.  About one-third of CMAA’s membership participated in its development. As we approached the completion of the first year of the plan, I want to pause and give you an update as we ensure CMAA is growing and evolving with a young mindset to serve you.

Those who attended CMAA’s World Conference in Orlando heard my State of the Association address during the Opening Business Session. I told you of our shared journey over my past two and a half years at CMAA and where we are headed in 2017. During World Conference we also held an open session called “Ask CMAA’s Leadership” for any members to ask questions about CMAA or get more information. I am also pleased to point you to some online resources to tell our CMAA story for 2016.  On our website you will find our annual report. I urge you to review it. Those of you that might be interested in CMAA’s financial health can also review our recently completed financial audit. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

One of the other items I spoke about during my State of the Association Address is our journey forward into club analytics in 2017. At the end of last year after detailed analysis and deliberation, the CMAA Board of Directors decided to end our relationship with our current survey provider to forge a new path. I want to share a bit more about our plans. Going forward CMAA will be funding the collection of industry analytical data using an organization called Industry Insights. This organization has been in existence for 35-plus years and works with more than 200 associations on benchmarking. You will recognize some of their current and former clients – GCSAA, NGCOA and IHRSA, to name a few.

Industry Insights will be collecting data on CMAA’s behalf and will keep it secure, providing CMAA with summary analytical data to provide to CMAA members and provide us with an online portal to compare your club’s results with others. Industry Insights will never contact you directly to sell you additional services or share your information to any service provider in the industry. I am excited about this change and ask you to please support this new CMAA initiative. I want every club to have access to analytical information from the largest to the smallest. It starts with creating the most robust club analytical database possible by providing your financial and operational data in the coming weeks.

At CMAA, Industry Insights efforts will be accessible to you via our Club Resource Center (CRC) subscription area that gives you a plethora of club resources, including online staff training, white papers, operational resources, etc. Participating clubs will receive a complimentary copy of the report including a static Club Performance Report, which is an individually customized report of a participants own financial and operational statistics shown alongside appropriate industry benchmarking comparatives. CRC subscribers will receive an interactive version of this report online.  

CMAA’s use of Industry Insights sets the club industry up for leveraging the insights and resources of other industries. It also sets us up for future expansion, from entry to reporting, using Industry Insights vast resources. I am so excited about this change and the benefit that it will ultimately provide CMAA members. Members own CMAA and members should own their industry’s data too. This 2017 CMAA initiative will make that a reality.

Until next month,

Jeff Morgan

Happy New Year! Inspiration for this month’s message comes from CMAA’s elevator. The CMAA HQ building has three floors with roughly seven to twelve people on each. With a National staff team of 28 people on multiple floors, it requires some movement if you are going to run into everyone each day. This gets me to this month’s focus. One way CMAA’s staff stays connected, besides the elevator and two stairwells, is a white board in the elevator. This white board starts out clean each day and whoever has an inspiration, writes it on the board for all to see.

Some days it’s a question, like “What book are you currently reading?” or “Today is National Bologna Day” (October 24, if you must know!) or sometimes it is trash talking about our favorite sports teams. From this board, we learn about each other and informally stay connected without attribution of comments to any one individual member – although I must admit that when I learned one long-time staffer was a member of a rock band, I did have to go check out her YouTube videos. Very impressive! So during the holidays, someone asked about New Year’s resolutions.

Honestly, I was pleased to see a list of personal and professional goals and that no one put down the perennial favorite goal of “losing weight.” Goals like being more compassionate, getting more sleep and smiling more were added as personal ones. While professional ones included raising more money for The Club Foundation and doing more for CMAA members. So as we individually set our own goals for 2017, how do we make them last? A one word response sums it up: grit!

Grit is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as: mental toughness and courage. While another online dictionary defines grit as: courage, resolve and strength of character. I think you may agree it would be wonderful if we all had more grit? Those New Year’s resolutions would certainly become reality! It just so happens I recently finished a book called Grit by Angela Duckworth. The author states effort is much more valuable than the talent within each of us. Effort leads to skill in whatever we are focused on, with results and ultimately achievement coming over time. 

Reaching our goals in 2017 requires that core element of grit encompassing hard work, courage, self-motivation, resolve and staying focused on achievement. Leveraging our personal grit will allow us to move forward even during the most challenging times as well as toward success at our clubs. So as we begin 2017, my hope for you is that you will add some grit to your life, and that it will carry you far into this year toward personal and professional success!

CMAA has its own year of grit ahead as we are by your side partnering to help you succeed professionally. Best wishes for a great 2017!

Until next month,

Jeff Morgan