February 20, 2026
Professional Development
Mark Your Calendars for These Upcoming Education Opportunities
Human Resources Summit
August 11-13
This Summit is designed for human resource professionals and those interested in focusing on the club’s people and culture. The beautiful Interlachen Country Club in Edina, MN, will be our host for 2026.
Chef Summit
September 22-24
The Chef Summit is where club chefs from across the country come together to elevate their business acumen and leadership skills. This year we are returning to one of our most popular cities, New Orleans, LA.
Mid-Management Conference
October 17-21
If you are striving to grow as a club professional, the Mid-Management Conference provides a chance to network with like-minded professionals and education to help emerging leaders grow both personally and professionally. This year we are going to St. Louis, MO!
Membership and Member Benefits
2025 CMAA Annual Report: There’s Still No Place Like CMAA
The 2025 CMAA Annual Report is now available. The report shows how CMAA is more than a professional network, but a true community for club management professionals. Through education, networking, advocacy, and countless shared experiences, our members have continued to show that CMAA’s greatest strength lies in its collective unity.
The report highlights the Association’s developments in membership growth, certification and professional development, advocacy, member services, research, and partnership, along with detailed information from The Club Foundation. Paired with the audited financial statements, it includes summaries from the 2025 CMAA Chair Richard LaRocca, CCM, CCE, and President & CEO Jeff Morgan, FASAE, CAE.
Congratulations to CMAA’s Newest Fellows
Two distinguished club industry leaders have been inducted into CMAA’s 2026 Class of Fellows. Established in 2019, the CMAA Fellows Program recognizes dynamic, engaged leaders who exemplify the highest standards of leadership, integrity, involvement, and professional excellence in club management.
Announced during the Opening Business Session at the 2026 World Conference & Club Business Expo in Anaheim, CA, this year’s inductees are:
Patrick King, CCM, CCE
Army Navy Country Club,
Arlington, VA
Desi Speh, CCM
The Desert Highlands Association,
Scottsdale, AZ
Each Fellow is selected through a rigorous, peer-driven process that includes nomination, a comprehensive application highlighting innovation and professional impact, interviews with a selection committee composed of peers, and final selection from a highly accomplished candidate pool.
The CMAA Fellows community now includes 43 distinguished leaders who serve as mentors, innovators, and champions for the Association and the broader club industry. Fellowship is a lifetime honor recognizing enduring contributions to the profession and a lasting legacy of leadership.
Congratulations to the 2025 Wine Program Award Winners
The objective of the Wine Program Awards is to annually recognize the best club wine programs and laud CMAA member-managed clubs that establish and maintain fine wine programs for their membership. The awards are meant to be a hallmark of quality and assurance of an eminent wine program. A club that receives recognition should leverage its accomplishment when marketing the club’s food and beverage program to its membership.
Congratulations to the 2025 Winners:
Award of Distinction:
- Birnam Wood Golf Club, Santa Barbara, CA
- Cherokee Town & Country Club, Atlanta, GA
- Cosmos Club, Washington, DC
- Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, MI
- Houston Oaks Country Club & Retreat, Hockley, TX
- Nantucket Golf Club, Nantucket, MA
- Naples Yacht Club, Naples, FL
- River Oaks Country Club, Houston, TX
- Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Award of Merit:
- Annandale Golf Club, Pasadena, CA
- Annapolis Yacht Club, Annapolis, MD
- Bay Head Yacht Club, Bay Head, NJ
- Bel-Air Country Club, Los Angeles, CA
- Big Easy Ranch, Columbus, TX
- Canoe Brook Country Club, Summit, NJ
- Daniel Island Club, Charleston, SC
- Farmington Country Club, Charlottesville, VA
- Lakeside Country Club, Houston, TX
- Minnehaha Country Club, Sioux Falls, SD
- National Democratic Club, Washington, DC
- The Arizona Country Club, Phoenix, AZ
- The Country Club at DC Ranch, Scottsdale, AZ
- The Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, TX
- The National Arts Club, New York, NY
Recognizing The Club Foundation’s Impact in 2025
At this year’s Awards Breakfast, it was truly inspiring to watch so many scholarship and grant recipients being recognized for their exceptional achievements. This year, 64 remarkable individuals were awarded scholarships in 2025, a significant increase from 44 scholarships awarded the prior year. As each name was read and displayed on the screen in the Marquis Center at the Anaheim Marriott, the room was filled with pride and possibility.
Behind every one of those names is a story of dedication: long hours, professional excellence, and the bravery to chase growth. From clubs and Chapters across the country, these individuals represent the very best in our industry. The work they do each day combined with the heart they poured into their applications has culminated in this success. It is a celebration not only of achievement, but of potential.
The Club Foundation’s impact extends well beyond individual scholarships. In 2025, 31 Chapter education grants were awarded, up from 25 grants last year, all funded by the Foundation. Additional funding is provided for new Faculty Development and Immersion Grants. It was also wonderful at the Awards Breakfast to continue support for Tee It Up for the Troops, an extraordinary organization dedicated to serving veterans and their families in many ways and especially healing through golf. So many other great moments were on display during the event including honoring this year’s Club Executive of the Year and the longevity of service that permeates our industry and Association.
Thank you to Club Car for presenting this event in partnership with CMAA. The Awards Breakfast is one of the most meaningful highlights of conference week as we celebrate so many individuals. The Awards Breakfast is an inspiring celebration of the mission of the Foundation and all the amazing work that our broad club community from January through December, from dawn to dusk, and beyond.
To everyone who has contributed so far this year: thank you. Your generosity is transforming lives, advancing careers, strengthening chapters, and extending hope beyond our industry. Because of you, The Club Foundation continues to open doors, expand opportunity, and make an even greater impact year after year.
Features
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Featured Discussion: Bonus Structure and Timeframe for Receiving Resignations |
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Resources
How’s Your Club’s Governance Game?
The National Club Association (NCA) and CMAA Joint Governance Committee is seeking submissions of governance-related documents and templates to be considered for inclusion in the appendix of the updated Governance Handbook. These samples will help turn best practices into actionable tools for all clubs.
The Private Club Governance: A Handbook of Principles and Best Practices was created to help club leaders bridge the gap between governance theory and practical application. Since its release, it has been downloaded more than 4,000 times, becoming one of the most valuable and widely used governance resources in the private club industry. Its success is a direct result of the feedback, examples, and insights shared by club professionals.
Escoffier Culinary Training Courses Now Available on CMAA’s Club Resource Center
Calling all ACF Chefs and those striving to be! Boost your skills with ACF-approved online learning. CMAA’s CRC hosts 23 culinary courses from Escoffier Global. You can earn continuing education hours in culinary, plant-based cooking, baking & pastry, holistic wellness and more. Some of the courses include:
- Culinary Essentials
- Baking and Pastry courses
- Cooking for Holistic Wellness
- Plant-based courses
- Introduction to the Kitchen
The CRC subscription brings you a broad scope of online interactive training courses for all your club’s staff. Start learning today! Contact Bob Gould for a full CRC course list or more information.
Trends and News
Royal Cup Coffee and Tea Expands Ready-to-Drink Cold Brew Line with Exciting New Flavors
Royal Cup Coffee and Tea, a leading manufacturer and distributor of premium coffee and tea, has announced a major expansion of its popular Ready-to-Drink (RTD) Cold Brew line. Building on the success of its Signature Cold Brew Latte, the company is introducing four new flavors: Black Cold Brew, Cold Brew Caramel Latte, Cold Brew Vanilla Latte, and Cold Brew Mocha Latte. This product line extension offers customers a wider variety of tastes, crafted with the same commitment to quality Royal Cup is known for.
The new collection is crafted to meet the growing customer demand for convenient, high-quality cold coffee beverages. This launch aligns with a significant surge in category popularity; according to the National Coffee Association's Fall 2025 National Coffee Data Trends report, 21 percent of American adults consumed a cold brew beverage in the past week, an impressive 50 percent increase since 2020.
To help customers capitalize on this trend, Royal Cup has developed a diverse portfolio of flavors. The Black Cold Brew is the purest expression of the company's craft, offering an impactful, silky-smooth, coffee-forward flavor. For those seeking indulgence, the new lattes offer decadent twists: the Caramel Latte features fragrant golden caramel sweetness; the Vanilla Latte provides a creamy delight reminiscent of melted vanilla ice cream; and the Mocha Latte blends rich, bittersweet chocolate for a supremely indulgent escape.
This launch underscores Royal Cup’s continued growth, with five distinct flavors now available: the original Sweet Latte and the four new additions. Royal Cup’s RTD Cold Brew collection provides a perfect option for every preference, from bold and black to sweet and indulgent. The new flavors are available now, contact Royal Cup to learn more.
Textron E-Z-GO LLC Launches New Labor Portal for Pace Technology Platform
Textron E-Z-GO LLC, a Textron Inc. company, announces the launch of its new Labor Portal for the Pace Technology® platform. The portal is an intuitive, user-friendly solution to help golf-course superintendents and grounds crews efficiently manage people, equipment and other resources in keeping their facilities pristine.
The portal unifies task assignments, work schedules, chemical applications, equipment usage, and on‑course labor management in one place. It features a comprehensive suite of planning tools, allowing superintendents and crew leaders to build weekly work and task schedules quickly. Superintendents can set daily priorities and assign equipment and tools to specific workers or tasks. In turn, workers can use mobile devices to record start and end times for each task while out on the grounds. Instant updates and push notifications keep supervisors and workers informed of task status in real time, so resources can be reallocated if urgent tasks emerge.
The Pace Technology platform is offered through Textron E-Z-GO LLC, manufacturer of E-Z-GO and Cushman vehicles and part of the Textron Specialized Vehicles business alongside Ransomes Jacobsen Ltd., manufacturer of Jacobsen professional turf equipment.
The Pace Labor Portal’s “Big Board” display shows live task assignments, mowing directions, and other notes, and is viewable by superintendents and workers alike to keep everyone aligned on the duties at hand. Daily and hourly weather updates enable crews to stay prepared for changing conditions. Crews can track big events and deadlines with a displayed countdown clock. The portal also allows superintendents to log chemical and fertilizer applications to track application timing and rates for each area of the course, simplifying reporting and compliance.
The portal can be used by any facility, and does not require Pace Technology hardware to be installed on equipment. However, facilities that have equipment fleets equipped with Pace Technology hardware will receive additional functionality. For example, if a facility has Pace Technology hardware installed on its equipment fleet, the portal allows for location tracking of equipment on the facility in real time, providing additional insight and data for operators.
Visit the The Pace Labor Portal now for more information.