CMAA Conference - February 2010

Report to GMA members by David Burton

I was fortunate to attend the 2010 Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) conference in San Diego, as President and on behalf of Golf Management Australia, an allied association of CMAA. The event was held from Tuesday 9^th to Saturday 13^th February 2010.

In addition to representing our Association, my objective was to report back to the Board, the key successes of CMAA and identify where these could be relevant and applicable to GMA at National and state levels. My findings are based on attendance to course modules, the Golf Trade Show, Opening/Closing Ceremonies, International Symposiums, Networking and a meeting with the current and past Presidents of CMAA.

CMAA (Club Managers Association of America) is several decades old, has over 5,000 active members as well as 2,000 students, honorary, international and other affiliated members. To be a Full Member costs $770 USD annually, excluding a "Bookmart" services department, which coordinates and distributes publications of all types for the industry. A subscription for local Chapters (i.e. state bodies) is also applicable.

The Association's Mission Statement is to "Advance the Profession of Club Management by fulfilling the educational and related needs of its members". The organisation has several core areas including education (to become a Certified Club Manager designation or "CCM"), the BMI (Business Management Institute), Conference Management, a wine society and the "Club Foundation", a non profit charity which feeds tax free charitable donations back to education in terms of both general club management for all managers as well as subsidising the BMI program.

With the help of CMAA, Europe has just launched its own BMI program with the inaugural class starting last year (this was 5 years in the making). China is next.

The CMAA's focus has always been to provide services to managers of private clubs. These include Golf Clubs, Yacht Clubs, City Clubs, University Clubs and the like. This is not an organisation that caters simply to high-end golf clubs. In fact recently, they have looked closer at resort clubs as members. The CMAA has many alliances with other organisations. For example, The PGA, The GCSAA, Golf Club Owners Association, Golf Architects Society, Society of Golf Tournament Organizers, as well as international bodies such as GMA.

In the US, managers of clubs must be approved though the local CMAA Chapter, before they are accepted as members. CMAA Publishes a magazine every two months and issues a monthly newsletter, now electronic. These are also available to allied members. The industry is still 85% men however, this is changing with the student body closer to 50% men, 50% women.

The CMAA paid staff amounts to 40 people, 37 that assist in the organisation and implementation of the conference (along with volunteers of the local Chapter). The Club Foundation is a separate entity (for tax reasons) however is managed in the same office by the CMAA CEO.

Courses/events I attended over the five days included:

• Golf Industry Trade Show (the size of a rugby field)
• Opening network event
• CMAA International Breakfast Seminar
• CMAA International Symposium
• Leadership
• Making Change during a financial crisis
• Older clubhouses - remodel or rebuild
• Straight talk with the CEO of CMAA
• Club Foundation event and auction
• Closing Business Session, CMAA AGM. Guest Speaker - Roger Dow, CEO US Travel Industry

As President of GMA, I had the opportunity to speak at the breakfast seminar with about 20 other country representatives. It was a brief opportunity to highlight what is happening in the Australian Golf Industry and to discuss the strategic direction of GMA.

The conference modules start at 7am and go through until 5:30pm daily. It is scheduled into the weekend and there is no golf except for one optional round at the beginning. Lunch is not provided. The only sit down meal was during the awards ceremony which I was invited to as an allied representative. The opening and closing networks events at the hotel were all stand up events, similar to the opening event we had in Perth at Kings Park.

As in the Australian conferences, networking is a vital benefit of the week. Brett Holland (Murwillumbah GC) and I attended a one-day International Symposium meeting and found that most clubs throughout the world experienced similar challenges. For example, economic pressure, energy efficiency, technology (services), corporate governance and water were the core issues.

Discussing club issues over dinner or drinks with others also gave a perspective of what key challenges or successes are achieved at other clubs. Ironically, speaking with the Managers of several high end clubs - it has been the first time they can remember, where they are concerned about member retention. Most countries are represented at the conference. I caught up with past President of CMAA, Norm Spitzig who presented at our Perth conference (he looks forward to the Aussie visitors in Orlando!) as well as the President of CMAA Michael Leemhuis, GM of Congressional Golf Club who is also interested in speaking at our conference if we would like to have him.

CMAA grew from a few members in the 1960's to over 7,000 today. This has happened through long term commitment of its Chapters and its own employees (the CEO and COO have over 30 years experience combined) and a strong allegiance to its strategic plan. It has the numbers to sustain a strong base although it had to go outside of Golf Clubs to achieve this.

1. Its core focus is education.

In addition to educational information available to all its members through its database, newsletters, website, bookmart etc., it now has relationships with eight universities as well as its own BMI program. It has been very clever in subsidising it's programs by obtaining "non subscription" sponsorship funding through its tax deductible "Foundation". Club Car has sponsored $1 Million over 5 years to this program. They also solicit sponsorship of their program through their Corporate Advantage Program. Their Focus to obtain revenue is through "Partnerships" and "relationships" i.e. Club Car is a Platinum "partner".

Local Chapters (there are 46 of these) can also host guest speakers (and those in attendance can be accredited with points towards their CCM) or host relevant education seminars for their area.

2. Sponsorship

The sponsorship funding is easier to find by the national body with its purchasing power of 7,000 managers rather than having its local chapters, on a voluntary bases, chasing local corporate dollars.

Sponsorship is obtained on several fronts. Key sponsors (ranging from $250,000-$1,000,000) or "partners" are highly acknowledged through the conference, the trade shows brings in significant revenue as well as member conference registration fees.

I also noticed that throughout their newsletters, publishing material and website, there is advertising throughout - another source of revenue.

3. Job Search

CMAA manages a job search program for its members. They charge a fee for the service to the club and to the executive search firm (if applicable). This is an on line service they manage and another revenue source.

We must be cognisant of significant cultural differences between our countries and what that means for golf and our GMA objectives. There is a difference in expectations between Club members in the USA and Australia. There is heavy emphasis on "Augusta like" golf course conditions, more stigma to architect's names, more demand and patronage for food and beverage (remember ½ of the USA is indoors for 4 months of winter) and value is based on the feeling or experience of being a club member, not on "how much am I paying on average for a game" attitude, which is often the Australian member benchmark of good value. In light of this, CMAA is largely focussed on delivering customer service and food and beverage targets. This is slightly different from GMA's environment which focuses on the golf course first, food and beverage second and service third. Perhaps service in Australia should be higher up the ladder in an era that finds members leaving their clubs.

Notwithstanding the "Country Club" vs. "Golf Club" difference, the core content of CMAA education is relevant to GMA, just with different priorities. They are feeling the pressure of the economic downturn the same way Australian Clubs are, perhaps worse. I have heard that there are more courses in the USA being buried than then are new courses being developed.

I found the course content of the conference of similar quality to what GMA delivers. However, there is obviously more choices as modules run simultaneously through the week to accommodate so many people. They welcome and encourage feedback. After every module, you must fill out a scorecard (which also tracks your attendance!).

There has been some rather unfortunate news for the Tri-Association between the CMAA, GCSA and Golf Course Owners who have for several years consolidated their conferences. Due to some disagreements on the venue rotation and semantics of the working relationship, the GCSA will be separating next year and running their own conference. This will have a dramatic impact on the trade show and the revenue stream. There is a view that in the longer run, this arrangement will re-establish itself however next year's conference will be much smaller without the Superintendents Association.

CMAA is a professionally run organization that is clear about what it wants to deliver to its members. It objective to "Advance the Profession of Club Management by fulfilling the educational and related needs of its members" is a constant. As a manager, the conference, the education (and certification) material and networking are well worth the $750US per year to be a member.

There are some simple examples outlined above that GMA should consider in growing our organisation in terms of structure and services which would result in significant growth and opportunity to strengthen our state and national bodies.

David Burton

President

GMA