A CAUTIONARY TALE
A great example of poor member communication derailing a capital project came from a membership sales manager from an affluent golf club. She asked to remain anonymous, so let’s just call her “Mrs. Smith” from “The Well-Intentioned Golf Club.”
Smith shared the calamity of their last capital improvements project—a disaster that could have been easily avoided. It started out familiar enough; the board felt expanding club amenities and services would be a great way to bring in new members. And besides, existing facilities were due for upkeep and it had been quite a while since they’d assessed themselves or done any kind of capital improvement project.
“At the annual meeting a board member announced they were beginning to develop an improvement plan for the club,” said Smith. “He spoke about it at a very high level and showed a couple early renderings, promising more information to come. Maybe a quarter of the members were in attendance. The next communication was the proposed master plan, rough costs, and town hall meeting date. For most members who saw this, it was their first time hearing about it. Still, it was just another item in the weekly newsletter, so many members were still not aware any of this was happening.”
Smith painted a picture of the extremely uncomfortable town hall meeting. Many members, even those in favor of an improvement plan, complained of not being made aware of the project before the club spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on architect fees. Regardless, a number of members at the meeting were excited; things moved forward and proxy votes were mailed out. The final nail in the coffin for this was that, for many members, the proxy letter was the first they heard of the project, and they were outraged.
At The Well-Intentioned Golf Club, every step of the way uncovered a communication misstep. The project, while suffering from some “personal agenda scope creep,” according to Smith, was still very solid.
“The backlash was from members not being aware or feeling involved. The exact same project could have easily passed if we had a clear communication strategy in place. Instead we’re in this awful situation that reflects poorly on management, and the board has lost its clout. We tried to turn things around but it was too late—we recalled the votes and put the entire project on indefinite hold. Back to square one.”
ADDISON’S SUCCESS
Compare what happened at The Well-Intentioned Golf Club to Addison Reserve Country Club’s approach to communicating an $18 million renovation. Located in Delray Beach, Fla., Addison’s general manager and CEO, Michael McCarthy is a veteran of managing capital improvement projects.
“It’s a long process and most clubs have a lot of politics involved,” McCarthy started. “If you want the members to approve a multi-million dollar project, you need those members on your side first. They need to trust you and the board and the master strategy you’re developing.“
McCarthy and his new leadership team embarked on a “hearts and minds” campaign before ever touching a renovation project. His approach, emphasizing transparency and accountability in management, was unorthodox, but extremely effective.
One of the first steps was opening all board meetings to any members who want to observe. McCarthy said, “I’ve seen boards talk for 6 or 7 hours about the small picture stuff; the size of the carrot sticks and whether they should buy new table linens for the dining room. Whenever you open up these meetings all that goes away. The members just won’t stand for it. It’s an amazing shift.”
McCarthy says Addison’s meetings never lasted longer than two hours and focused on building stronger departments, attracting the right members, developing replacement plans for club assets … or as McCarthy says, “real responsibilities.”
Perhaps even less orthodox was the dissolution of committees altogether. “Committees aren’t representative of an entire membership,” Addison Reserve Country Club’s new website (left) played a role in communicating its renovation to members. McCarthy said. “A small group wants something done but it doesn’t mean the majority of the membership does or that it fits the club’s strategic plan. Too often it’s about individual agendas.” In order to better represent the members and align with the club strategy, McCarthy hosted weekly focus groups. Any member can attend as long as there’s enough space. To prevent individual agendas from taking over, members who have previously attended go on a waiting list.
Setting up this new framework directly led to the success of their enormous capital improvement project, McCarthy argues. “After six months of operating this way, the membership well understood the strategic plan—there were no big surprises along the way when the renovation talks began. The focus group approach helped prevent scope creep from personal agendas and ensured the entire membership had an opportunity to be involved from the very beginning.” Said McCarthy, “If they heard any rumors or had any concerns I could address them there and in my weekly e-mail to members.”
As the project progressed, McCarthy scheduled 38 special focus groups solely for the renovation project. “The entire membership could be represented and on the same page,” he said. “The architects were at every one of those 38 sessions. It cost us more, but it was worth it.”
The project was approved by 87 percent of the membership—at the height of the recession—and came in $1.5 million under budget.
Addison Reserve and The Well-Intentioned Golf Club are powerful contrasts to how a high-end private club can approach a major renovation project. While both may seem like extreme cases, the successes and failures highlighted by each were echoed by many of the other clubs interviewed for this article. Weaving together their common threads, here are the lessons.
THE PROJECT STARTS BEFORE THE PROJECT STARTS
Member, committee and board communication issues need to be addressed first. Two-way communication about the club strategy should already be taking place before renovation ideas are even discussed.
Smith points out “boards and committees are often insulated from the membership as a whole. Ours thought they had overall support when they sent the voting letters out.” Said Smith, “We would have benefited from developing a clear communication strategy before making even that first announcement at the annual meeting.”
McCarthy insists the creation of clear club communication strategies were vital to the success of their project. “When the membership is educated to the club strategy you can discuss the entire project around what is best for the club, rather than letting a vocal minority or personal opinions push things along.”
McCarthy prepared Addison through focus groups and open-door board meetings, but you may not need to make such drastic changes to push things in a better direction. Even simply teaching existing teams how to frame discussions can have a positive impact. When all the stakeholders are on the same page with club strategy, they can start asking, “how will doing X support our goal of Y?” rather than the completely ineffectual, “do you like X?”
GET THE WORD OUT
Some club professionals believe if they e-mail an announcement they’ve made their members aware of it. Research at MembersFirst shows this simply isn’t the case. When we meet with members they tell us they often feel bombarded by club e-mails; some have stopped reading them altogether. For most who read them, they simply skim the content. While there’s plenty a club can do to substantially increase their e-mail read rates (which I won’t go into here) the club cannot solely rely on e-mail for a project as important as this.
Club communications adviser and colleague, Hilary Scott, provided this tip: “Let members know you’re beginning discussions about renovations via a certified letter in addition to an e-mail.” While this can be expensive, Scott cautions it can save money and headaches in the long run. She also advises to keep the letter short and point members to where they can ask questions, give feedback, and get updates throughout the process—such as a dedicated microsite.
Have an upcoming town hall or focus group? Include the signup information. Plan on e-mailing weekly updates? Tell them when to expect those. For members who don’t read the letter, pick up the phone and call. It’s not about making the project fully democratic but making members feel like they’re being included from the beginning.
“LEFT, TOP TO BOTTOM: The “after” photo of the bridal suite, the architect’s rendering of the bridal suite and the bridal suite before the renovation. PHOTOS BY GIL TALBOT PHOTOGRAPHY “
USE YOUR WEBSITE
A microsite (or other hub for information about the project) is an important centerpiece for project communication efforts, emphasizing transparency and clarity.
Addison’s director of IT, Stephen Holtz, said “it’s very important to let members know you’re on RIGHT: Manchester Country Club used a microsite to help build consensus among members and preview the plans. Its new website showcases the beautiful renovations at the club. schedule and budget so they have confidence in what you’re doing. They want to see where their money is going to and look forward to the results.” It’s also a way to build enthusiasm for the project: “Ours were excited to see the changes, like when we poured concrete for the first time,” said Holtz.
Joelle Creamer, director of sales & marketing at Manchester Country Club in Bedford, N.H., conveyed a similar sentiment “We knew to get the renovation approved the membership needed to be well-informed. We created a detailed microsite with floor plans, renderings, a video overview … it went a long way to build consensus for the project. Once approved, we posted weekly and later daily updates,” said Creamer. “It kept the doors open for communication and provided fewer opportunities for rumors to spread.”
The beauty of the web is you’re not limited on what kind of content you can share to drum up support or awareness. At MembersFirst, we’ve seen clubs successfully use microsites to share renderings, detailed financials, meeting minutes, important contacts, org charts, upcoming meetings, survey results, and even contractor video interviews. This level of detail can lead to venue bookings long before it’s even close to opening.
Of course, microsites aren’t the only digital tools at your disposal: blogs and other forms of social media can tell your story and collect feedback; your existing members-only website is a great place to post weekly “quick polls,” or single question surveys; digital proxy voting can incorporate all the media from your microsite; and while you can’t solely rely on it for the project, the e-mail newsletter is still one of your most powerful communication resources.
GET IT IN THE BUDGET
Make sure to incorporate your new look into your website and brand marketing materials. The most successful projects not only communicate and update brand media, but also include the time and expense for these changes as part of the project budget. Clubs need to determine what to handle in house versus with a contractor or agency, but one thing that’s certain is existing brand media will no longer accurately reflect your club. New facility and aerial photos, print media, and of course, your website all require updating. As Creamer said, “When the project is done, the club has a new story it needs to tell.”
Jamie Cerino, catering director at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., agrees. “Our renovation is going to give the clubhouse a more modern look and feel, but our old website didn’t reflect that.”
Canoe Brook is still undergoing renovation, but that didn’t prevent their more modern-feeling website from launching. “It was challenging because you’re trying to talk about facilities that don’t exist yet,” said Cerino. “The new site is working really well for us. There won’t be any drastic changes when the facilities are completed.” Says Cerino, “We’ll update some info, turn on dining reservations, replace the renderings with photos—but overall it’ll be very similar.”
Holtz from Addison Reserve had a similar approach. “We were forward-looking in redesigning the site so we could adapt to the changes that would come near the end. Says Holtz, “We knew what was being planned—we worked on the website during renovation—so the only thing left at the end was getting new photos. It meant we could launch this huge new website just two months after construction completed.”
So, mail certified letters, post renderings in print and web media, solicit member feedback and input, and make your next capital improvement project a success story.
James Cobalt is the marketing manager for MembersFirst, Inc., an award-winning digital agency and software provider for member-based organizations. You can reach him at 774-421- 9124 or [email protected].