10/31/2019
Season in Review
With the golf course now closed for the season I thought I’d provide you with my General Managers review of 2019.
My operating plan for 2019 included a number of goals and new initiatives;
- Fulfill the “Drive for 35” membership initiative.
- Successfully integrate our new members and associates into the club and ensure they feel comfortable and welcome.
- Delivering the operating budget.
- Continue to make improvements to our F&B program.
- Complete work on our golf course master plan for presentation to the membership.
- Provide more and improved coaching programs for all members.
Drive for 35
This program has been a tremendous success, thank you to all the members that connected Sandy with so many of your friends and colleagues.
Despite having such a terrific membership drive in 2019, we cannot assume our work is complete. At all private club’s typical attrition rates range between 4-6%. We are no different, we see an average of about 15 members leaving us each year.
As a result, you can see the importance of our continued efforts to attract new members and ideally develop a wait list to join the Club.
Our “Tee it up in 2020” program has been finalized and Sandy’s promotional efforts have already begun and will ramp up in coming weeks.
Our greatest marketing tool is leads from our current members and this proved to be true once again this year. Please forward any leads or prospects you have to Sandy as we begin our work for 2020.
New Members
Integrating our new members and associates was a critical component of our 2019 season. The board, management, pro shop staff and all of you played a critical role in welcoming and ensuring all our new members felt welcome.
We completed year end surveys and fireside chats with our new members to determine how we performed, how their first season went and what we could improve on for next season. The results were overwhelmingly positive among our new members, they thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of their first year at Mad River and all our efforts to ensure they felt comfortable.
Operating Results
2019 was a particularly challenging year from a budgeting perspective due to the nature of the Drive for 35 program. With our membership drive successfully underway during budget season, we knew our dues revenue would be down, but we made aggressive projections for other revenues in 2019.
After a slow start, the weather was beautiful from the middle of June until closing. The great summer weather coupled with the success of the membership drive drove all our ancillary revenues up and we are projecting that we will achieve our overall operating budget for 2019.
Food and Beverage
Another of our objectives in 2019 was to continue to improve our f&b services. We did make strides forward but also recognize that we still have areas to improve in 2020.
Overall, our sales continued to increase, while we will fall short of our 2019 budget, our sales were up over 11% from 2018 which was a record year for sales. However, our cost of goods sold and operating expenses were also about 11% higher than budget.
We are still working through the transition from counter service to table service and determining the correct mix of labour and operating expenses. A task force was struck late in the season to review our progress and make recommended guidelines for the board to consider for 2020.
Golf Course plans
The grounds committee continued to work through prioritizing of Doug Carricks suggestions. This spring the club was approached by a couple owning property directly north of our northern boundary. They are looking to start a boutique winery on their property but need additional acreage in order to get approval from Clearview.
Their approach re-opened our discussions with another neighbor that owns the property directly east of our first hole. We are in discussions to determine interest in a land exchange that might be of benefit to all three parties.
These discussions are ongoing and could have major implications on any future golf course plans, so the grounds committee work is now on hold awaiting a decision on this land initiative.
Further updates will be forthcoming over the winter months.
More and Improved Coaching
In our efforts to assist members in their goals to improve we introduced a number of new programs and technology into our coaching program.
The new Sam Putt Lab was purchased to assist Ryan the rest of the teaching staff to analyse and accurately assess your putting stroke and to assist with the correct fitting for putters. This along with the Trackman technology will be important tools for Ryan in assisting you to achieve your improvement goals in 2020.
We also brought in world renowned instructors Lynn Marriot and Pia Nilsson to determine if the membership had an appetite for this type of programming. Lynn and Pia held two half-day Vision 54 clinics, both were sold out and we received rave reviews on the day. Ryan is working on similar plans for 2020.
Summary
Chad and his team once again delivered and outstanding course for all to enjoy this summer, but the success of the membership drive was the highlight of the summer. 2020 plans are already underway and membership will once again be a focal point of our operating plans.
I hope everyone has a wonderful off season and I look forward to seeing everyone in 2020.
Gary Ward, General Manager