December 20, 2009 President’s Letter Fellas, Your Executive Board has had two meetings since my last letter to you. The Board has been focused on five main topics,< /font> - Sign-up and Recruiting
- Tournaments
- Match play
- Management of our computer resources
- 2009 financial results
Each is discussed in more detail below.
Sign-up and Recruiting - Recruiting remains our number 1 goal for 2010 The Club brochure and Member Sign-Up forms were approved and printed and are available on-line on the web site. You are requested to print them off, complete the sign-up form and mail it with your dues to Rich Long as soon as possible. Your help in reducing our mailing costs is appreciated. Everyone that gets their paid membership in before February 1, 2010, will be entered into a drawing to receive a complementary 30 minute golf lesson from our very own Tom Menten! Thank you Tom for your help. The brochure/form is available at all City of Lakewood Recreation centers and GolfTec in Golden. We are also planning an advertising campaign in several local Your Hub newspapers early next year. Off season gatherings at several of our sponsors locations are in full swing and attendance has increased at each subsequent event. The next event is December 29th at Greenfields Pool and Sports Bar. Our goal is that everyone who attends will bring a prospective new member. GolfTec in Golden would like to host some kind of event in February of next year. If you h ave any other ideas regarding these events please contact Harold Black directly. The Board has analyzed our tournament attendance for the 2007, ’08 and ’09 seasons, below. Regular Tournaments | Average Attendance | Attendance (Hi – Low) | 2007 | 29.5 | 49 - 16 | 2008 | 31.1 | 43 - 18 | 2009 | 31.6 | 44 - 22 | | | | | | Senior Tournaments | | | 2007 | 19.3 | 21 - 18 | 2008 | 22.0 | 25 - 18 | 2009 | 23.5 | 26 - 18 | | | | |
Tournament participation over the last three years has essentially been flat. What is more tro ublesome is that the average attendance is not even one-half of our paid membership. In these tough economic times the Board is very concerned about maintaining, much less, growing our membership. We had 71 members who paid their $100 in 2009. We would like 100 in 2010. We have a daunting task in front of us and need all of you to help with recruiting. What can you do? Every Man Get A Man (EMGAM). As you read the remainder of this letter you will see that in just about every area of Club management your Board is going to be focused on promoting the Club and the course to what we hope is a new and broader audience of potential players/members. To help encourage your participation in our recruiting efforts the Board has voted to reduce your 2010 dues by $20 for every new, paying, member you recruit to the Club. That is, the new member must pay their $100 and they need to denote your name on the application form. Bring in five new members and you pay no dues in 2010. What have you got to lose?
In addition to all the above, the Board has also voted to waive the initiation fee for any new member that gets their paid membership in before April 1st. This applies to any member that did not play with HMGC in the 2009 season even if that member has played wi th us in previous years. And remember if the new member gets signed up before Februry 1, 2010, they will also be eligible for the free Menten golf lesson.
Tournaments The member survey is on line and you are asked to complete and submit your opinions by December 23rd. The survey is heavily focused on tournaments and will be used to help organize our 2010 competitions. If you need any help accessing the survey please contact Howard White or Rich Long directly. Proposed dates for our 2010 tournament s have been sent to the Lakewood Golf Pro staff. As soon as we have their approval we will forward the dates to you. At this time the early season focus in 2010 will be on defending the Lakewood Cup. We are scheduling three stroke-play events, both individual and team, before the Cup competition which is slated for late May. We expect to have one or two “Open” events where anyone with a USGA Index can play. Non-HMGC participants would pay a premium to play and we hope these events will get non-members interested in our Club and the course. One of these events may be what we are labeling th e “Homestead Challenge” where the public will be boldly challenged to test our “little course”. More information to follow once we have our tournament dates firmly in place. Another competition we hope to arrange is a “home and home” series with one of the other short courses in the area. Two other courses we have identified are The Links at Highland Ranch and Littleton Golf and Tennis. If you compare the course ratings, slopes and yardages (from the Blue tees) you will find them very close to the Blue tees at Homestead. The ultimate goal of these tournaments is recruiting. Can we get new players on our course that might join our Club?
Match Play Mark Murphy, our Match Play Chairman, is working to organize both individual and team match play for 2010. Based on our past history of participation we are aiming for a double-elimination format in the individual competition. If participation is greater than expected we may have to go to a single elimination format to get the all the matches in within the defined timelines. Current plans for team match play revolve around a season long 9-hole competition where points are awarded for each win. The team with the most points at the end of the season will be the champions. < font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> If you have ideas for match play please address them directly to Mark Murphy.
Management of our computer resources As with most organizations trying to conduct business these days the Club is becoming more and more dependent on computers – whether we like it or not! As a Club we are dealing with what I will describe as three computer systems. The first is our website. Howard White is our webmaster and is steadily “cleaning up” the site/system in an effort to make sure content is easier to access and up-to-date. Questions, comments o r concerns about our website should be addressed directly to Howard. The second piece of software we deal with is the USGA GHIN System software suite. This software includes the Tournament Players Programs (TPP) that are the foundation for how tournaments are flighted and scored and where individual handicap data is calculated and stored. Tom Bushly is Chairman of the TPP committee and is ably assisted by Don Sager. They are working to keep our software up-to-date and, more importantly, to train other individuals on how to set up and score tournaments. Tom and Don work closely with Rich Long, our Membership Chairman, who enters new members into the TPP data base. As you would expect a certain amount of control and discipline is n eeded to insure our files are protected and accurate. Rich has been tasked with documenting the controls we want in place to protect our files. If you are interested in becoming “TPP proficient” please contact Tom Bushly directly. One of our major goals for 2010 is to have the TPP software and our website “talking” to each other. We would like to see tournament scores and results downloaded from TPP to our website within no more than 48 hours after the conclusion of any tournament. The third piece of our Club’s computer world is the computer at the course where all players can enter their non-tournament scores or check their handicap history. Everyone with a USGA GHIN can access and use this computer---so, there are a lot of potential cooks in this kitchen! Don Sager has become the official/unofficial custodian of this computer……for all concerned! Because this computer serves as the gateway to the TPP software we need to be on top of its operation and maintenance. The Board is still sorting through where the Men’s Club responsibilities should start and end with this computer. I have never been in favor of a system where “no one is in charge and everyone is in charge”. I bring this to your attention so that you will know more about the “other” duties our members have assumed.
2009 Financial Results One of the major changes the Board instituted in 2009 was that Club will no longer handle the City of Lakewood’s golf revenue; i.e., cart and green fees. Your Board did not want the liability of handling another organization’s funds and the course was not in a position to offer our membership a discount on fees for performing this duty for them. Consequently, “cash in” is down from previous years; but, we believe your Club is in good financial condition. The following summarizes approximate cash activity for the 2009 season. | 2009 Cash In | $ | % | Members’ fees | 7,965 | 36 | GHIN only fees | 2,310 | 11 | Sponsors (Advertising) | 1,430 | 6 | Tournament fees | 10,099 | 46 | Misc (interest earned) | 185 | 1 | | Total Cash In | 21,989 | 100 | | | | | | 2009 Cash Out | | | CGA for GHIN fees | 3,930 | 18 | Kickoff party | 3,813 | 17 | Tournament Food/Prizes | 9,226 | 42 | Admin | 2,763 | 13 | Board | 1,491 | 7 | Carryover | 766 | 3 | | Total Cash Out | 21,989 | 100 |
If you have any questions on these numbers please address them directly to Bill VanArsdale or yours truly. $$$ on The Books Please spend any money you have by 12/31/09 Over 30 members had money on the books when we checked on 12/13/09 If you would like to talk directly to me please feel free to email or call. My contact information is shown below. Thank you for your loyal support of the Club. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010, Gene Bourque gbourque45@comca st.net 303-987-2377 H 720-261-2225C
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