Below is a publication I subscribe to that has an interesting take. I've always wondered about those such as NGCOA..and NGF etc....the next few years will be interesting for all of these mentioned below...
Golf Industry Associations:
A Tale of Two Cities"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." I doubt that Charles Dickens would have ever imagined his famous opening being used to describe the golf industry and its various Associations but it does fit quite nicely for my purposes.
We've previously touched on the topic of the successes and challenges of the various golf industry Associations. In one issue we talked about the money in golf being in the Association "trust funds" while in another we opined on the declining membership of the various State Golfer Associations, several of which we've conducted research for over the past several years to determine the consumer's perspective and how to revive relevancy. In this issue we'll take a look at a comparison between the "best of times" and "worst of times" associations and what the members of each group have in common and what makes the two groups different:
Best of times group - PGA TOUR, USGA & PGA of America; if you have a golf tournament and TV rights to re-negotiate, you have a "golden ticket" today despite the industry's woes.
Worst of times group - WGF, GCSAA, NGCOA & NGF; while "worst" is probably a slight hyperbole, these organizations are challenged to grow with primarily membership and trade show revenue models, both of which are exposed to the financial limitations of their members who are inextricably linked to the industry decline and stagnation.
Within the worst of times group, there are also some interesting patterns as it relates to executive compensation including one case where the CEO is earning >15% of the Net Assets of the organization. It may be time for some of the Associations (or their Boards) to relook at the relationship between what they're paying for leadership relative to the financial health of the organization and make some adjustments.
For our Executive Summary recipients, while you won't get the summary and color commentary treatment of the above topics (you can by subscribing here:
http://www.pellucidcorp.com/purchase-reports/online-store?page=shop.browse&category_id=1), just to show that I'm a nice guy I've provided below the links to the IRS 990 forms for all 7 of the non-profit golf trade associations for your bedtime reading (click on tab marked Forms 990 & Docs). I also found that the naming conventions occasionally change year-to-year so I've also included their Employer Identification Number (EIN on the sites) in case you want to search using that.
PGA TOUR:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/52-0999206/pga-tour.aspx [EIN 52-0999206]
USGA:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/13-1427105/united-states-golf-association.aspx [EIN 13-1427105]
PGA of America:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/59-0785835/professional-golfers-association-america.aspx [EIN 59-0785835]
World Golf Foundation:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/59-2998925/world-golf-foundation.aspx [EIN 59-2998925]
GCSAA:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/59-0874226/golf-course-superintendents-assoc-america.aspx [EIN 59-0874226]
NGF:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/36-2250699/national-golf-foundation.aspx [EIN 36-2250699]
NGCOA:
http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/36-2916462/national-association-public-golf-courses.aspx [EIN 36-2916462]
Joe Beditz once commented that Pellucid will never be "mainstream" in the golf industry; with this issue and treatment he's probably going to be right but it's never been something over which I've lost any sleep.