Paul Thomas, JMEvensky and Kalen,
I'm not sure you want to hear my theory on who's to blame and how to try to correct the problem.
I blame those responsible for the operation of the club during the good times AND the ADMISSIONS committee.
While the roots of the problem may extend beyond them, they're easier to identify.
Clubs can get themselves into trouble by constantly trying to improve themselves, and, panicking when a fair amount of vacancies occur, usually, the two go hand in glove.
An example might look as follows:
Things are good, the membership is full, there might even be a waiting list. However, the club might not be in great financial shape. There may be no capital fund or reserve, debt, outstanding bond refunds due former members, a dues structure that doesn't support expenditures, but, sufficient new member activity may keep the above problems at bay.
Then the club embarks on a project, golf course and/or facilities. But, how do they fund it. I've always believed in pay-as-you-go, but, alot of clubs don't. The project is voted thru and additional assessments, borrowing or some other funding method is enacted.
Marginal members resign, prospective members see the writing on the wall and defer entry. Suddenly, a smaller and smaller membership is left to fund a large problem. As each member leaves the burden on the remaining members increases.
What to do ?
I know says a well intended Board member, we'll lower our inititation fee, have fire sale on membership, get some of the needed funds from a greater number of new entrants, and, most importantly, we'll get more revenue from annual dues and assessments, which is really what we need.
Hence, the club opens up the membership gates.
And, they're no longer seeking like minded members, familiar with the history and traditions of the club, new members who might be linked socially and familiarly with the club and its current members. New members who have a sense of the game of golf. They don't care about that.
They just want warm bodies who can pay the freight.
And so, one year 25 members join and the next year 20 members join and the next year 30 members join, and it a very short time, 5-7 years, the entire BALANCE of the CULTURE of the club has been shifted. In fact, in some circumstances, the entire CULTURE of the club has been changed.
I've seen this pattern, or ones similar to it over the last 10-15 years.
Clubs that historically were populated by generations of family members, members who knew one another, members connected to the game of golf and members connected thru social, business or other interests, are not populated by a collection of strangers who have nothing in common other than the ability to write a check.
And now, what do you have.
A club that gets its sense of golf from TV or some magazine.
A club that changes everything from the menu to the dress code, on and off the golf course. A club that changes the decorations along with the "old" time employees.
A club where the new President has been a member for 7 years, plays golf occassionally, prefering tennis or paddle tennis, encourages the use of cellphones everywhere, spends $ 155 in the Pro shop over the course of the year, wants to implement every fad that every other course in the area institutes, thinks the golf course should look like ANGC year round, wants budget cuts and watches PGA Tour golf on TV.
And you want to know how to reverse that trend ?
I think the culture has been lost forever.
I don't know that the trend can be reversed or the culture reclaimed and restored.
But what can happen is that clubs that are heading down that path can stop the slide.
It starts with fiscal responsibility.
The club has to look at operating and capital budgets in today's world, not a world that existed 40 years ago when members joined, brought their friends and stayed until they died.
The club must accept allowing the membership ranks to dip without panicking, while at the same time accepting higher membership costs, and recruiting like minded GOLF members.
I know of a club that irrespective of their membership needs will only take in a limited number of non-legacy members each year. They're smart, they want to preserve their culture, imbuing it in the new members, rather than having a large cadre of new members change their culture.
This is why I applaud the Ken Bakst's and Roger Hansen's of the world. They understand golf and golf clubs.
And, they're fighting the tide.
Fortunately, they started with outstanding golf courses, but that didn't happen by accident. Still, it's not easy.
But, I believe that if anyone can do it, it will be done by benevolent dictators such as Ken and Roger.
The clubs that were referenced have the luxury of taking in like minded members. They don't usually compromise their standards due to financial mistakes or demographic anomalies. They continue as they always have, making accomodations for today's world, WITHOUT DISRUPTING THEIR CULTURE.
In summary, foolish financial endeavors/mistakes, coupled with panicked Boards and indiscriminate membership committtees have been to blame for the shift or loss of the CULTURE at many clubs.