Membership Greens Forums.

[Thomas Dai]

Do many private members clubs hold Greens Forums or something similar where the Chairman of Greens and the Course Manager/Super/HGK stand up in front of the membership once or twice per year and talk about their work plans for the future, timings, problems, what they’d like to achieve but have/haven’t been able to do yet etc etc?
I guess it takes appropriate personalities to make this sort of gathering work successfully but they’ve proved successful where I usually play, at least until Covid put an end to such gatherings (will be reconvened again soon).
For example, a couple of years ago it was very clearly explained to the members at such a forum how the legislative removal from the marketplace of a particular chemical would mean that certain wee beasties that like to live and feed a couple of inches below the surface of the greens could not be treated and how crows etc were likely to peck away at the putting surfaces in order to feed on them. And this is exactly what has happened. However, instead of big membership moans and groans as would have happened in the past, the members were advised in a timely manner why such would happen and they’ve accepted the situation.
The above is an example of communicating with the membership not a discourse on treating wee beasties so comments on holding forums not on wee beastie treatment would be appreciated!
Atb

[David_Tepper]

Communication between the course superintendent and the membership has improved greatly over the past 10-15 years at the clubs where I am a member. Weekly emails and facebook posts have made getting the message out to the members much easier than in years past.

I think that is probably a more efficient way to communicate with members rather than having a large meeting with the members a couple of times a year.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

[JMEvensky]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

Hate to be cynical but that's my experience as well. Too much of an opportunity to watch a Super get hung out to dry for someone else's bad decisions.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

Hate to be cynical but that's my experience as well. Too much of an opportunity to watch a Super get hung out to dry for someone else's bad decisions.

The degree of "low-level questions" is truly remarkable when these forums occur.


Never will be there a vision of the course presented. It's always like:


1. Why are the greens so slow when I bring my guests out?
2. Why is the bunker sand so thin on the greenside bunker on #12?
3. Do you think we could put more trash cans on course? Or benches?

[Rory Connaughton]

Ian, agreed.


Thomas, there was a time when we made annual presentations and issued fairly detailed reports.
We have transitioned to a model whereby our superintendent communicates directly through social media
multiple times per week.


He's a good communicator and very capable of explaining things with pictures or videos and short explanations.


When we have a bigger issue - for example a massive flood caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida - we put togther more detailed reports.


This continuous communication takes little time and buys a lot of goodwill when the time comes to deliver negative information.

[Kalen Braley]

As much as I miss the in person presentations and meetups, it totally makes sense.  For any group larger than 25 people or so there is always gonna be that one guy in the room who will derail the entire thing.

For at least the last 10 years my places of work do it this way via Video Conference with PowerPoint and closed mics. And while you can submit questions online, they are cherry-picked for the ones they will answer.

[John Emerson]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

Hate to be cynical but that's my experience as well. Too much of an opportunity to watch a Super get hung out to dry for someone else's bad decisions.

The degree of "low-level questions" is truly remarkable when these forums occur.


Never will be there a vision of the course presented. It's always like:


1. Why are the greens so slow when I bring my guests out?
2. Why is the bunker sand so thin on the greenside bunker on #12?
3. Do you think we could put more trash cans on course? Or benches?

Ive got one that may top all the stupid question/comments from a green committee meeting.  The meeting was my time to make my case for why we needed a bunker renovation.  It was needed in a major way.  Like, 5 alarm fire type of urgency.  It was obvious to everyone except one guy.  His rebuttal to spending the money was “how about we just remove all the bunker sand each time before it rains?”  We had about 50 bunkers.  I didn’t even know how to respond to that…..

[Jeff Schley]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

Hate to be cynical but that's my experience as well. Too much of an opportunity to watch a Super get hung out to dry for someone else's bad decisions.

The degree of "low-level questions" is truly remarkable when these forums occur.


Never will be there a vision of the course presented. It's always like:


1. Why are the greens so slow when I bring my guests out?
2. Why is the bunker sand so thin on the greenside bunker on #12?
3. Do you think we could put more trash cans on course? Or benches?

Ive got one that may top all the stupid question/comments from a green committee meeting.  The meeting was my time to make my case for why we needed a bunker renovation.  It was needed in a major way.  Like, 5 alarm fire type of urgency.  It was obvious to everyone except one guy.  His rebuttal to spending the money was “how about we just remove all the bunker sand each time before it rains?”  We had about 50 bunkers.  I didn’t even know how to respond to that…..

I was talking with a superintendent at a public course that got a lot of play in the Chicago area years ago. He did a great job on a limited budget and his big issue in getting the course back after the spring storms was the bunkers. The city official in charge of the park district said, "what about tarps and cover them like baseball covers their infield when it pours."

[Thomas Dai]

Interesting points raised. Thanks.
Whilst newsletters, social media etc can and have improved information flow there’s nothing quite like hearing things with your own ears or watching the photos etc if it’s a presentation.
Yes, there’ll be the odd daft question from Mr Gobby in the audience. But often time Mr Gobby makes himself look pretty stupid both by his ridiculous question and by the way he conducts himself so after a couple of questions from him together with laughter if not downright mockery from the rest of the audience and sensible answers from the CoG/CM etc he tends to shut up and not return.
There’s also the accountability aspect. The ability of the membership to call to account what is happening to their golf course, their golf course, the course they pay hard earned money to be a member of.
Guess there’s a balance here.
Atb

[Kyle Harris]

Public presentations to club memberships seem to be occurring when an important vote is looming and the advocates of the motion seek to be transparent and get the overall membership to buy-in to the initiative, ask questions and learn before they see the money involved and cast a vote.


Just doing a presentation "FYI only" always invites the "town criers" to pipe up and gives a platform to those who are perpetual naysayers to progress.


The tree-huggers would love the opportunity to hear themselves complain publicly hence most clubs would be well-advised to forego that...;-)


Agree that is better relegated to email.

Hate to be cynical but that's my experience as well. Too much of an opportunity to watch a Super get hung out to dry for someone else's bad decisions.

The degree of "low-level questions" is truly remarkable when these forums occur.


Never will be there a vision of the course presented. It's always like:


1. Why are the greens so slow when I bring my guests out?
2. Why is the bunker sand so thin on the greenside bunker on #12?
3. Do you think we could put more trash cans on course? Or benches?

Ive got one that may top all the stupid question/comments from a green committee meeting.  The meeting was my time to make my case for why we needed a bunker renovation.  It was needed in a major way.  Like, 5 alarm fire type of urgency.  It was obvious to everyone except one guy.  His rebuttal to spending the money was “how about we just remove all the bunker sand each time before it rains?”  We had about 50 bunkers.  I didn’t even know how to respond to that…..

It's not a bad idea.

You response: Next time rain is forecast close the course, do it. Present the bill. 

[Alan FitzGerald CGCS MG]

I've done a number over the years and we've been trying to get one on the schedule for a while but Covid has messed it up. I do social media, blogs, emails etc to keep in contact so the membership knows what is going on, but I still believe there is nothing better than communicating in person. The one I'm currently planning is on aeration, as no matter how much I can explain in a blog, by being on a green, pulling plugs to show what is going on does more than a million words and people can ask the questions in real time, which gives everyone a better understanding.


One of the best ones I did was a series with the ladies where, over a couple of Tuesdays, we took carts around the course and chatted about the design, why we maintain things certain ways, how to repair divots, ball marks properly etc. It was a great success and they all left with a much better understanding of the course. I also got roped into participating in the local county farm tour one year. That was an interesting one as we had people coming through that never even had set foot on a golf course before. The best part of that was explaining how much superintendents do to protect the environment and its not just dump water and spray and forget it, like joe public thinks.

I've been lucky with not having too many Mr Gobbys over the years but come in prepared for the worst just in case. In any case if it's done right it can be a very informative session.

[David_Tepper]

Alan F. -

I salute your efforts and I am glad they are well received.

Once a year the Olympic Club in San Francisco invites the Audobon Society out to the country club property on a Monday morning to conduct a bird-watching tour of the property for those members interested in tagging along. Typically more than 40 types of birds are identified, which shows just how hospitable to wildlife a well maintained golf course can be.


DT

[John Emerson]

I've done a number over the years and we've been trying to get one on the schedule for a while but Covid has messed it up. I do social media, blogs, emails etc to keep in contact so the membership knows what is going on, but I still believe there is nothing better than communicating in person. The one I'm currently planning is on aeration, as no matter how much I can explain in a blog, by being on a green, pulling plugs to show what is going on does more than a million words and people can ask the questions in real time, which gives everyone a better understanding.


One of the best ones I did was a series with the ladies where, over a couple of Tuesdays, we took carts around the course and chatted about the design, why we maintain things certain ways, how to repair divots, ball marks properly etc. It was a great success and they all left with a much better understanding of the course. I also got roped into participating in the local county farm tour one year. That was an interesting one as we had people coming through that never even had set foot on a golf course before. The best part of that was explaining how much superintendents do to protect the environment and its not just dump water and spray and forget it, like joe public thinks.

I've been lucky with not having too many Mr Gobbys over the years but come in prepared for the worst just in case. In any case if it's done right it can be a very informative session.

Alan,
I agree with your sentiments.  Hands-on demonstrations go much further than any other form of communication.

[mike_beene]

As a comparison, members of Congress used to hold meetings in their districts much more frequently. These are generally attended by disgruntled people or political junkies and unfortunately had security risks. Meetings using technology offer more control of the topics. An open meeting is not productive.