At a time of high inflation and a seemingly never-ending increase in the cost of living, materials and resources, most golf club members across this country will have seen rising annual subscriptions in recent years.
It’s totally understandable, but it can be highly frustrating if you feel your club is not using their increased income wisely and that those in charge are not delivering as good a product as they can for those who choose golf club membership.
We recently had correspondence from a disgruntled member at a proprietary club where monthly membership fees were (last year) increased by £10.
At that time, members were told the extra money would be spent on getting official England Golf Course Rating and Handicapping, an affiliation to the County Golf Union and resulting reciprocal agreements, plus an enhanced calendar of events.
Nearly a year on, none of those things have happened.
Many clubs are finding it hard to balance the books in the current climate, but if they fail to provide value for money and a sub-standard service, then things are only likely to spiral downwards.
Members will leave, meaning less income and a requirement for fees to go up even further to cover the shortfall, and that will then drive more members away. It’s a slippery slope.
What as a member can you do to intervene if your club is stagnating and under-delivering?
Well, the obvious answer is the one mentioned in the paragraph above. Vote with your feet. Look for a club where there is more focus on the future rather than stay at one simply looking to keep itself above the water line.
That, however, isn’t what a loyal member generally wants to do. If you’ve been at a club for some time, or your club is convenient for where you live, you want it to work out.
Courses of action
The person who sent us the message about the problems at their proprietary club mentioned they have approached the course operator with two formal letters signed by more than 30 members.
That’s a good starting point if you feel let down or that you aren’t getting value for money. It could be that those in charge at a club are simply unaware that members are disenchanted.
They may be so busy trying to keep the electricity on and the mowers whirring that they’ve forgotten about the members. Your first port of call as a member would be to communicate your concerns.
If your club is owned by the members then a good strategy for affecting change is to get involved in the running of the place. Apply for a spot on the committee. If you are fed up with a current malaise at your club, see if you can do something about it.
If you feel the committee is letting the club down, raise that matter at an Annual General Meeting, or, if you feel the situation is more dire than that, the club’s constitution should allow you to arrange an Extraordinary General Meeting (if you can rally enough supporters) to call for a vote of no confidence in the committee.
Bear in mind, if you do that, you will need to have a clear and well-thought-out alternative to propose. Again, you would likely need to be offering your services to take on some of the burden of running the club.
Another route to try to get some spark back into your club would be to speak to your home union. Each of the national unions has information and guidance available for golf clubs that are struggling or would like to go in a different direction.
England Golf as an example has an excellent Club Support department and there’s a library of resources to give clubs guidance on governance and the effective day to day running of a golf facility.
As a member, it’s disappointing if you feel your golf club is underperforming and if you don’t want to simply give up on it and move somewhere else, it’s up to you to take action.
If you feel your club isn’t doing anything – say something, suggest something, do something. If you and others do nothing, nothing will change.
