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CMAA members speak out

Seth Jones

CMAA members at the 2005 CMAA conference in New Orleans. Photo by Bruce Mathews

By now, the Club Managers Association of America is no stranger. You already know that CMAA — 7,000 members strong — is joining the Golf Industry Show. You may also know that 80 percent of these managers are at golf facilities, with the other 20 percent at such places as yacht clubs and athletic clubs.

But what do the CMAA members think about their own association, and about joining the Golf Industry Show? GCM contacted a few CMAA members and gave them an opportunity to speak for themselves.

Taking the general managers and the superintendents to the same show — are these kindred spirits, or are we mixing apples and oranges here?

“The managers and the superintendents are very much on the same page. It’s hand and glove,” Miles Tucker, general manager at Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton, Ind., says. “For each property, you need the superintendent and GM working on the same page — the property is more likely to be successful. If there’s a disconnect, a mutual frustration, you’re more likely to see the eventual termination of one of those positions. And the superintendent and GM are both very hot topics with every board of directors, while the quality of the cheeseburger at the club comes a little further down the line.”

Did you always go to the CMAA show? Does the combined show make you more or less likely to attend now?

“I don’t go to the show that often. In the past I did, but then it became repetitive every year,” Garth Dahdah, general manager of Riviera Country Club in Dublin, Ohio, says. “Now that they’re together, I’m more likely to go. There will be more variety, more intermingling. I think the shows should combine, there will be more variety, less redundancy, and it’ll help keep costs down.”

What about those CMAA members who are not at golf facilities? Do they want to go to something called the Golf Industry Show?

“I’m skeptical; the whole show is a question mark to me, just because of the position I’m in,” says Brian Carlson, general manager of the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona Del Mar, Calif. “Several of my colleagues in the same position have had the same question: ‘Since I don’t work at a golf club, why would I want to go to a golf show?’”

In your opinion, what did CMAA members think about joining into the larger Golf Industry Show?

“There were a lot of questions,” Carlson, who is the secretary for his local CMAA chapter, says. “I think the CMAA national — the board of directors — they were very driven to unify these two organizations. But for a lot of us, there was a lot of hemming and hawing about it — we asked, what do we have to gain? These are two different organizations.”

What’s the best thing about CMAA?

“The networking opportunities and the ability to share best practices,” Tucker says. “We’re learning about other environments and what works for them. The openness of other managers is something I find unique.”

What do you like least about CMAA?

“Too many meetings and the education demands,” Carlson says. “But I don’t feel neglected because I’m at a yacht club. They try to accommodate all of us.”

Seth Jones is GCM’s senior associate editor.

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