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President's message |
Information and your future
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Like any other business endeavor in the 21st century, the business of GCSAA depends on accurate and plentiful information. In order to better serve members — and to determine what “better” really means — GCSAA must know who you are, where you are, what’s happening at your course and what’s happening in your career.
This year, GCSAA has taken action to ensure that we have a steady stream of such information, and that we have benchmarks to evaluate our progress. New editions of two of our most important surveys, the 2007 Compensation, Benefits and Operations Report and the Member Needs Assessment, are now complete.
Last month in this space I announced that the compensation survey (last conducted in 2005) revealed that the average base salary for GCSAA superintendents is $73,766, a 7 percent increase from two years ago.
This means that despite higher maintenance costs and a flat golf economy, GCSAA members in the last two years have done slightly better than the national average. Class A members earned an average of $78,096, compared with Superintendent Members, who averaged $59,398 — a 31 percent difference. Assistants during the same period also saw a 7 percent increase, with the average base salary at $37,032.
As intrinsically interesting as average salary numbers are to you, me and all GCSAA members, their real worth may lie in the fact that we can track them over time and use them as one of many benchmarks to measure how our members, our profession and GCSAA itself are doing. Additionally, we now have more information than ever before on how our members feel about GCSAA and the superintendent’s profession.
The Member Needs Assessment, which surveys members regarding their satisfaction with GCSAA programs and services, contains a wealth of information about how our members view GCSAA and what the association can be doing to make their careers more successful.
This year’s assessment shows that only 4 percent of members rate their satisfaction with GCSAA as low, and that 91 percent say they’re likely to renew their membership.
Among other nuggets to be mined from the survey are answers to questions such as why or why not members elect to participate in GCSAA programs, which programs are meeting members’ expectations and which are not, and what we can do to increase member satisfaction.
As GCSAA’s leadership and staff prepare the association’s 2008 business plan and budget, we’ll be guided by the assessment’s data in allocating resources for member programs and services, which in turn may affect future compensation surveys.
In the information age, data is the driver; it forms the roadmap from which businesses, including GCSAA, plan their excursions into the future. In a very real sense, information is the future for all GCSAA superintendents.
I thank all members who responded to the compensation survey and the needs assessment. If we’re to move wisely into the future, we must rely on members like you to guide us.
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