This Special Meeting was called to order at 9:00am by Ed Lewis, President. In attendance were: Ed Lewis, President, Peter Hall, Vice President, Ray Gomez, Vice President Membership, Phil Dupont, Secretary, Jim Hardman, Rob Harris, Marc Fontaine, Jim Knowles, Alan Godfried, Mike Austin, Orin Segall, and John Mano. Bill Dick Emmert, Treasurer, and Dennis Toland were absent.
President’s Report:
Housekeeping: A holiday gift (6) of $100 was unanimously approved for Mark O’Brien, Steve Mann, Steve Knowles, Jay Packett, Dottie Vesperman and Sean Cahalene.
After the housekeeping discussion, Ed stated the purpose of our special meeting. Discuss ways that we can increase membership in the Association. The Association currently has 264 members of roughly 800 male Course members. This is down from 321 the previous year. We are dealing with the perception that membership in the Men’s Association doesn’t have value. The perception is that the Association only runs Wednesday play. We need to do more to change this perception.
Regarding Wednesday play, of the 264 Association members, 55 plays Wednesday golf. We need to do more to draw more players. Following are some of the comments made:
- Could we run our own member-member? Could be some legal issues.
- The “social†environment at our Course isn’t very strong. The tradesman don’t do anything with the Men’s Association and half are retired. What can we do to draw some of them in to our group?
- Weekenders (not full time residents) appear to be the majority of the course members that don’t join the Association. Should we do more weekend events to draw these folks into the Association? We should be able to get weekend afternoons during the season without any problem.
- We need to look at the events we offer. Offer more “pure†golf events.
- If Wednesday play is our flagship event, we should closely examine what we need to do to attract more players. Wednesday has a reputation of being an “old guys†event. Needs to change.
- Slow play is another issue attributed to Wednesday play. We’ll never get tradesman or better players to play a 4 hour and 40 minute (Wednesday average) or worse round.
- Some felt it was important to tie coming in to the restaurant to eat with Wednesday play. Prices need to be adjusted. Better prices for beer. Offer inexpensive specials. Could we negotiate with the restaurant if we guaranteed a specific number of customers?
It was agreed that the two things we would address first is weekend events and Wednesday play. Two sub-committees were appointed. For Wednesday play Peter Hall, Rob Harris, Ray Gomez and Mike Austin were appointed. For Weekend Events, Marc Fontaine, Ken Jones and Alan Godfried were appointed.
Ed asked that sub-committee reports be submitted for our January meeting.
Vice President Report:
None.
Treasurer’s Report:
Ed Lewis gave the Treasurer’s Report for Dick Emmert. We have a balance of $5,302.19 in our checking account. We will spend $600 for the Holiday Gifts and $1,000 for the Nauset High Scholarship before we start collecting membership dues for next year. The report was approved unanimously.
Secretary’s Report:
The minutes for the 11/3/2009, 10/21/2009 meetings and the 11/03/09 Annual Meeting were approved unanimously and sent to Mark O’Brien and Bob Weiss.
Membership-Vice President’s Report:
Currently, there are 264 Men’s Association members out of about 800 male golf course members. The $750 approved at the 11/3/09 meeting for membership marketing activities was unanimously rescinded.
Handicap Report:
No report.
Website Report:
Rob Harris, the new webmaster, is working on a new Association site and blog. It will be available soon.
Brewster Golf Commission Report:
Stote Elsworth has resigned. Selectmen are considering replacements.
The Commission continues to look at member rates.
The next Commission Meeting is December 9, 2009 at 1pm at the Course.
Old Business:
Pace of Play:
No report.
New Business:
None.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:30am.
Next Meeting:
The next monthly meeting will be on January 21, 2010 at 9:00am. Subsequent monthly meetings will be on February 18, 2010 and March 18, 2010 all at 9:00am.
Respectfully submitted,
Phil Dupont, Secretary
12/8/09