In the next episode Beyond The Baselines Podcast, we sit down with Maxwell Shteyman, Director of Culinary and Clubhouse Operations at Montammy Golf Club, to discuss how innovation in food and beverage can sometimes go too far.







“Too much fusion leads to confusion—and to a messy plate,” Max says with a smile. In a world where every dish seems to chase the next trend, Shteyman believes that simplicity and clarity still reign supreme. Food, after all, mirrors life: the more ingredients and variables you add, the more complex—and often problematic—the outcome becomes.



But this episode goes beyond the kitchen. Max believes that food and beverage in private clubs is in deep transition. He suggests that the traditional role of Executive Chef may be nearing its expiration date. Instead, he envisions a model where each dining outlet has its own director, all reporting to a single Culinary Director—a structure that reflects today’s diversified member expectations and multi-outlet club environments.



Mentorship, too, plays a central role in Max’s philosophy. Leading younger staff in hospitality requires patience, vision, and courage. As he notes, “There will always be those who can’t or won’t work as a team—and sometimes, dismissals are simply part of maintaining excellence.”



It’s a candid, insightful discussion about the future of private club dining, the art of leadership, and the delicate balance between creativity and clarity.

by Ed Shanaphy, CMAA



We often say “mentoring,” but what we really mean—especially within private clubs—is advancing. Mentorship is not simply guiding or teaching; it’s creating an environment where your staff can grow, achieve, and in turn, enhance the member experience. Every interaction between staff and member is an opportunity to refine skill, build confidence, and elevate service.



A club manager’s greatest legacy is not the number of events executed or budgets balanced—it’s the people they’ve advanced. Let’s explore the three pillars that define true mentorship and the art of advancing your team.



Delegation: The Art of Staying Away



It’s never easy to step back. Club managers often feel compelled to solve problems immediately or answer every member’s question directly. But effective delegation is a deliberate act of trust. By creating space between yourself, your employee, and the member, you give staff the autonomy to think, act, and grow.



This “space” is the classroom of real-world learning. When staff handle member concerns—without you stepping in—they develop confidence, accountability, and ownership. It may be uncomfortable at first, especially when mistakes occur, but that discomfort is often where growth begins.



True mentoring means allowing your team to make—and learn from—those mistakes while providing them a framework to succeed the next time around.



Education: The Time Required to Teach Both Staff and Membership



Mentorship isn’t only an internal process. In the private club world, education extends to the membership itself. Members often view every staff action as a direct reflection of the manager. Therefore, when staff are learning and developing, transparency is essential.




Mentorship isn’t only an internal process. In the private club world, education extends to the membership itself.




Educating the board, committees, and membership about your mentoring approach helps manage expectations. It allows members to see the broader purpose behind delegating responsibility or giving a new team member more visibility.



This communication builds understanding—and trust. When members recognize that your club is cultivating leaders, they become partners in that mission rather than critics of the process. The result? A more collaborative, supportive environment where both staff and members are invested in each other’s success.



Advancement: The Extra Credit Work of Great Leaders



Here’s the unspoken truth about being a great mentor: it means you’ll be hiring more often.



When you invest deeply in staff development, you inevitably create talent that’s ready to move on—sometimes to new roles within the club, often to new opportunities in the wider industry, and occasionally to entirely new careers.



That’s not a loss; it’s a sign of success. Each advancement reflects your ability to identify potential, nurture it, and prepare it for the next challenge. Your club gains a reputation as a place where professionals grow—and that attracts even stronger candidates in the future.



Yes, mentoring creates more work: more coaching, more recruiting, more onboarding. But it also creates a culture of excellence and a network of alumni who carry your leadership principles into every role they take on.



Conclusion: Mentorship as a Legacy



To mentor is to advance—not just your staff, but your club’s culture and future. Delegation allows learning to occur. Education aligns staff growth with member understanding.

This week on the Beyond The Baselines podcast, we welcome Dave Henion, a man who has spent his life immersed in the culture of private members clubs.



Dave’s journey began as a young caddy at Rolling Hills Country Club in Connecticut, where he learned early on how golf and business often meet on the fairway. From there, he worked his way up — serving as assistant golf professional, head professional, and eventually Director of Golf at some of the country’s most respected clubs, including Woodway in Darien, Siwanoy in Bronxville, and the elite Apawamis Club in Rye, NY.







After years in club management, Dave transitioned into technology and healthcare, bringing with him the lessons learned from years of member service and operations leadership. Today, he serves as President of Marietta Country Club, where he is focused on bridging the gap between staff and membership and enhancing the overall member experience.



In this episode, Dave shares candid insights about the financial realities of private clubs — from the subsidized golf course to the food and beverage losses members actually notice — and why the bond between staff and members is what truly drives satisfaction. He discusses strategies for tee time and tennis reservation management, the competitive nature of member-guest events (including the all-important merchandise “arms race”), and the bold changes he’s overseen in both the clubhouse and on the golf course, including the re-turfing project at Marietta.



This conversation is packed with perspective from someone who has seen club life from every angle — staff, member, committee chair, and president — and offers a fresh look at what makes a club not just function, but thrive.



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Rafael Coutinho, Director of Racquets at Rumson Country Club on the Jersey Shore, joins the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast.







With just two tennis courts and four pickleball courts, it had been the platform tennis courts that were the pride and joy of Rumson. With over 20 social events during the paddle season, platform tennis was at the heart of Rumson’s winter activities. But with grand designs and planning, and the club having the great idea to incentivize Rafael to build participation across tennis, there are four new tennis courts and a new racquets shop in the plans for 2026.



Rafael has gone deep into the club's software and has measured usage across various fields and demographics. Across all the racquet sports, Rumson, he found, had 325 members step on one of the three various courts - tennis, pickle or platform - in the past year. He took the data, met with the committee and the board, and showed the board the need for an expanded racquets facility. The club responded.



The Task of Educating



We discuss the need for department heads and management to allocate and spend time educating the member board and various committees. Through discussion,



Join Rafael and our very own Ed Shanaphyh as we discuss using the data and educating the board to gain a bigger budget, add employees, both fulltime and part-time, and to earmark capital campaigns and funds for the racquets facility. Here’s an executive who understands that reporting is just as important as a racquet path.

Capturing the essence of an athlete—let alone defining a career within the grand tapestry of a sport’s history—is no easy feat. As the era of the "Big Three" nears its close, Rafael Nadal’s reign over clay courts and his unprecedented dominance at Roland Garros stand unmatched—and perhaps forever unrepeatable.



On the latest episode of the Beyond The Baselines podcast, renowned journalist Christopher Clarey—former international sports correspondent for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune—offers a multifaceted look at Nadal’s legacy: athletic, historical, and deeply human. His new book, The Warrior: Rafael Nadal and His Kingdom of Clay, has garnered praise for its insightful, elegant portrayal of the man behind the legend. The book embraces the romance and comments on and depicts the discipline Rafa brought to the tour, but especially to Roland Garros and the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.







Clarey paints a picture of Rafa and Roland Garros that would make even the great French impressionists proud. Monet could not have painted a better canvas, as Clarey calls one of his chapters, using the red brick dust to create a pastel in words that tracks and notates an historic and incredible career.



In the book, Clarey explores the profound discipline and emotional depth Nadal brought to the game, particularly in Paris’ storied Bois de Boulogne. While Nadal will always be synonymous with clay, Clarey is careful to position him within the broader context of tennis history—not merely as a surface specialist, but as a transcendent champion.



Nadal’s legendary intensity is captured with charm and detail—whether on court or playing fiercely competitive games of Parchisi behind the scenes. Drawing from over three decades of tennis coverage, Clarey delivers not just facts, but a textured portrait worthy of the greatest French impressionists. Indeed, in a chapter inspired by Monet, Clarey uses the red dust of Roland Garros as his palette, crafting a vivid narrative of a once-in-a-generation career.







Though anchored in clay—with a staggering 14-0 record in French Open finals—Nadal’s résumé extends far beyond. His eight Grand Slam titles on other surfaces equal the career totals of Connors, Lendl, and Agassi. Clarey deftly examines how evolving surfaces shaped Nadal’s journey and what those shifts meant to his enduring greatness.



Ultimately, The Warrior is more than a biography—it’s an artistic tribute to one of the sport’s most iconic figures. Nadal’s legacy, etched in grit, grace, and red clay, comes alive through Clarey’s masterful storytelling.

The podcaster sits in the hot seat. Private Club Radio’s Denny Corby joins the Beyond The Baselines podcast and talks everything private member clubs.



If a listener gets one thing out of just one of his podcasts, it means the world to Corby, the host of the biggest podcast in club management. “Your vibe attracts your tribe,” says Corby who took over Private Club Radio several years ago.



Denny Corby



As personal friends, Ed Shanaphy, our host, and Denny talk movies and fashion through to club management and the two organizations, the CMAA and the NCA, which dominate the industry.



We ask the question if clubs actually compete against each other. As an industry, management shares more and more each year, but perhaps clubs and members see it differently. Various factors are behind how prospective members look at possible membership at clubs and future members may have various motivations to join a social group.



Clubs are rebranding themselves with an eye toward legacy and the younger generations. And in attempting to attract that younger-aged member, clubs have been relaxing the dress codes and looking for more family-friendly events.



We discuss how rebranding a club can, in an odd way, be similar to rebranding our respective podcasts. Clubs usually find a niche and present themselves within that special market. Most podcasts survive within a niche. And Corby has found his crowd for sure as his podcast is the leader in the private members club arena.



We have both realized that the CMAA World Conference is so grand that, for business reasons, it’s truly important to also attend the various chapters conferences to get even further inside the community of club managers, vendors and association members.

You’ve heard of the points guy, but this is the gift card guy, or as Larry Rubin calls himself, the gift card guru. This recording is aimed at marketing for both of our client subsets, private members clubs and boutique hotels.



Usage, Revenue Streams, Departments Inspected And Enhanced



Through gift cards, clubs and hotels can track usage of new and returning members and guests when given free money or points. Marketers can introduce a club or a hotel property at really no cost if the gift card is combined with a payment toward membership - many clubs already give statement credits to members who bring in new members, there's no difference with a gift card. Or a hotel, during a light time of year, can use gift cards to offer free rooms, adventures or services. All would add more revenue and find business they wouldn't have had otherwise.



Rubin, who is president of SwipeIt.com, has been doing this for decades and now sees a new trend in which you incentivize the use of a gift card by giving another gift card upon arrival. Imagine getting a prospective member to the club through a gift card with funds toward a summer membership. Upon presentation and use of that card, that guest receives two free rounds of golf - no cart or caddie fees. An incentive upon an incentive.



Pickleball, Hard To Monetize, Can Be A Revenue Stream With Gift Cards







In what is fast becoming a digital domain, private members clubs, boutique hotels and resorts are turning toward digital wallets. Rubin uses as an example a new pickleball facility within a retail mall. Through gift cards available throughout the mall, possible new members were enticed to the restaurant and retail store within the pickleball facility, adding revenue. And here’s a statistic we all know is true through our own use of gift cards: 90 percent of gift card users spend more than the value of the gift card. That’s found money for a hotel restaurant, private club food and beverage outlet. or golf or tennis pro shop.



Clubs are revaluating their marketing strategies. Through membership apps, newsletters, revamped websites and text and push communications, clubs should perhaps look at building already existing revenue streams, or possibly finding new ones, through the use of gift cards. Here's why, and just how to do it - right here on the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast.



If you love our podcast - and we love our listeners - please feel free to donate to our BTB Podcast fund to help defray travel and recording costs. As we our in our sixth year of broadcasting, we are looking at expanding to a weekly release through the second half of 2025. Thank you for listening! Please donate here!

How did an international trade and finance student from Mexico come to head up Red Bank New Jersey's Navesink Country Club's Racquet Program? It's a long and winding road, but one that is full of insights into the private members club industry.



Victor Vidal knew he was not suited to work behind a desk. As Navesink’s Director of Racquets, Vidal runs a year-round program boasting tennis, platform tennis and pickleball. With a team of 5 certified professionals and four collegiate players along with a retail manager, Victor is on the courts, but as his staff grows, his time behind that desk grows also.







Victor started his career at the famed Belle Haven Yacht Club in Greenwich, CT. Belle Haven has one of the most active tennis programs in the country. Born in Mexico, he soon realized that yacht clubs can be a misnomer with racquets, rather than sailing, the main source of revenue after food and beverage. Racquets usually provides one of the biggest revenue streams at a yacht club – not always so at a country club, where racquets tends to be an add on, or an amenity, says Vidal.



Family Time Imposing Itself On Summer Activities



Either way, whether its golf, sailing or racquets, family time is shortening the activity or experience at private members clubs. “One o’clock is pushing it…” says Vidal when holding a tournament. “Folks like to start at 8.30am and be done by 1pm and move on to family activities.” The era of weekend-long tournaments on the tennis courts at least, might be over.







Programming follows the same suit. Live Ball has become Victor’s most popular clinic program. It’s an hour and a half, non-stop tennis, which gets the member to hit “a ton of balls” in a short amount of time, fitting into their weekend schedule. And “105” will be the new focal point for the upcoming summer. With lights on the court, Victor has more social-focused clinic programming in the evenings with adult beverages to follow.



Although he doesn't always enjoy his time behind the desk, Victor is limiting his hours on the court. He still relishes his time on the court. He enjoys mentoring his staff when he is off the court. He tends to look for those who want to stay in the industry as possible candidates. “I want them to move up and spread their wings,” says Victor. That’s how we make our industry better.

We might be booking our juniors for summer sleep away camp this March, but have we ever thought that a summer camp is really a private members club for kids?



From the red clay tennis courts, and all the maintenance they entail, through to the enormous food and beverage operation and the hiring of chefs and servers, a summer camp is similar to an elite private club.







Ramsey Hoehn, who returned in 2020 to his family's business, brought his many years as a Head Tennis Professional and Director of Racquets to Windridge Tennis and Sports Camp in Roxbury, Vermont. His return marked a new era for the iconic camp, which caters to juniors from around the world. Ramsey's experience at Nantucket Yacht Club and The Westmoor Club both on Nantucket, down to Jupiter Island Club in Hobe Sound, Florida helped him immensely as he took over the reigns of the junior sports camp.



Ramsey left the private members club industry after ten years as Director of Racquets at the famed Hay Harbor Club on Fishers Island. He moved to Vermont to take over the reigns of the family business only to find that Windridge is in fact a club for kids. Offering soccer, tennis, golf and equestrian activities, Windridge is known around the world as a leading sports camp.

Danielle Chavez, Founder, Club Design Studio



The daily questions we ask ourselves over club communications – how often should we email our members? Is it possible or should we make the weekly newsletter shorter? How do we integrate the club's website into our marketing strategy? – all these questions and more take center stage in this podcast with Club Design Studio’s fearless leader Danielle Chavez.



Communication is at the heart of a club – whether it’s members conversing with each other, staff and management promoting food specials or golf programming, or whether It’s marketing through email, social media and the club's website. And, Danielle has her fingers on the pulse of all of these segments of communications.



Achieving club communications, keeping the portals where members consume their information, fresh and inviting while still adhering to a club-like tradition in terms of media, is not an easy task and it's finding the correct mixture of creativity versus traditionalism that interests Danielle.







Danielle discusses the need for scheduling and creating an entire communications strategy based on researching and working with each club as every club is different. As Danielle says: “Get to know the club…” before you do anything, propose anything, or create any materials.



Let's dig a little deeper and find out if hashtags are remain relevant for club communications. And we find the dangers in overusing Canva, the new In-Design for the lay creator, which is completely transforming art and communications not only for the private members club industry but across all commerce and business! And is it actually possible to create a template that doesn’t get stale over time?



Communications, Marketing and Sales



Clubs far too often blend a position that encapsulates marketing, communications and even, sometimes, sales or new membership. But in reality, these are three very different roles, taking the individual in various directions. A common diagnosis for Danielle and her firm. In turn, Danielle’s firm supports clubs in trying to better communicate the club’s events, programming and membership news through these three, distinct areas, rather than the club having to appoint two new positions.



But now, during a week where Tik Tok might be the first major social media network to be banned in the USA, we investigate social media and private members clubs. Let’s talk fonts and point sizes in detail and strategy and calendar marketing at a macro level with the founder of Club Design Studio, Danielle Chavez.

by Ed Shanaphy



There's always that guy. The guy that is on the sidelines of every tournament, from a WTA qualifier to an ATP Masters to a Grand Slam. The guy who amazes onlookers through his building of a network. The guy who continues to work, even after retirement and sleeps in the back of a Suburban on the way to the next event. The guy who finally creates such volumes of great work, it brings him to the top of his profession from roots deep in the industry. The guy that becomes a legend and works with legends. On the tennis tour, that guy is Gary Kitchell.



Kitchell, or Kitch as he is called by hundreds - if not thousands - of his colleagues and friends, is known around the world as one of the leading physiotherapists who has graced tournament tennis courts across the globe. From the hallowed lawn of Centre Court at Wimbledon and the hard cement of Louis Armstrong Court at the US Open to the back courts at the 1990s Volvo ATP Tour stop in New Haven, Kitchell has worked with some of the greatest tennis players of all time. From the era of Borg and McEnroe, to the following upstarts Sampras and Agassi, to Federer and through to today's Tommy Paul, Reilly Opelka and Maria Sakkari, Kitch has treated injuries, reduced stress on the body and helped strength train numerous number one players to new heights.



Gary loves tennis. It's always been a part of his life. His early days saw him teaching the indoor season in his native New Jersey. Soon after, he followed the sun as most instructors do and playing in semi-professional tournaments and was noticed at a small club in Vero Beach, Sea Oaks, at which he started his road along the highways and byways of the professional tours.







His views of the professional tennis tours are from an interesting objective - a viewpoint from outside the employ of either the men's or women's tour but from within the fires that comprise the professional game and the travel demanded of today's tennis stars. He sees the challenges that the professional tour faces today as the Davis Cup limps along while the Laver Cup becomes a global phenomenon. He also sees the difficulty private members clubs may have using the professional game as a catalyst to new members as the tour lengthens its season and the tournaments are diluted by so much television and streamed coverage.



An understanding of the professional game helps Gary to see where tennis may be headed on the amateur level at tennis and country clubs across the country. A commitment to building a community and social network at any club needs to be a priority to continue the sport's growth as it faces challenges from pickleball and padel. As a member of several private members clubs, Gary has some sage advice for club managers and directors in the club management arena. Join Gary on the BeyondTheBaselines.com podcast.

An Historic Club's Metamorphosis Through Consultancy to Interim Management To Long-Term Strategy Completion



Pretty Brook Tennis Club first called BeyondTheBaselines.com in late 2019. The club was dropping members as if members were falling leaves on a cold November, football Saturday at the famed university in the club's hometown of Princeton, NJ.



The president mentioned the club's membership was at just 155 member households, significantly down from its glory days when it boasted over 200. Although the five clay courts were busy on weekend mornings, the club was having difficulty finding younger families who might join. Pretty Brook was founded in 1929, however, its younger upstart just down the road, Bedens Brook was literally stealing the younger thunder and attracting the families that would be the lifeline to Pretty Brook as it headed toward its hundredth year.



Princeton University is known for its eating clubs. Pretty Brook had started to resemble one of these old-fashioned institutions - a stodgy eating club rather than a modern racquets facility. Not exactly fraternities, the eleven Princetonian eating clubs are situated on Prospect Avenue just off campus. Several eating clubs still "bicker" (the phrase coined for admission decisions) as to which underclassmen they should admit. Bickering had been going on at Pretty Brook - perhaps a halcyon look back to their university days by the numerous Princeton graduates who were members of the club and had served at the board level and inside the admissions committee for years. Nonetheless, the club was at a crossroad between tradition and modernization.



The Princeton University Campus on our first day of Interim Management



As a management consultancy to the club, we did some of digging. The club, which boasts one indoor tennis, five outdoor clay tennis courts, two platform courts, one indoor tennis and two squash courts, wasn't jam-packed on the weekends, or really at any time during the week. Average usage on a summer's weekend morning we found from the data was 3.4 courts out of 5 of the clay courts. Mid to late morning wasn't busy on the weekends on the indoor in the winter either. And, squash was really reserved to young students from Lawrenceville preparatory school who wanted additional coaching and a practice facility. They weren't a part of the club's social scene and a squash club championship hadn't been held in recent years.



As we assumed the interim general manager's role, we made changes and clarifications to the membership application process, the ethos of welcoming members and their guests, and started on the road to revitalizing and refurbishing the club's grounds and programs. Trees were cut. Irrigation was improved and ponds were reconfigured and fortified. Club championships were reintroduced in squash. The staid prizes of glass tumblers were replaced with celebrated gifts and clothing, and branded retail was introduced - all symbols with which members could show pride in their club.



Change Creates Momentum



Thankfully, the board was largely open to change, given the membership situation. Through our mentorship, we investigated methods and programming to create greater court usage and larger revenues. We discussed membership drives. With Corey Ball, the Director of Tennis whom we were fortunate to inherit from the previous management firm, we were allowed to make substantial changes.



We moved the teaching court during certain times for Live Ball and 105 from the traditional teaching court, shaded at the back of the club, to the center two courts under the eyes of those on the patio lunching. This shift brought instruction and social tennis to the forefront of the club. Perhaps impossible just a few months previous,

Taylor Newman left college for two careers. Her love of writing led her to her daily, first shift - a beat journalist covering the DC Metro sports teams for the sports desk at the Washington Post. Ben Bradlee would have been proud of her commitment up there with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in terms of hours. For when Taylor had filed her sports reports, she would move to her second, eight-hour shift at Chevy Chase Club, where she was serving as an Assistant Professional.







Finally, weighing up her options, Taylor chose the hospitality, private members club, and tennis career - and she has never looked back. In fact, she has used her writing skills to build one of the biggest cardio tennis programs in all the nation.



Through communicating with members, Taylor and present BeyondTheBaselines.com Vice President Britney Sanders, took over a quiet cardio tennis program. Changing the headlines of the program and using writing and lines of communication, the two women built a program that has led to fifteen cardio courts each week.



"Cardio is not just about running a good clinic, it's about knowing the personalities and levels of all the players to help make it succeed."



Newman is a consummate professional: checking the court booking sheet at 10pm every night for the next day to avoid any surprises or pitfalls, picking up balls after each and every cardio class outside the fences, and mentoring her assistants on a daily basis both on the court and in terms of hospitality, off the court. Just as she would have been at The Post covering sports, Taylor is on duty twenty-four hours, always being out there ready to communicate, learn and grow.



The Washington Post lost a treasure to tennis. Here's Taylor Newman on the Beyond The Baselines podcast.

Hospitality runs in the family. Alexandria LaRocca, Director of Member Engagement at The Beach Point Club in Mamaroneck, New York, and Matt Assumma, who served at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, join the podcast. And, they’ve known each other for years, and we mean for years, since they were kids.







Alexandria and Matt are both offspring of well-known and highly regarded club managers, having grown up in the industry. Their respective backgrounds highlight how important both human resources and hospitality are in the private members club industry.



Ocean Reef Club And Gaining Membership Through Visitation



Matt spent eight years at one of the leading clubs in the country, Ocean Reef. He notes how he worked his way up through the ranks from banqueting and ended up working in the membership department, where he would flag visitors who may have visited the club more than twice in five years, but who had not expressed an interest in gaining membership. Membership plays such an important role at any club through events, such as outings and member guests, but for a iconic club on the tip of Key Largo, perhaps new members can be even more significant.







Ocean Reef, although a private club, can be seen as a destination with both a conference center and an inn on property. Matt notes the friction that can be caused between hosting events, attracting new members and the tradition of a small, fishing village which was the dream of its founder and present-day members, according to Assuma.



Member Communications



LaRocca notes that although email is very strong, different messages require different timings and different avenues of communication. Tennis, food and beverage, and timing of delivery all affect how communications are received by her elite and private membership at Beach Point Club. She realizes that with the numerous clubs in the area, a director of membership really is forced to know the entire brand – not just the activities at the club – but the brand that is the club’s identity. That identity separates the club from its many competitors, especially in the Westchester/Fairfield county areas of New York and Connecticut.



The Pros and Cons of Living On Property



Assumma lived on campus at Ocean Reef for a year before he, for the first time in his life, commuted from a property off campus during his time in the industry. Housing can attract great talent, especially since many may be on J1 or H2B visas, states LaRocca. But, there are times when living on property can be difficult. Your thought process may be that you can never be “off duty” or a member might find you late at night as they might need their clubs for an early-morning flight, as has happened to Assumma.







In looking back at their respective careers, it's clear that perhaps the hardest job one might have in the private members club arena is running a dining room. With that said, both these individuals started doing that as teenagers working with their fathers, and food and beverage is clearly a life-long love as well as a wonderful way to learn the club industry from the inside out.

Two major seasonal jobs have just one director: Brett Gaede. From his first ever, post-college professional position at the renowned Nantucket Yacht Club, Gaede has made New England and Florida his seasonal homes, and follows his members, and the sun, up and down the East Coast.







With his two director roles, he lives with water views year-round, and has views over the Atlantic almost two thousand five hundred miles apart, depending on the calendar. Gaede is the director in the summer in Maine on the remote Mount Desert Island at The Harbor Club. A very private club, hidden in the gem of a village called Seal Harbor, made famous by the ultra-private Rockefeller family back in the early 1900s. At his winter post, where he serves the membership as director at the elite Hillsboro Club, just outside Ft. Lauderdale, Gaede works with an older demographic and a club that is etched in tradition with its tennis and croquet professionals in all-white clothing from head to toe.



Pine Trees In The Summer, Pine Trees In The Winter



Famed Testa's Restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida in the winter had a sister restaurant also on Mount Desert Island in Maine. Nick Testa Senior formed a motto: Pine trees in the summer, palms in the winter. That's exactly how Gaede thinks as he spends evenings enjoying the scenery of Acadia National Park in the summer and views of Hillsboro Inlet in the Broward County, Florida through the winter months. Gaede could have used that motto to describe his life over the past 15 years. Funnily enough, Testa's in Bar Harbor is just minutes away and in Palm Beach just about 30 miles from his winter nest, as the proverbial crow flies.



As the director that has "racquets, and will travel," Gaede takes us through his tips of creating a great seasonal program. Housing is crucial to help find and retain great instructors and assistants at such "destination" clubs. Second is the meal plan or benefit. Third comes, perhaps, the commission as the millennial employees look for comfort in not only their food, but their life and living and having a work/life balance.



Tournaments Are Losing Popularity - Clinics The New Club Competition



Gaede has seen trends away from tournaments to live ball and pro-fed clinics, especially at Seal Harbor. With an older demographic at Hillsboro and a more transient membership in Florida with rooms at the inn as part of the club, he feels that the trend will soon arrive in Florida too. It may already have. He is packing all courts at both clubs each morning with Cardio, Liveball and 105 and attendance over 40 on a daily basis. Tournament entries are weaker each year, and he explains his thinking as to why pro-fed clinics are here to stay as the leading weekend entertainment.



Have a listen to perhaps one of the best seasonal directors in the country. He says he's happy where he is now. We aren't surprised: he has two of the best seasonal jobs in the nation. Brett Gaede on the Beyond The Baselines Podcast.

It's not easy to engage members twelve months a year in the cold, frigid air of Canada when your only amenity is golf. Ash Chadha, general manager at Glencoe Golf And Country Club, is bringing members to the club in bigger and bigger numbers through various methods, even in the dark winter months. Offering a warm welcome through a cold winter is just how he does it.



Glencoe, established in 1984, was an outlier of its sister club, the downtown city club, Glencoe, in Alberta, Calgary. The idea of being open twelve months a year had started just before Covid. As the city boundaries grew toward the 45 holes of golf – the club boasts just golf and food and beverage – and Covid created a bigger demand, opening in the heart of winter was different.







Ash speaks with the experience of being a long-serving club manager with over 15 years of senior management work under his belt. For eight years he was a department head – a food and beverage manager - and his work as a general manager is often seen through the lens of his department heads, a position in which he personally learned to thrash out ideas before presenting them to upper management.



Chadha has brought in comfort food – burgers, chili, and fish and chips – for the membership throughout the winter and with the ever-popular NFL, even in Canada, on the televisions and fires lit in the fireplaces, he keeps his membership engaged. He’s brough in hiking, ice skating and other wintry events to keep the members engaged. “That’s all we really want as managers, isn't it?,” asks Chadha. Then he answers his own question: “Members using the club in some capacity.” Even in the cold of a Canadian winter at a golf-only country club.



Visibility Is Crucial For Management



Chadha admits that the year-round effort does put pressure on the staff. Ash holds weekly staff meetings, along with one-on-one meetings with the department heads on a regular basis. Visibility, he says, is just as important for senior management with the team as it is with membership. However, the key objective, he says, is not to interfere with their specialty or their side of business, and as a general manager the main task is to provide support and be available to staff and membership.



Club Governance Can Easily Be Inherently Conflicted



Nominating committees at Glencoe have largely filled an administrative role in the past. More and more, many clubs are moving to nominating committees that are actually soliciting for members to fill voids on the board. A shift to this more business like practice might take a generational shift, says Chadha. It takes trust and transparency, Chadha believes, as members aren’t always trusting of the board to choose their own successors, or even a nominating committee to perform that role. Chadha says it may be easier and wiser at this point if a group of members from outside club governance bodies nominate a particular individual.



Bylaws and policies also present a big challenge in that the member perception is that the board really owns the opportunity to choose their replacements, and that makes it rather hard for the membership to accept a nomination.



“I know the big firms like KKW and GGA are promoting that clubs be run like a business, but from a corporate governance standpoint, the challenge in our business is there is an inherent conflict between the boards, and the membership, and the non-for-profit institutions they are responsible for.”



Learn at both the day-to-day and the long-term strategic levels from this industry leader who caters to over one thousand principal members and 3,200 individuals at Glencoe Golf and Country Club.

This could be the best conference in our industry. It may be the biggest. It was the largest, according to the organizers, in over twenty years. The PGA Merchandise Show reached new heights this last week of January, 2024 with more vendors, more club managers and more industry leaders. And, we at BeyondTheBaselines.com were there to cover it all: the conference, the speakers, and the vendors.







From new releases on the golf, tennis, pickleball, and the retail fashion side, the conference offers those in the club management and private members club industry a chance to meet, greet and learn from each other in ways that were probably unimaginable twenty years ago. With educational seminars, social gatherings both inside and outside Orlando's Orange County Convention Center, and vendors lining up to sell to the industry's buyers, the PGA Show is second to none in the industry.



We sat down with Jennifer Gelhaus, the newly appointed Director of Racquets at the famed Oyster Harbors Club in Osterville, MA and discussed just how the golf and tennis industries are similar but, also, quite different in respect to marketing, communication and retail.



Join us as we have a coffee in the lounge just outside the enormous exhibition halls which had hundreds of rows and thousands of vendors. Where will this growth in fashion and retail, pushing the booths of the tools of golf and the nine irons to the side, leave the industry? Live at The PGA Merchandise Show - we have it, and you, covered.

Already a Top 100 course in the nation, The Tree Farm was a vision of a PGA Tour Player back when it was a deep, dark and dense tree farm owned by a timber company. Looking to fully open its doors in September 2024, The Tree Farm is hoping to become not only a destination, but is also hoping to change how we might envision a golfing experience.







The dream of PGA Tour player Zac Blair, The Tree Farm, a private club in Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina, is just twenty-five minutes away from the revered Augusta National. Although Blair may have had some of the same desires as Bobby Jones had when he designed Augusta, Blair does not envision a major championship at The Tree Farm - he just wants the members to have fun and enjoy their game of golf. Simple. Just like the club's logo.



Zac's dream started back in his native Utah, but when he was down in South Carolina with friends, he saw the property and started digging in - not earth - but his heels. He and renowned club manager, Eric Dietz, have set up a club to fully open in September, 2024. And, they have both gotten their hands dirty in creating a project that is cutting edge for the golf and club industries.



Tom Doak, famed for his minimalist style, was perhaps the perfect choice to route the holes on the property that Blair wants to keep as the focus. Doak already had six courses in the Top 100 and studied under Pete Dye, while perhaps his biggest influencer was Alistair McKenzie. McKenzie of course studied under Bobby Jones. Blair then brought in his good friend Kye Goalby to finish the design - Kye had worked with Doak previously on several projects and was the best choice for finishing the ultimate design, says Blair.







With 70 founding members, raising $35 million to help jump-start the project, Dietz and Blair know all 320 members. The two men are already well on their way to filling the 370 memberships at what will surely become one of golf's most desirable destinations. Blair has interviewed each and every member while Dietz welcomes them to the club, a club that is not steeped in tradition like past clubs he has managed, but is warm and welcoming to all levels of golfer.







The Tree Farm revolves just around golf - there's no other real amenity. The clubhouse - the architect is a personal friend of Blair - is being designed and outfitted with the surroundings and natural, local environment in mind. The lodging is being built around an idea - Blair and Dietz call it "a lunch to lunch experience" - 24 hours, 2 rounds, 2 lunches, and 1 dinner to be enjoyed before departure.



This idea of a course as a destination drawing members from miles away for a day or two, or even more, is a growing trend in the industry. With Streamsong outside of Tampa perhaps as the first of this kind, developers and financiers are finding large tracts of interesting land and building courses as destinations for day-trippers through to those looking for weekend getaways and week-long stays. Golf in Scotland, say at a Machrihanish or even further out like a Machrie, may have long before been destinations - and Blair and Dietz are using that model created long ago here in South Carolina, about as far from the Isle of Islay as one can get.



"The course should be the star," says Blair. It's the course as to why people will want to come and visit. At a full-length of 6,900 yards and par 71 from the back tees, it's open and accessible for every level of golfer to enjoy and play. Listen in as Eric and Zac take us through their initial conversations and how they are creating a global destination from the land of an old timber company.

Isabella Graf moved to the United States from her native Germany early in life. She may be a shining example not only of proverbial "American Dream," but also of the experience and education available in the private club industry, where she is fast becoming one of its leaders.



Chosen to be a regional leader for the United States Professional Tennis Association and Head Professional at The Landings in Fort Myers, Florida, Graf is looking to become a mentor in her own right after learning from so many.



As a graduate of the Professional Tennis Management (PTM) program at Methodist University, and with three internships under her belt, one for each summer through her collegiate years, Graf believed, she was well prepared for the industry. That was until she realized that member relations, not teaching, is at the heart of our industry. Those internships at the clubs, she says, were crucial to her development just as much as her work in the classroom and understanding stringing techniques.







Standards and character are what Isabella looks for when hiring. She realized early in her career that these were the two traits required of a leader in the hospitality business, and through her own self-reflection and discipline, raised the bar for herself, personally. And now, she looks to these traits when raising the bar for a racquets program and while hiring to fill positions to bring that program to a "best-in-class" status.



Graf is going places and understands the industry far better than many of her more senior colleagues. Listen in as she explains how she looks to be a mentor in her own way, not just to other female teaching professionals, but to all in the business of member relations.

by Ed Shanaphy, CMAA



We welcome in 2024 here at BeyondTheBaselines.com with a renewed vigor and an eye to a bright future in the private members club industry. Although 2024 will have its challenges as we head toward an election the likes of which we may have never or will never see again, we can take solace in that the private club industry is in a strong position to move forward, with both member and private funding readily available.



Post-pandemic normality has returned and waiting lists are shrinking across the industry as clubs look to renew their relationships with their current membership. This new normality will require innovation in connection with new programming, technology and communication with both members and staff.



Marketing, through top-notch hospitality, and branding along with brand loyalty, will have to be at the top of the agenda to attract new members and younger families to the membership rolls. Legacy memberships and reaching out to the community will be imperative.



Recharging Membership Through Charity, Reinventing Tournaments and Events



Clubs will have to reinvent themselves within the community, possibly breaking that barrier where they are viewed as elite and privileged. Through community outreach, charitable giving and strategic fundraising and well-chosen business outings, clubs will use many methods to serve a need to source possible new members.



Tournaments and events might have to be reworked over the next few years As families travel more, having lost those Covid years to travel the globe, tournaments such as three-day golf member-guests and club championships might have to be shortened, in both time and formats. As we watch tennis changing formats and pickleball matches short and fast, we might want to think about how we can get through events in hours rather than days.



Communications Are Critical



As an industry, we will have to look at upgrading and prioritizing daily communication with members to bring them back to the clubs, clubs where they spent much of their time during the pandemic. We can't allow members to feel blasé, or even bored, with what in effect was their "home away from home" during the pandemic. Daily text messages, or pushes from the club's cellphone app, or even an email with course and court conditions might have to be conjoined with an anecdote about the club or one of it's member or staff, will be a necessity.



Thank You As We Head Into The New Year







As we head into January, 2024, I would like to thank all my guests on the Beyond The Baselines Podcast over the past years. We were just awarded our 50th episode badge and I couldn't have fathomed that we would have over 1,000 downloads for episodes and over 12,000 listeners.



Please have a listen as I thank our team and partner clubs, and the road our work and consultancy has paved for me. As we look to the future, it's always important to learn the lessons from the past. What have I personally learned from doing our company's podcast? I discuss why we established Beyond The Baselines and where we feel the industry is heading and where we have come as an industry over the past fifteen years.



I'd love to hear from any and all of you in 2024. Feel free to reach out to me via email at consultants@beyondthebaselines.com and please let us know your thoughts on the podcast and the industry. To all our friends, colleagues, partners and staff, Happy New Year!



Ed Shanaphy is the President of SBW Associates, Inc. Through its management consultancy arm, BeyondTheBaselines.com, Ed has worked with clubs on both sides of the Atlantic,