Private club Dues credit during shutdown.

[doubledub]

Any full equity club will likely not be giving any relief. Either pay the dues while you are shut down or expect a nice assessment when things get up and going again. Most of our members have been using the take out option as much as possible and generously tipping all the long tenured waitstaff that are running the take out/curbside service to help them make it though this time. I'm doing my part to drink a few more beers than usual while I'm out playing . We are also doing some overdue/preventative maintenance with employees whose jobs have been most impacted ie sending the locker room attendant out to repaint our bridges and pick up leaves/sticks.

On the bright side maybe this crisis will speed up the technological advances and adoption of AI mowers/maintenance equipment. Not saying we want to reduce jobs but good labor is hard to find here as in most parts of the country.

[J13]

This isn't directed at you but you bring up a good point and one that makes me laugh when i hear or see it. Good labor is hard to find because good labor requires good salaries. I've learned through experience the saying should really be "good pay is hard to find"

[Roody]

Thanks! The way I see it, my wife and I are part-owners in our club. It's in our best interest for it to do well. It's not their fault that we can't use the clubhouse/restaurant/pool/locker rooms anymore.

[Roody]

An excerpt from the email my club sent its members yesterday, and I agree with it 100%:"With that being said, please keep in mind every certificate holding member is an owner of the Club. We would like to remind you it is extremely important to the Club during these difficult times to keep our revenues flowing. We have a living ecosystem called our golf course that requires continued maintenance. Spring is critical for turfgrass and it cannot be neglected for any extended period of time or we will lose the club’s most vital asset. Therefore, please know we plan to move forward with our Annual Dues program as we have traditionally offered at the beginning of each April. The lifeblood of the Club is our Dues Revenue and it is crucial to the Club’s financial health to move forward as planned."

It's more important than ever to pay dues on time, lest we risk losing the club entirely. I suspect they had to send it because some members were probably asking for a relaxation of dues collection or something.

[BMC]

Our club just knocked $200 off April dues which are normally $600. Course is still open, but no amenities. Very fair of ownership.

[ccampbell57]

No credits. In fact, was hit with our first of many assessments to cover the Club during this. I expect many more

[mustang6298]

My club isn’t offering any credits. I didn’t expect them to. I’d rather pay for reduced benefits than have my club fold.

[az2au]

Still love the creativity that I'm seeing out of clubs. The one I mentioned that raised our dues $40/month to make sure no one gets laid off is continuing to try to add services for members. On Sunday they're doing a mobile gas service so members don't have to go to the gas station. Given that many of the members are 60+ this is a great idea. Pull up, get tank filled in the parking lot by the person at the tanker, billed to your member account. You never have to leave your car.

[dcmidnight]

Wow that is an awesome idea! Completely agree, makes me even happier that we are paying our full dues to keep the staff on board. We had staff delivering ingredient baskets for a virtual cooking class and this week they delivered 4 packs of wine bottles for a virtual wine tasting class. I think next week the pro is doing a rules webinar as well.

Personally I hope they keep doing a lot of this!

[mn723]

My club is open for take-out food only. The maintenance crew is working and we're waiting to hear if the governor will allow courses to open for play. Dues are continuing as normal, with monthly food minimums waived for the time being.

[Shilgy]

Here in Arizona my club is open. With the usual precautions.... One person per cart, pool noodles in cup, family guests only, food is take out only etc. They did do a one month dues credit that will be available once the facility is fully open again to be used towards food, non alcoholic beverages, guest fees and cart fees. Personally I would have preferred they not do the credit but I'm sure the reason is to keep as many full members as possible. Most Canadian members have already returned home for the summer which is about two months earlier than the norm.

[az2au]

I’ve proposed that the clubs I belong to adopt a “Corona line item” every month in the amount that would keep the employees whole. One club has already instituted this (and was the inspiration for my suggestion) and a second club has accepted it as a premise and will likely adopt it. I truly hope all 4 do. The people that belong to these clubs can easily afford to take care of the hourly employees and absolutely should. It isn’t that hard and I can only imagine this will gain overwhelming support. Anyone that wouldn’t support this, well, I hope they resign as I have no interest in being associated with anyone that feels that way.

 

You might think I’m some bleeding heart liberal. I’m not. I grew up poor in a tiny town and know what it means to live paycheck to paycheck as my parents did it my whole life growing up. I’ve succeeded though and know that hard working people don’t always have the means make it work. These hard working people now make my life easy on a regular basis. I just want them to be whole.

[Schley]

One of my clubs is establishing a fund to award money for outstanding expenses during this time for their employees, another is collecting money (voluntarily) from all members, and the last has a fund set up at WellsFargo I believe to donate to. All in all, without these people working there would be no clubs for us to play and enjoy. Nice to see pro athletes pitching in to pay their stadium workers as well. Times like this unite, not divide.

[Roody]

Just found out yesterday that our most famous private club in the area, Oak Hill CC is not open yet. Even though they could be with social distancing restrictions.

[zwiggyz]

Our club hasn't mentioned anything about credits, but they did say that our f&b minimums wouldn't be invoked for April.

'In the dining room, all upcoming events in April are cancelled and there will be no minimums charged until the dining room re-opens. '

[Lefty_3Jack]

We are an equity club and has the inside shut down as well as the driving range. They've opened up the course 7 days a week for play vs normally being closed on Mondays and takeout has been available since they shut down.

Unfortunately, we get assessed every single year at this time of year. We are being billed this month for 2019's shortfall at the tune of $1600/member. This is in addition to $2300/member in October because we had a flash flood that required all bunkers be redone (they were just redone in 2015 also) and a few bridges be replaced. We've already been warned that the shortfall for this year (billed in April 2021) might be a big one. I'm hopeful that since everyone is "working from home" and playing a lot of golf right now (hard to get a tee time) that the cart fees/outdoor food-drink will lessen the blow. The big hit will come from cancelled corporate outings, the already cancelled D2 National Championships, etc that are revenue producers for the club. You can't make that kind of money back.

I'm playing all I can now because I know with how bad this is going to kill my income + how big that assessment is going to be in 2021 I likely will not survive it.

[Lefty_3Jack]

Well said. I suspect the rest of the developed world is the same, but we in America say we want "good paying jobs" for everyone and for all of our goods to be produced here, but we want everything to be cheaper than what we already get it for. We can't have it both ways. Start paying $25/hr to run a mower and we'll find better people. Start paying $25/hr to run a mower and I can't afford to play golf anymore.

[A6sfulWin]

Very similar slightly better 20% off dues turned into credit like yours. My gripe is they have let go or furloughed their employees (out of necessity) reducing their liabilities essentially profiting from the lack of payroll at members expense. Not really what I expected from a larger corporation doesn’t exactly speak to the integrity of the game of golf.

[Ereim]

Happy to pay full dues. Lucky to be a member. If we need to give more to supplement the staff, happy to do it.

[digger71]

My club just furloughed about 20 employees but with the current government assistance program they will all be making more than 100% of their current salary for the next 8 weeks. Club management is helping them through the process.

[cassel191919]

That is awesome and a great idea.

[edresnick]

I am a member of a private TPC club. The clubhouse, course and practice area are closed but we can get takeout food. There has been no talk of a dues reduction and I wouldn’t expect any even though the parent company is well funded and certainly could afford to provide the members with a dues break if they wanted. We actually received a pretty sizable dues increase this year. Given the virus and that our course will be hosting a tour event this year we will have a very limited season. This will be one of those years where a round costs about $700 based on the number of times we will get to play. Not the TPCs fault but given the money the tour has it would have been a nice way to show appreciation for the members by doing a little something. Oh well we can always just dream.

We originally did try to show support for the club by ordering takeout but 1) we felt local restaurants needed more help and 2) the prices TPC were charging for takeout were crazy. TPC, well this one anyway, is not an entity that would let a good tragedy go to waste without trying to profit off it some how.

[ButterCutter2]

if you're at a club that's furloughed employees while all facilities are closed, shouldn't the clubs' board provide full transparency to the members about the expenses incurred during shelter in place, down to the last detail and compare that to the incoming cash flow of member monthly dues? and if incoming dues exceed expenses, isn't it reasonable to either provide a credit back to the members or detail out where the excess funds will be used within the next fiscal year? that's the type of transparency i'd want to see from a club.

[ALTSean]

I would doubt many clubs' incoming dues would exceed expenses even if totally shut down. Clubs have such high fixed costs such as course maintenance, mortgages / loans on clubhouses and other major projects, taxes, utilities, etc. Even if a club is totally shut down, they are paying the maintenance crew, admin folks, probably high level folks such the GM, club pro(s), etc. With a club shutdown, it is losing not only income from members for food, carts, drinks, etc, but they are losing the big money makers such as weddings, corporate golf outings, and other private events.

[ButterCutter2]

i heard one club told its membership that dues account for 85% of payroll expenses, and then the club furloughed employees minus high level folks. and while i get that clubs are all getting hammered on no f&b, guest play, cart rev & events both external and internal for members both currently if in season and maybe for the rest of the year, as a member i'd want to see the numbers and the forecasts for the rest of the year.

[ALTSean]

If membership dues account for 85% of payroll expenses, what pays for all the other expenses such as mortgages, loans, taxes, utilities, etc.?

 

If a club is in such a good position financially that it has such low expenses, i.e. clubhouse paid off, high net worth members, etc. then it would be pretty crappy if they furloughed a majority of their employees.

[dcmidnight]

Why though? The in depth balance sheets and forecasts would perplex 99% of members who would have no idea what they are looking at and may "think" they see something. I have an MBA in Finance and a ~ 25 year career - and yet I have no interest in the clubs internals. Thats why I (help) elect a board of directors and hire the right comptroller/experts to deal with this. And what would you (not you-you but any member) what would they do if they didnt "like what they saw"? I think we release our financials once a year or maybe once a quarter but its not a democracy in that respect, its more for transparency sake.

Plus - and I've said this before - I dont want a credit. I want any extra money to go towards the employee fund and to keep as many of those folks employed as long as we can. Our course and range are open including our at the turn and take out food. But our bar and clubhouse is still completely shut down.

[LeftDaddy]

My club is somewhat open (course is open, F&B is mostly takeout with minimum hours, though outdoor dining encouraged) so this is a non-issue for me right now. And the memberships are non-equity. BUT, they have now instituted a dues increase. It isn’t huge, so no biggie. My wife’s tennis club is closed, even though others in the area are open. She’s extremely annoyed and has asked to go on membership hiatus, and in this case I agree with her because of the management of that club. They’ll take any chance they get to save a few dollars, and other clubs are open so they’ve just chosen to close down.

This thread reminds me of an article I saw that suggested business owners should be asking their landlords for payment relief, and one of the landlords said wtte of “Who gets to decide who can afford to offer relief...why should it be me? I have bills to pay too, and the money to pay them comes from rent”. My point being...it’s an interesting debate about where the line stops regarding paying for services you aren’t using, or not requiring payment because you aren’t delivering services despite it not being your fault, etc.

I’m generally taking the approach that, all things considered, I’m going to be OK in all of this therefore I should be willing to be a bit generous with these situations. It isn’t like I’m not taking a bit of a bath financially either, but I’m way luckier than most and with that comes a responsibility in my opinion.

[cristphoto]

My club is still charging full dues but has dropped the food minimum until a return to normalcy. It has also started a "Go fund me" page to assist furloughed employees. It is also giving a club credit to be used to bring guests out. To be computed on how many weeks the facility is closed. Seems fair to me as monthly revenue still flows (somewhat) but I derive a benefit for something I often use anyway. This is for Full memberships. Nothing was mentioned for Social memberships.

[BNGL]

As far as I know a lot of clubs my friends work or are members of or that I have worked or been a member at are all still asking for full dues, I don’t know why they wouldn’t even they were totally shut down. They have bills too.

a lot of big name clubs have funds that are available to employees in times of emergency (great example in south Florida, hurricanes). One of our employees didn’t have flood insurance and the club covered the costs to rebuild after a hurricane (lots more went into it from that story I’m sure but that’s what I was told). The fund (anytime there was a surplus it went into this fund or a member died and donated to the club etc) was close to 5 million when I left (225 employees at the club) not all of it was cash but given some of our membership I would imagine the money was pulled from the markets and was safe. As I understand it only golf was open and dining, yacht club, marina, beach club, tennis shop, croquet, library, and theater shut down so they’re all eligible for support through the Presidents Fund I believe is what it’s called. A lot of clubs in our area had or have something similar