MEMBER COMMUNICATION
Keeping members informed
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Issue 7 - 2019 an Interesting Year
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- Photo - aerial view of our Amen Corner
- GemLife Update
- Membership
- Men's Golf
- Sponsorship
- Volunteers
- Marketing and Communication
- Members on the Road
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We hope you find our final Member Communication for 2019 informative. It is quite long but, treat it as a leisurely read over the holidays!
Member Communication is an important part of our objective of engaging with and informing members. You can help by letting us have feedback and suggestions for content.
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Have a safe Xmas and good golfing in 2020.
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GEMLIFE PROJECT
Gemlife has submitted the Development Application to the Noosa Council. Noosa Council has requested a further setback from the road which has resulted in a change to the development layout.
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At recent meetings with Gemlife and course designer, Graham Papworth, they presented a revised course layout (Master Plan 4) which is available in the clubhouse for viewing along with the proposed new clubhouse design. We have provided GemLife with our view of what we need to make the course playable and a list of upgrades to the old course as compensation for the redesign.
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Agreement has been reached on several issues. GemLife will indemnify the club and build any infrastructure necessary to protect against stray ball doing damage. All new holes will be irrigated and cart paths installed. The club will be compensated for the loss of income and costs with the partial closure of the course during the construction phase.
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The redesign includes more water storage. GemLife have engaged an irrigation engineer to look at the irrigation issue for the whole course and agreed that Graham Papworth prepare a Course Master Plan, including irrigation.
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GemLife will post a public notice of the proposal following which there will be a 30 day period for the public to lodge comments. Already there is chatter on Facebook regarding traffic issues. For this application to be approved, there needs to be positive comments from the community and businesses. The Management Committee will lodge a comment with the Council on behalf of the club. You, the club members, can also lodge individual comments if you wish, and the Committee strongly encourages you to do so.
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This proposal is about securing the future of the club so we need it to succeed with your help. We will provide details on how to lodge a comment prior to the start of the community consultation period.
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MEMBERSHIP
Membership currently stands at 370. We lost 55 members and added 59 new members in the 11 months to November 2019.
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252 members played one or more competition rounds (home and away) in the 11 months to November 2019, a total of 7,411 rounds for an average of 29.40 rounds per member.
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47 members played 48 rounds or more in this period for an average of 60.9 competition rounds each! 45 members played 10 rounds or less.
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Our most active members each played more than 70 competition rounds. Can you guess who they are? Well, they are Joe Daniels with 86 competition rounds closely followed by Ron Blount with 82 and Maria Taurer with 80 rounds followed by Bronwyn Woolbank with 77 rounds.
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MEN's GOLF
We are pleased to advise Ian Lumsden has taken on the position of Men's Captain. Our thanks go to Cyril and his 'team' for the great work they put in to ensure men's golf ran smoothly. Cyril will now be able to concentrate on his passion - coaching and introducing juniors to the sport.
Mitch Davies and Joel Kennedy have put their hands up to help. It's great to see the younger members taking an interest. More volunteers are needed. If we can get a men's match committee of 6-8 then each person will only need to commit to a few extra hours every few weeks.
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We are currently looking at upgrading our competition management software to take advantage of newer technology that automates many of the current manual tasks involved in running a competition.
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SPONSORSHIP
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Unfortunately it is necessary to start this article with a negative and highlight an issue which resulted in the club losing a sponsorship worth over $500 annually. Sponsors can, and are entitled to be, quite specific in designating a product or service for a prize such as a business voucher. The prize and conditions are spelt out on the voucher. Despite this, we had a situation recently where a voucher winner insisted the sponsor provide other than the prize designated resulting in the sponsor immediately cancelling sponsorship. This is not the first time this has happened. If you are not prepared to respect the wishes of the sponsor then pass it on to someone who is, or donate it back to the club.
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Moving on to more positive aspects. Sponsors are an essential part of our marketing strategy to engage with the local business community and make an important contribution to the financial sustainability of the club.
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Sponsorship is a business partnership and must be mutually beneficial. Success in achieving this aim requires dedicated management of our of sponsors. We are pleased to advise that Michael Loe has taken on the role of Sponsor Ambassador at large. Michael will co-ordinate sponsorship activities. A database and online system has been created to assist sponsor management. The aim is to record sponsorships across all areas of the club so we have a single consolidated view of sponsors.
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We assign a Cooroy Golf Club ambassador to each of our sponsorship arrangements to create long-lasting, meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships. Sponsorships have a common expiry date of 31st December each year. We plan to hold a sponsor recognition event each year in future.
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The principle role and responsibility of a sponsor ambassador is to:
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- Manage the relationship with the sponsor and act as the principal point of contact between The Club and sponsor.
- Ensure the benefit expectations of each party are understood, monitored and realised.
- Ensure coordination of activities between The Club and sponsor.
- Encourage members to support businesses that support us through sponsorship.
- Liaise with other ambassadors to identify and realise cross sponsorship opportunities.
- Represent the Cooroy Golf Club brand in a positive light and increase brand awareness and business opportunities.
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VOLUNTEERS
Vice President and Volunteer Co-ordinator, Peter Piggott, has been looking at how we can continue to move course improvement forward within current financial constraints through meaningful involvement of our volunteers.
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In the current climate the club must manage costs within the constraints of tight financial circumstances and find ways of doing more with less money, for example, through innovative or even radical solutions.
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The focus is not just on cost-cutting. Measures are also being taken to increase revenue, in particular, increasing utilisation of the course through rounds played by both members and visitors supported by revenue from ancillary services e.g. cart and equipment hire, bar and pro-shop sales. The objective is achieve a level of financial stability and sustainability independent of membership.
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Whilst the traditional golf club membership is far from dead it is evolving quickly and radically. Even if we grow membership numbers, income from membership alone is unlikely to provide financial sustainability. We need to consider our membership structures - are they relevant to today's market? New styles of membership are likely to require more emphasis on pay as you play with lower subscription fees.
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The aesthetics of our course play a big part in attracting visitors, enhancing the ‘on course’ experience and, enticing them back again. We have seen significant improvements to the course over the last 2 years through the great work of Todd and his staff and our member volunteers.
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John Cairns came up with a brilliant idea worth pursuing, calling it 'ADOPT A HOLE '. This concept may have been tried before but, research shows it works well in other small clubs with similar membership to ours.
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- Prioritise holes in order of need.
- Create teams of 2 to 6 members depending on the size and complexity of the hole chosen by a team.
- Activities include filling divots, picking up sticks and branches, making one pile for later removal, anything else the team felt inclined to do. For example, a team may consider a low cost project to create gardens/hedges to improve the aesthetics of the tee and surrounds.
- Each team can do as much or as little as they want at a time that suits them.
- Carts are available where needed for transportation of team members, sand buckets etc.
Benefits to the club and members:
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- Minimise damage to mowers and blades (expensive).
- Green staff can concentrate on priority course maintenance/development tasks.
- Aesthetics - presents the course in a tidy, cared for state to visitors and prospective new members as well as enhancing our own golfing experience.
- Most importantly, it takes some of the load off the Storm Troopers, all of whom give generously of their time for the benefit of all of us. If you marvel at how tidy the course looks or are relieved that you can easily find your ball in areas between fairways you can thank the Storm Troopers. They are a group of regular volunteers who collect and remove branches, sticks, leaves and other debris from the course. The number of trees on the course make this a regular activity and is particularly important after high winds or storms and in dry weather. The Storm Troopers typically go into action on a Tuesday.
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There will be a sheet accessible to all in the clubhouse listing Holes in priority order with a space for team members names and maybe a team nickname (stretch your imagination) but, remember the Storm Troopers is already taken.
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Peter is open to your ideas so, if you have any suggestions contact Peter by email at peterjpiggott@gmail.com or catch him in the clubhouse.
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FINANCES
Good weather, although the heat might slow things down, and an increase in rounds played continue to contribute to an improved financial position.
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A gross margin of 62% at November against 50% last year is an excellent result. Year to date total income is up by around $69,000 against budget.
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Course expenses continue to managed within budget through a great effort by Todd and his team. Other expenses continue to be tightly managed.
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Our cash position remains positive with cash of $130,000 at November against an original forecast of $60,000. Current projections forecast we will end the 2020 financial year around $11,000 in the black.
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MARKETING and COMMUNICATION
Creating a family friendly environment is essential to our future success. We also know the number one motivating factor for playing golf is fun/enjoyment, followed by the social nature of the sport and that we need to attract more younger people to the sport and the club. Our Family Golf Month promotion over the holidays is aimed at each of these. Objectives for this promotion are:
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- Ten families take up special offer.
- Junior coaching class numbers double.
- Increased awareness of The Club as a safe, family-friendly environment demonstrated by an increase in family rounds played in 2020.
- Inspire a new generation of golfers.
We set an aggressive target of growing annual rounds played at Cooroy (social and competition) from ~25,000 to 30,000. Our best chance of achieving this target is through aggressively growing social rounds and modestly growing competition rounds. Promotions and ‘specials’ are aimed at supporting this target. We are progressively putting in place measuring systems but there are signs of growth in rounds played, particular social rounds. In the 11 months to November we saw an increase of around 1,900 social rounds compared to same period last year with the 'Afternoon Special' and '2 Player Special' proving popular.
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The last 12 months has seen increased activity on our website with the number of page views increasing to 80,000 from 66,000 as at November. The most popular page, after the home page, is the Event Calendar with over 10,000 views annually. Weekly competition result posts are also popular with the Game Day Wrap providing an interesting short commentary for the day.
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An active social media presence is important in any marketing and communication strategy. We are now on Instagram - click the camera icon on Follow Us on the website. You will notice increased activity on both Facebook and Instagram over the next few months as we have engaged a social media resource to assist building our presence and visibility, particular in the millennial demographic.
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Use of the free press continues to see articles appearing in local newspapers and Inside Golf magazine. As a result of recent discussions with the Cooroy Rag we should see greater coverage and exposure for the club in 2020 .
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An important part of our objective of engaging with our members, visitors and the community is our email newsletter communication program. We publish three email newsletters. You can subscribe to the first two via our website.
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Vets Newsletter (192 subscribers): Open to any subscriber this newsletter provides an update on what’s happening at Cooroy Vets on a weekly basis.
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News Update Chip In Newsletter (366 subscribers): Open to any subscriber, this publication provides a broad update on what’s happening at Cooroy Golf Club.
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Member Communication Newsletter (303 subscribers). Distributed to financial members only, this newsletter is aimed at providing more in depth information as a direct response to requests from members.
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Each of these newsletter regularly achieves an 'open rate' (subscriber opens email - can't say that they read it!) of between 65% and 80% so they appear to be well received. These figures are significantly above the average for this type of communication.
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MEMBERS ON THE ROAD
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Let others vicariously share your experience by sending us stories and pictures of your travel adventure for inclusion in our newsletters and on website.
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A GLIMPSE OF TOMORROWS WORLD
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EVENT DATE:14/12/2019 GAME TYPE:Stableford FIELD:76 SPONSOR/PRIZE DONOR/sCLUB WINNER - Division 1Peter Buchbach 48 $50 b/cr WINNER - Division 2John Cairns 44 $50 b/cr RUNNER UP - Division 1Joel Kennedy 47 $25 b/cr RUNNER UP - Division 2Jack Timm 41 c/b $25 b/cr RUNDOWN TO:38 PLAYERS in Rundown:44 R.Nash M.Turner 42 A.Linde 41 N.Ackland G.Hall P.Korczynski K.Harkins T.Hayes J.Stewart 40 R.Gibson …
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GAME DAYSaturday EVENT DATE:14/12/2019 GAME TYPE:Stableford FIELD:10 SPONSOR/PRIZE DONOR/sClub WINNERSarah Brogden - 39 RUNNER UPAileen Morton - 37 RUNDOWN TO:37 PLAYERS in Rundown:n/a NTP - 6th HoleSarah Brogden Birdie Boxn/a APPROACHESn/a LONGEST PUTTCarolyn Foster
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It's a feat to win a Monthly Medal but to win a Medal of Medals that's an achievement - congratulations Peter Piggott, winner of the Men's Saturday 2019 Medal of Medal.
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We are open every day over Xmas- New Year period Except Xmas Day. Come and play a round or two - we would love to see you.
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Work has commenced on changing the 17th hole over to a hybrid couch called Wintergreen. This grass type is more drought tolerant and we are able to keep out all weeds so we have one grass type. The hole will play as a par 3 for about six to eight weeks which will cause inconvenience but the end result will …
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The most memorable golf and social experience in the Noosa Hinterland
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