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Paul Wiener, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, Northern Arizona University writes, "Club managers should ensure that their clubs have fitness and athletic programs and facilities that will satisfy members and therefore help keep membership levels high."
I couldn’t agree more, as you might expect.
However, in my conversations with club leaders this point is never the difficult one to make. Country clubs can provide a fitness program for their members. Yes, we all know this, but what clubs don’t know is what to include in their fitness program.
In my visits to country clubs, I usually see a yoga class being offered a couple times a week, a stack of business cards for the local personal trainer, and sometimes even some information about the water aerobics program... this is not a fitness program, and ever farther from an athletic program. Club members deserve more, and they would demand more if they knew how easy it would be to get it.
A fitness program is a reflection of your membership, which you surmise by surveying your members’ interests and wants. A fitness program is built after focus groups have been questioned. A fitness program also requires on-going conversations with the members through a fitness committee, or better yet an athletic committee that oversees all athletic programs including fitness, pool, outdoor recreation, youth sports, and so on.