Private Club Radio Show
Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the industry's weekly source for education, news, trends, and other current developments in the world of private clubs.
Hosted by the talented entertainer and industry expert, Denny Corby,
the podcast offers a unique perspective on the private club industry, featuring expert guests, product spotlights, predictions, and more.
Whether you're involved in a golf club management, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, or business clubs, the Private Club Radio Show is the essential podcast for
anyone seeking valuable insights and information on the latest trends and developments in the private club industry.
Private Club Radio Show
431: Building a Club Around Community, Not a Course w/ Jenna Jardin
his one’s a blast.
Jenna Jardin is the kind of leader who’s juggling everything—membership, events, communications, and full-tilt programming—at one of the most active and unique private clubs in the country: Beacon Hill Club.
There’s no golf and no downtime.
Just a massive outdoor rink, hundreds hockey players, an iconic winter recital, curling nights, teen trips, family dinners, a beautiful club house and a member experience that runs year-round.
Jenna joined the club in the middle of the pandemic, coming straight from the world of NYC hotel sales—and has since helped shape Beacon Hill into a place where members aren’t just participating... they’re showing up, staying late, and asking what’s next.
In this episode, we dig into:
- How to run a high-energy club without relying on golf or courts
- The importance of smart programming and even smarter communication
- Jenna’s transition from hard sales to community-building
- What it takes to design events people actually want to attend
- And how Beacon Hill’s team culture helps them pull it all off
This isn’t your traditional club model. And that’s what makes it so good.
Follow us on the socials
Private Club Radio Instagram
Private Club Radio Linkedin
Denny Corby Instagram
Denny Corby Linkedin
Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering, leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show. In this episode, I am joined by the one and only Jenna Jarden. Now you're about to hear how she's helping run one of what I think one of the most unique and successful clubs in the country, the Beacon Hill Club in Summit, new Jersey.
Speaker 1:Now, this isn't your typical private club, because there is no golf, there's no driving ranges, but they do have something else they do a massive outdoor skating rink where they have hundreds of members who come and play hockey. They do an amazing ice recital that rivals the masters and a community vibe that most clubs would just absolutely kill for, and they're open year round. But they really have a true winter wonderland and among many other events and things that they do throughout the year, but in this episode we kind of talk a lot about that is their winter programming and what that all entails. And Jenna is right at the heart of all of it, and we talk about her leap from Manhattan hotels into private clubs and how she juggles memberships, events and communications and what it takes to build a club culture that is energetic. It's fun and completely one of a kind. So Jenna brings the energy, the stories and some serious takeaways. So I am so excited for this episode, especially if you're looking for some fresh ideas on member events, engagement and year-round membership connection, so you are going to absolutely love this one.
Speaker 1:Before that, I just want to give a big thanks to some of our show partners. We have our friends Members, first, club Capital Group Member Vetting, golf Life Navigators and Concert Golf Partners, as well as myself. The Denny Corby Experience there's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic, mind reading and comedy. One of the most fun member event nights you can do hands down. If you want to learn more, head on over to DennyCorbycom and reach out, let's chat, let's have a conversation. Enough about that, though. Let's get to the episode. Private Club Radio listeners.
Speaker 2:Let's welcome to the show, jenna jarden I started december 2020 but this is my first club like I was transitioning out of like hotel and restaurant sales. My hotel manhattan closed and I was like what am?
Speaker 1:I gonna do. That had to be. That had to be stressful.
Speaker 2:That had to be very stressful around that time yes, yes panic sets in I kind of like took a leap of faith, didn't know really what to expect. And four plus years later, same role. I'm loving it. It's been a really nice change of pace. It's been nice to build on the relationships and see the same faces, as opposed to. You know the turn and burn of sales. Once they sign it you're on to the next. So it's, you know, nice to like see the same people and watch the little kids grow up.
Speaker 1:And you know all those heartfelt juicy moments that there was little. Yeah what? What were some like did you bring anything over from hotel sales to clubs? Like that? Maybe you didn't expect, like, were there anything that like stuff that you brought over that the club was like this is innovative.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny I feel like in a pandemic industry is either tanked or flourish. So I'm coming from the side of where it tanked Big events no longer a thing. And then I come into this club and my little sales girl heart, we're on a year plus wait list. So you're getting all these calls every day. I'm moving to the suburbs out of the city how do I join? And I'm like, oh my goodness, call me back in 10 years when you basically give me your firstborn child.
Speaker 2:So it was definitely a change of, you know, kind of like cold calling, outbound sales that I was used to versus I don't want to say like reactive. But you know I'm doing a little bit of everything at the club. So I do membership communications and then I help with club events. So, yeah, just definitely a change of having to basically turn all these people away that were like, oh, we don't care what it costs, we just want to get into the Beacon Hill club community. So that was definitely a little bit of a learning curve for me. I mean, I'm coming more from the side of like the sales and like large events where we would host their holiday parties and like corporate kickoff meetings and press junkets and things like that, so not necessarily like apples to apples and the events that, like the club, was for members.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I guess, I mean I just some of the skills overlap, not necessarily like what I'm doing on the day to day, but, like you know, just being like a people, person and, you know, responding to emails in a timely manner and picking up the phone sometimes, as opposed to like just being, you know, stuck behind your email. Yeah, yeah, things like that.
Speaker 1:I'm sure having that more what's the word? I want to use that more. I don't want to say aggressive sales approach, but I'm sure that also helps too, like when you come from that background and like and like and the kind of use that you're not afraid to pick up the phone, call somebody like kind of put on your sales hat a little bit more than like you might normally would for like a normal club person.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, totally, and I'm like whenever my boss doesn't want to make a phone call, he'll be like oh, jenna, can you call this person? And he like in a loving manner if he ends up watching this, but he calls me the pit bull because he like sends me after people that owe money and he's like just send Jenna after them. So it's like a running joke at the club.
Speaker 1:Members have your numbers saved to see a call like oh no, they're afraid to come into the club. I'm the kind, lovable pit bull the rescue pit bull. Exactly so before you came, because your club does a lot of cool stuff, were they always doing cool stuff? Did you help them do more cool stuff? What's tell me the story of the cool stuff, um?
Speaker 2:so I coming in like in the heart of the pandemic, I mean we weren't really doing events. So you know, like every other club, we were trying to get innovative, doing other things and then obviously still being able to use the amenities of the club. So I kind of came in and my head was spinning because it was, like you know, signing, there was capacities for everything. So even, like you know, we have an ice rink, so that's our kind of our claim to fame. We do not have golf an ice rink, so that's our kind of our claim to fame. We do not have golf replaced golf with, like a huge outdoor ice rink. So everyone skates, figure skates and or plays hockey on top of you know, rackets, pool, summer cam swim, team dining.
Speaker 1:Do people sign up just because of like the ice skating? Like is that a big?
Speaker 2:it's a big draw for why you become a member at beacon hill club. You want to skate and or play hockey? Um, we have. We have five over 500 active hockey members, 300 plus on the youth team, and then the rest adults teams, including the women's team, and then, uh, we have a figure skate like learn to skate program for the little ones up through, like figure skating for the little girls. Which just ended the culmination of the season, it was our big ice skating.
Speaker 1:Talk about that. What is an ice skating recital like at at a club that had to be so unique?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So basically there's a couple of different figure skating programs from kindergarten girls up to, I want to say, maybe like eighth grade girls, um. So basically the whole point of the program is that you know the recitals the last day when it all ends and everybody gets like two to three minutes on the ice to a choreographed song that they work all season. They're either doing it in solos, duets or trios.
Speaker 1:They come dressed and you know, like a full figure skating all out leotard, I suppose the word is.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's a big, it's a big to do what um.
Speaker 1:What was the funniest song or the most unique song somebody had?
Speaker 2:I mean I feel like every year it's funny, because last year it was all taylor swift theme. So basically there's a big recital on the ice and then we do a big after party up at the main clubhouse where we have a DJ, dancing, photo booth, dinner. Everyone's family comes, extended family, everyone gets roses at the end of their recital. I mean it's a very it's a very big day.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think like what it would equate to at a golf club, maybe like whatever the biggest golf golf event of the year is something similar to that. But I mean, yeah, last year was taylor swift, this year, I would say, was very heavily um. Sabrina carpenter and gracie adams, gracie abrams I think I'm probably saying the names wrong. Like I said, I'm like bold at heart, so I kind of know these artists, but not really. But uh, it gets a little competitive though, because there's a spreadsheet there's. I want to say there was like 36 performances between the girls and then a big grand finale at the end. So getting the choreography and the music cut and getting the girls on and off the ice the little girls do group performances. There's just like a lot of moving pieces. You know getting the girls onto the ice for the next performance and you know having them all over campus. But where was I going with this the song?
Speaker 1:Yeah, was there any just like unique funny songs? You were like wow, that is a, that is a unique one.
Speaker 2:Well, trying to think nothing necessarily unique, but you know, the couple of days before we only get the oh, I was, I got my train of thought now. But, um, so when they sign up for this program, we send out something like a spreadsheet where what song do you want to do?
Speaker 2:And we don't want repetition because I mean everyone's sitting there so it starts getting a little competitive with the song choices and all that. And then like, finally, once the music is all cut, everyone makes their selection and everything. You know, the week leading up to the recital they're on the ice with the music and I guess, a lot of clean versions. I guess a lot of these songs have curse words in them and you know these girls, they don't even know what the heck they're dancing to. For the most part there's some of them are five, six, seven, eight years old.
Speaker 2:So Friday night it's like a scramble to get all the clean versions of the songs for the recital, for the recital on saturday. So just just a lot of moving pieces. Between the weather, then there's always a rain date. You know you have to cross your fingers that it's going to be like the perfect day and then you have to have all the vendors on backup for the rain day. Just a lot of moving pieces, and we also had a hockey jamboree earlier in the morning what was the hockey jamboree is that?
Speaker 1:was that for all the hockey teams and the hockey people?
Speaker 2:I think it was for the little ones, the might development, which is like our littlest. I don't know if there's an age parameter on it, but it's basically like might development is the prerequisite before you get onto like a hockey team yeah. Little like typically four and five-year-olds. They're adorable, but and then they get into. You know all these new terminology I learned coming to the club because I'm not, you know, super familiar with hockey.
Speaker 1:But might squirt phantom, peewee, midget, all these different teams. The closest I get to hockey is probably watching the show letter kenny. Um, it's just a dumb canadian show that you can only watch like two or three episodes because, like they start, I can't even describe how they talk.
Speaker 2:But it's very like Canadian okay, speaking of Canadian, didn't they just won the four national? I know we had a part of viewing party last week, but the four nation?
Speaker 1:I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2:I don't want it over time. If I'm, I think I watched the first court.
Speaker 1:is it quarters? Is it three quarters? I know there's three sections. There's three sections, there's three. No, it can't be a quarter. It can't be a quarter because, a quarter is 25% oh you're great. People are going to stop listening to Private Club Radio because of this. Who are these dum-dums just trying to figure this out? This?
Speaker 2:girl works at a hockey club.
Speaker 1:And like so you actually have a league as well there, like hockey leagues Wow. Yes, is it just for members only, like is it members and their guests, or is it strictly just members?
Speaker 2:Members. We have full members and we have hockey members. So some are just solely for the hockey program. Um, but our full members, you know, take first yeah, this is a very unique club. Yeah, that is cool there are travel teams, so they're going all over new jersey, they're going to long island, they're. You know they're playing all different teams, wow wow, and, and how many like.
Speaker 1:How is? It is in season or so when does? When does the rink technically open?
Speaker 2:uh, weather dependent, but typically first or second week of november through first or second week in march. That's like our season, that's our busy most nights?
Speaker 1:is it? Is it open most nights? Are there any off nights and is it like? Is it slammed?
Speaker 2:oh no, it's open. Every moment of that ice is very regimented. Let me tell you like taking five minutes away from like hockey to go to ice skating, or vice versa, is like world do you guys have like your own, your own zamboni?
Speaker 1:yep so, so. So this is like oh yeah, this is actual sized hockey rink like this is yes, like I don't know what actual size means.
Speaker 2:But it's, it's like I always say, nhl size.
Speaker 2:But again, don't call me olympic sized, but yeah, yes wow yeah, we have a whole chiller system, zamboni, cut so pretty much from. Like, ice maintenance starts early in the morning, you, you know 7, 8 am, but basically once the ice maintenance is done for the morning, it's straight through. So the hockey and the figure skating has all their different programming and then we have an open skate, which we call general skate, and then open hockey, pickup play, which is called pond hockey. So between the general skate, which is the open skating, and the pond hockey, which is the open hockey, pickup play, which is called pond hockey. So between the general skate, which is the open skating, and the pond hockey, which is the open hockey, every other minute of time is regimented between the figure skating and the hockey programs through, you know, 9 o'clock at night and do you guys own all of the equipment?
Speaker 1:Is it like your own stuff? Do you rent it? Do you lease it? How does that work?
Speaker 2:I know a mix of of both.
Speaker 2:I feel like something's always going wrong with that Zamboni, so and I'm assuming, then you must have like special staff just for your rank yes, yeah, I mean most of our maintenance crew has been with us 30 plus years, so that, like in winter season, I mean, there's some nights that they're sleeping at the club because they're you know, they're going the last Zamboni cut at the end of the night. You know nine, nine ish o'clock, and then they're back at it 70 in the morning. So, um, yeah, they're amazing. I don't know when they sleep or how they do it, but and then, pretty much between all that, there's probably like 10 or 15 zamboni cuts a day that's so that everyone gets fresh, pristine ice any are there?
Speaker 1:do do the leagues allow fights? Like are there any fights on the rink? Like do you ever see people just brawling out? I mean I I'd have to ask her how yeah, I know I feel like I'm so this is crazy, wow, and you guys have a. Is it a curling league too, like you do curling?
Speaker 2:we. That's one of our four adult flagship events a year. Sadly, we just had to cancel last week because there wasn't enough participants, but initially it was scheduled for January. We got rained out because every again everything's very weather dependent with the ring, so that's, you know, adds a whole nother element. So our January event got rained out, unfortunately. But we had about 140 members signed up and then, just based on availability of the company that we work with and what else we had going on at the club, we pushed it to this past weekend. But between the hockey playoff, hockey jamboree and the ice skating recital we just didn't get the numbers that we wanted to move forward with it. So we're going to try again for next year. But yeah, that's definitely one of the more fun events and you know definitely something that you can't do everywhere.
Speaker 1:So how many people did you have for your big recital?
Speaker 2:Like there is 36 performances. There's about 90, 95 girls in the program and then the prerequisite to that is the learn to skate program. So obviously they have to, you know, be able to skate to, to be in a performance. But yeah, there's about, yeah, 85, 90 girls in the program from kindergarten has their own.
Speaker 1:So that show had to be about two hours.
Speaker 2:Uh, three is actually only is three 30 to five.
Speaker 1:precisely it was an hour and a half. That's impressive yeah.
Speaker 2:Some of those acts are a little shorter than others, and then some of them that perform in the duos and the trios and all of that. But yes, it's definitely a very fun day. The weather was kind to us. Thank goodness it wasn't, you know, wasn't too cold yeah, so what do you do?
Speaker 1:so what's what's big in the club when in like the fall, the summer, because there there is no golf.
Speaker 2:So there is no golf, but we do have a pool, we do have a swim team, we do run a full summer camp and then a full rackets camp. So we're pretty much an all year. We we close in March for a couple of weeks, kind of like to get right, closing out the winter season and then getting ready for spring. But, unlike most of the golf clubs that are closed, you know, january to March that's our busiest time of the year. So, on top of being busy because we're an outdoor golf club, we're also hosting pretty much everybody's reciprocals right now because we're the only club that's open. So this is definitely our busy time. Um, I mean, yeah, winter's excuse me, summer's definitely busy too, between, yeah, pool camp, swim team, tennis, pickleball, all of that. So we don't really have like a slow time.
Speaker 2:I mean maybe, like August, is a little bit slower. One swim team's over. One summer camp is over. You know people are going to their beach homes for you know the month of August, for the most part before back to school and start up again, but we're pretty consistent throughout the year.
Speaker 1:That's really impressive. That's awesome and very different, and you do a lot of different and unique programming. Obviously, like what other cause? I think it even boils down to just your different events and your different like. You do so much cool stuff. You have a big, a big fall fest, right.
Speaker 2:So we do, yeah, we do. We do a ton of events, um, we do family friendly events, we do kids only events, we do adult only events. Um, or we do four big like adult flagship events of the year and kind of just change the theme. Every year we do a summer party, a fall party, the holiday party and the curling event. So, like this past year, our holiday party for the um, the theme was like winter wonderland. So we work with our florist and we transform the entire space until like literally a mystical, magical winter wonderland brought in all these trees and bark and lights and snow, and it was actually beautiful. It really turned out to be a great event.
Speaker 2:Summer and fall we haven't really nailed down this year. I mean last year we did our fall party. If I'm getting all my years correct, I think it was like a fall harvest. We did like a big outdoor mechanical bowl and we brought in a beer truck and a bunch of different elevated barbecue foods. There's always a band. We encourage you to dress for the theme. And then our summer party. We did like a Caribbean theme. So we had a reggae band come and Caribbean style food, tiki bar, you know all the things that coincide with that go with the theme. Tiki bar. You know all that, all the things that coincide with that go with the theme. So you know, we're always trying to elevate and bring new ideas to the table and you know, do things that other clubs aren't doing, or how?
Speaker 1:do you do that? Do you have a committee? Is it on you and the staff? Is it a mixture of both? Like what like, like how?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a committee. We have a committee that pretty much oversees everything. So I mean for events particularly, there's an events committee, so there's a trustee and then there's a couple of you know volunteer committee members. So we'll meet with them on a quarterly basis and you know kind of put the bones together of like how many kids events, how many adult events, how many family friendly events. We incorporated a couple like bus trips into in. We're trying to figure out this year how do we get the teens and tweens they're too cool to hang out at the club how do we get them to do something? We did an outing to New York City and we took them to see the Blue man Group. That was something a little bit fun and different.
Speaker 1:How did that go?
Speaker 2:Women's hockey teams. That was fun.
Speaker 1:It was a great time you know they just got to leave their parents. Oh, that's cool. So you guys kind of chaperoned it or you had a few chaperones and yeah that was cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a few chaperones and myself and another oh, so there weren't even parent chaperones, it was staff there was, yeah, there was a couple parent chaperones.
Speaker 2:I was like I, I can't yell at your children, you just might not work there too much longer, but yeah, so yeah, one of the chaperones was our events trustee, so she she knew what we were getting ourselves into, so she luckily volunteered herself. But yeah, it was a fun night out, something that the kids look forward to. Um, we have, um, like a new girls hockey team. I want to say it's the U10 girls, so this year we did it. They went to like a professional women's hockey game at Prudential a couple weeks ago. It was the New York Sirens versus, I think it was, versus some Canadian team, but we're trying to incorporate, you know, something that obviously overlaps and is important with the club. So obviously we're a big hockey, centric, spirited club. So we've done a devil's game, we've done a Rangers game. So the women this year were like, let's do a women's game. You know all this hype around girls and women and all of that and having this new girls team. A couple of them just won the league championships a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1:So when you, when you go to these games, you just get like a nice big party bus or a nice like luxury style bus, bring everybody in. Do you guys supply food and snacks or anything Like? Walk me through the experience for the members. I think that's really cool, and there's a lot of clubs, I think that are so close yet so far away to like a major city that that's something just neat to do, and even if only like 15, 20 members or even if it's less show up, that's still a neat thing to do. You don't have to worry about driving and just have it so so. So what did what did the evening look like? What did you guys provide? What did you do? What was that whole experience like for for the members?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did. We just typically do like a box lunch. I'm also thinking we just did like we went to the Rockettes also to kick off holiday season. We took a bus to New York city right outside New York city, so that was something kind of different.
Speaker 2:But yeah, we'll typically try to get 30 people to come to make it worthwhile to get the group tickets and to be able to support the price of the transportation. And then, a couple of days in advance, we'll send them just a Google Doc to fill in with whatever they want to eat on the bus. So everything's kind of packed up like a grab and go lunchbox basically.
Speaker 2:So either have you know a salmon wrap, a salad, a cookie, a drink it's all boxed and bagged for you and then you just eat it on the bus and then usually myself or someone else has the tickets, or the members have the tickets in advance, depending on. You know where we're going, but it's pretty seamless for them. You know they come to the club at a certain time and then the bus drops them back off at the club a certain time and that's really all that they have to be responsible for.
Speaker 2:So it just, it just makes it easy. I mean it's just something nice and different. I mean it's, you know, not something that you know, like the event at the club or we're, you know, making money on. We're just really trying to break even but offer kind of just different outside the box experience.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's really important. That's really good. You guys are doing that as well. I love stuff like that. Even if it isn't like a huge success, at least you're still trying, you're still doing stuff, you're still putting it out there. Have you ever had anything that just flopped horribly? And when I say flop, I mean members just didn't show up. Like did you ever have something that's just like it just wasn't a good fit for, just like it just wasn't a good fit for, like it just wasn't a good time? Because I always think sometimes clubs go like oh, it was a flop and like, oh, what, what happened? Like no one showed up. It's like, well, that doesn't mean it was a bad event. Uh, so you ever have like an event that just like flopped?
Speaker 2:I mean a lot of times if, like, the registration numbers aren't there. Well, you know, it's always like. You know, do you want to host the event and move forward with it and take pictures and build up the hype and the anticipation for next year, you know, and take the hit this year, or do you go ahead and cancel it but then you disappoint the people that signed up. So even like with the curling event I mean that's one of our four flagship events We've never had to cancel that event. So it was kind of disappointing that it rained in January, we had to do the date change and there was kind of a lot going on. But I mean, at the end of the day, if 20 people, 30 people, sign up for something, it has to like, make sense, obviously for the club.
Speaker 2:So I'm trying I can't really think of anything that's been a flop that we've moved forward with. But obviously it's always disappointing with, like, the work and the anticipation and you know getting members to sign up and you know sending all these emails, sign up, sign up and then still having to cancel it, because it's like you're basically putting in like the same amount of work to cancel an event a couple of days before then to just kind of go forward with it. Um, so you know, the hope is always, even even on some of the smaller events, yeah, just to kind of um, build traction and hope for bigger and better next time, like some of our dining or, you know, wine dinners and things like that we've gotten like small turnouts for. But it's all about, like those couple of people that sign up, you know, giving them a memorable experience, having them spread the word to their friends, taking pictures, posting on socials, drawing up the hype for next time. So you know, sometimes we move forward, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 1:Did you ever, did you ever do do an event that had a good turnout and people were just like this is lame.
Speaker 2:Maybe behind my back, not to my face, I'm.
Speaker 1:I'm the pit bull. Remember there was so much fun, Jenna, we had a blast Like oh, I'm trying to think, um, it was so much fun, jenna, we had a blast.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think, yeah, no, nothing really, to my face. I mean, I know one event that's kind of like chaotic, but it obviously all still goes well. We've done it every year, every club does it, but like our gingerbread decorating event, it's just like utter chaos Sticking is everywhere. Candy and icing and squirt bottles, kids squirting each other with the icing. I mean it's always a success, Don't get me wrong, but there's just a lot of like a lot of moving pieces. It's a mess, Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So we can do without that one. But you know, it's one of those annual family events that I don't think is going anywhere anytime soon.
Speaker 1:But if anyone has the creative idea to have had a you know, not get kids to squirt icing in each other's hair and all over the club. You just line the whole room, just just like a giant, a giant crime scene.
Speaker 2:You just have like have those, that's what we gotta do for like, yeah, just put garbage bags all over the walls and just put the kids in garbage bags. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What else you guys got cooking, anything fun.
Speaker 2:What do we got cooking? Well, we're winding down with ice. Ice is closing this weekend and then we're pretty much closed for the month of March. But obviously gearing up for a busy spring and summer. And you know, camp registration goes out in March, swim team, spring tennis for the kids, ladies tennis teams. So a lot of things in the pipeline getting getting all the events on the calendar for the rest of the year, figuring out themes and vendors, and all of that.
Speaker 1:When do you where? Where does the hockey rink or where does the ice skating rink go?
Speaker 2:it doesn't go like where is it on property?
Speaker 1:Is it over the pool? Where does it go?
Speaker 2:It's next to the pool, so it's like a five-minute walk. So again, we're not a golf club, so we're not this huge sprawling. So from my office up in the main clubhouse to walk down to the hockey rink maybe a five or six-minute walk, and that's the two extremes of the club.
Speaker 1:That's where, that's why my head was as if you're not, if you don't have golf, like where's the space at? Like, where is it like part of the?
Speaker 2:yeah, so to maximize the space, though, um, they put like a foam I don't know what you want to call it and, like you know, at the gym those little tiles like foamy. So basically in the in the summertime, in the springtime we've made half of it into three additional pickleball courts just pickleball nets, whatever. And then for summer camp they the foam top, they put soccer nets and basketball hoops and parachutes and all that kind of stuff. So we utilize that for like that we call the sport court, um.
Speaker 2:So kids use that in the summer for camp, then if you're at the pool again, because it's a very quick short walk to pool, if the kids want to play on that and they're at the pool. So we were able to kind of utilize it for the most part outside of just winter season, yeah.
Speaker 1:What uh uh cause. You also help with the marketing and the communications and stuff as well. Right, that has to be a lot of work between that. And then do you do you also help with the membership sales? Is that part of your wow?
Speaker 2:Yeah, a little bit of everything, but it's fun Every day is something different? How do?
Speaker 1:you manage your time, like how? Like I and I know it's probably you know a cluster a little bit, but like, do you have any? Like I don't want to say hacks, but things that you might use that help you.
Speaker 2:Like. This is my, this is my current to do list. This is what I good old pen and paper. I'm the most good old again, I'm like an 80 year old at heart, like I said a bunch of times. But yes, I literally use a pen and paper. Um membership is a we try to let members in on like a somewhat of a quarterly basis so that they're, you know, the couple families, couple of families that get we typically admit at, you know, maybe 30 ish families a year give or take Um, but they kind of all come in in groups together. So you know I'll have all like my new member orientations all around the same time.
Speaker 1:Then there'll be like a little bit of lag until the next group Um and then do you do the same also when, like you kind of do your quote unquote sales for them. So, like, when someone reaches out and like, oh, like, hey, I would like membership, do you follow? Like, how do you follow up? You say, hey, you know I'll reach back out in X amount of time. How does that work?
Speaker 2:I kind of say so. Like the way the process works is that you need five families to support you. So five, right. So it's kind of like call me back when you know people and, like I said, the little sales girl in me.
Speaker 2:it breaks my heart when they're just like well, pat, how do we get in? We've heard amazing things. We just moved to Summit and I'm like and a lot of times they're like well, we just moved here, how do we even get the process started? Like, where do we begin? Um, and I know that before my time I to my understanding, they did some kind of like mix and mingles type for people to get to know each other. But now, with the clubs being so full and on a wait list and so many people already knowing each other, I know a lot of clubs kind of steered away from that because, because you still really don't get to know somebody in in just a little mix and mingle thing Like that's.
Speaker 1:Anybody could put out in a front and see, and they're looking for.
Speaker 2:you know in the letters of support they're looking for, you know like not just like the Smith family would be a great addition to the club they're looking for, like the meat and bones, like that. You really know this family and like they want. You know personal stories and experiences. So it takes time, it really does. I mean I'm just like talk to your neighbor, Like you're going to know somebody. Eventually, just moving into town You're going to see somebody wearing a hat or a beanie.
Speaker 2:Get them be friends with them your kid's school, you know start the conversation and that's like your foot in the door to get it started. But realistically, because we're on a wait list and such I mean I'm and it's kind of hard for me to follow up because they have to come back with like knowing the families and having the tenure and having the experiences. So I'm there to kind of like help them through the process and talk them through what it looks like and like what the expectation is.
Speaker 1:That's actually a cooler, that's a cool unique process, though Like that's so different than the app, because there's so many clubs that like it's like a, like a pitch fest, you know, it's like it's they're they're giving the hard sale and really getting them to want to come. So you guys are in a very fortunate place and to be able to have five people that's, I think, what normally it's like two or three, five it's my first, I don't, I'm, I don know.
Speaker 2:I think it's like three to five typically, but yeah, so, yes, that's membership communications. I mean the website. We have a mobile app. We have an Instagram push notifications sending all the club emails, um, so that that definitely takes a bit of time because you're kind of working for you know everyone in the club.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, summer camp registration I'm working closely with the camp director. Tennis registration I'm working closely with the rackets director, swim team, the swim coach. You know hockey right now. All the communication leading up to the recital, um, so I don't know. You just got to kind of manage like what's important? I, like I said, I start my, I start my day with a to-do list every day, do I? Sometimes things just get thrown away. You get a 911 call and you get thrown off your you know to-do list.
Speaker 1:Sally, ate it on the ice. It's all bloody.
Speaker 2:No, I think a lot of it too is just like managing expectations, right, like everyone's going to throw something at you because they don't know what you're working on for all the other people that work at the club. So you know, I'm always like give me, you know, is this, is this urgent? Is it okay if I turn around in 42 to 78 hours? You know what? So try to get a little cause. You know everyone throws stuff at you and says urgent, 911, but you know, realistically it's like okay, 911 to you might be like 72 hours to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, how. How big is the staff? You must have a decent sized crew.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think. I mean, yeah, so full-time, we have a lot of seasonal between you know, like the the ice, like our hockey director seasonal, or blades instructor seasonal. I mean our full-time people, I'd probably say 10 or 15 of us, Like between upper management, clubhouse staff, maintenance team, all of that, something like that. So not super big, but not super small.
Speaker 1:And then, yes, a lot of seasonal support. Are you guys open most days for lunch and dinner?
Speaker 2:Yes, so our main clubhouse is open Wednesday through Sunday and then our kind of secondary food and beverage operation is open when the pool's open and when the ice is open, Pretty much seven days a week. So for a smaller club we're pretty much open like when we're busy in season seven days a week for some type of dining.
Speaker 1:That's people are cranking yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good, it's all good stuff. Rather be busy than you know sitting there twiddling your thumb. So yeah again, every day is. Every day is a new adventure, a new experience. But you know, the days, the days go by. There's always something to be working on, planning for the future. You know how do we make this better? Okay, let's, let's get an Instagram post. Let's, you know, hype this up. So there's always there's, even when you're sitting there, there's like obviously always something that can be done to elevate the number experience.
Speaker 1:I know what you mean. Hey, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you sharing and all this with the club and you guys do some really cool, unique stuff Like this is. This is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having me, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. If you did give it a like, share, subscribe. A five-star rating means the absolute world. It costs nothing. That's this episode. Until next time, catch y'all on the flippity.
