Episodios

  • The Denizen of Private Clubs

    The Denizen of Private Clubs
    May 10 2025
    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.
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    43 m
  • Find New Members By Letting Them Swipe

    Find New Members By Letting Them Swipe
    Apr 21 2025
    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!
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    20 m
  • Victor Vidal: Transforming Navesink’s Racquets Program

    Victor Vidal: Transforming Navesink’s Racquets Program
    Apr 5 2025
    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.
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    37 m
  • A Private Members Club… For Kids

    A Private Members Club… For Kids
    Mar 16 2025
    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.
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    43 m
  • Club Communications Are Key To Success

    Club Communications Are Key To Success
    Jan 16 2025
    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.
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    50 m
  • Do The Pro Tours Affect Racquets At Clubs

    Do The Pro Tours Affect Racquets At Clubs
    Dec 20 2024
    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.
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    44 m
  • A Touch Of Management Class

    A Touch Of Management Class
    Dec 1 2024
    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, we were now filling three courts with 24 members on a social night rather than having years-old, closed doubles games with only half the players across those three courts. And,
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    32 m
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