NEWS
EO ’ S REPORT – CMAA CONFERENCE
During the first week of March , I was lucky enough to travel to San Francisco for the ‘ Club Managers Association of America ’ National Conference . With GMA running its first BMI Program in October this year , touching base with our American counterparts to ensure alignment between our programs was an important outcome of the trip .
Further to these discussions was the opportunity to experience firsthand the CMAA National Conference , as part of the planning process for the GMA National Conference to be held in Melbourne in October 2019 . ( I unfortunately hadn ’ t started in the role when the last GMA National Conference was held in Adelaide in 2017 ).
The CMAA National Conference involves over 2,000 Club Managers from the USA , with the large majority of these coming from private golf clubs . In addition to this , there are regularly 200 international delegates involved , with this year seven golf club General Managers from Australia also in attendance .
The conference itself is on a significant scale , as you could imagine , with plenary sessions and breakout sessions available on each of the five days , along with a large Golf Club Expo for corporate partners . If you are interested in seeing what the program was like , please click on the following link www . cmaa . org / conference /
CMAA National Conference highlights included :
• Isaac Lidsky – a former TV star turned $ 150m business owner , who has overcome adversity including turning blind at the age of 15 . His key message was ‘ what you see is based on your perception ’. If your perception of an issue is negative , this may create fear . He said ‘ fear will fill the void of uncertainty , and fear will create inaction ”. Creating a positive perception of issues will assist with creating action and opportunity .
• Steven Freund – a former GM of ‘ The Ritz-Carlton Lodge , Reynolds Plantation ’ and now the General Manager of The Landings Club in Georgia . ( This facility has six championship golf courses , 33 tennis courts , seven restaurants …. you get the picture ). Steven spoke about restructuring the culture of The Landings Club when he arrived . He achieved this by taking on the role of not only GM , but “ Chief Cultural Officer ”. His views included “ the organisation will never be what the people are not ” and “ the gap between knowing and doing is significantly greater than the gap between ignorance and knowledge ”.
• Curt Cronin – a former Navy SEAL spoke about the strategy of leadership and maximising a teams ’ effectiveness .
He spoke about ensuring your team you care about them as individuals with his key message around “ people don ’ t care how much you know , until they know how much you care ”. He also spoke about the energy within a group , and that “ energy used in conflict is lost , but energy used in alignment is maintained ”.
While the content of the conference no doubt provides many learnings , the ability to network with GMs from across the world and discuss challenges and opportunities is also a great highlight . For those interested , next year ’ s CMAA National Conference will be held in Nashville , TN , in the last week of February 2019 .
GMA will again look to incorporate the best of the CMAA conference into our next national conference , and will continue to support the outstanding work state GMA bodies undertake to support selected members attending the CMAA conference from time to time .
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