Guards Polo Club Official Yearbook 2017 Official Yearbook 2017 | Page 44

social membership
A new initiative for 2016, a “family and friends of Guards Polo Club learn
to play” in association with the Guards Polo Academy proved popular
more junior tournaments but we also need
to give something back to the members.
So maybe we could limit it to the first
300 people putting in £100 each, or first
100 people putting in £200? Then that
particular group of sponsors can watch
the final from the Royal Box. The Polo
Office tells me that there are a couple of
tournaments that could really do with this
sort of help and so a scheme like this not
only helps the polo, but gets the non-
playing membership involved too.”
Simon is not alone in campaigning
for the social members at Guards Polo
Club. For the first time the non-playing
membership has two representatives at
Board level, with Freddie Huxtable taking
the other seat around the directors’ table.
“Freddie has just created a wider ranging
survey than my catering questionnaire,
which will go out to all members shortly.
There are a number of pet peeves that
everyone seems to have and we want to be
able to rank them in order of concern or
desire. For example, bins for dog excrement
– if I have heard that once, I’ve heard it a
hundred times! Same with dogs on leads,
dogs in the bar/out of the bar etc. Although
one of the biggest complaints to the social
committee is non-members wandering in
at weekends. Hopefully this survey will
help us to remove some of the grey areas
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and address a few of the niggles.”
So how quickly will the Social Membership
Committee’s plans come to fruition? “We
have an opportunity to start implementing
them now. I would like to see a two-, possibly
three-year programme to bring in all these
ideas. We are already looking into hosting a
number of members’ events – I want to get
to the stage that people rush to book them as
soon as the email goes out. We need to have
these events to bring people together.”
Simon is also looking at the selection
process for the social members. “I
joined when Colonel [Richard] Watt
was Chairman. My great-uncle (a long-
standing member) was a friend of his and
I remember being grabbed by the ear and
brought in front of Colonel Watt who
said, ‘Your uncle told me you want to be
a member’. Slightly dazed, I said ‘Yes Sir’
and he replied, ‘Jolly good we will stamp
that one! Next.’
“It’s a little different these days and
although we do want to expand the social
membership, we need to do it with care.
So I have redesigned the application
form. You now need a proposer who is
required to write in some detail about
the prospective member. All applications
are then carefully vetted and, in some
circumstances, the applicant is invited for
interview by the committee.
“Another 200 members would be lovely,
but we need to get the right people, those
who are going to come to the Club, use
the Clubhouse and spend money. When
you look at the figures we have 1,000
members paying £400 a time – that’s
£400,000 going straight to the bottom
line in subscription fees.
“Going forward, I would love to get to
the stage where we can analyse who is
coming more accurately in terms of spend.
At the moment, the Club cannot check
whether I have been once or 20 times.
My private equity background means that
when I look at cash flows and forecasting I
need to know the concentration of risk. It’s
the same with the Club – we need to know
what will happen if we lose the ten biggest
users of the club. At the moment, we don’t
know who the big or small spenders are
and I think we need to move, in terms of
cash flow and financially, towards that way
of analysing our membership.”
Cash flows and forecasting may not be
very glamorous words when thinking about
improving the social side of membership
at Guards Polo Club, but Simon and the
rest of his Committee know that getting
the membership numbers right, and being
see to act on the majority’s wishes and
complaints, are the essential ingredients for
a happy and successful Club.
guards polo club official yearbook 2017