Won't You Please Be the......

I was asked this after being a member of the women's golf association for 6 months, "Won't you please be our secretary?"  You're asking a woman who refused to take typing in high school and who swore she WOULD NEVER BE A SECRETARY! (NOT that there's anything wrong with that!)
 Well, typing actually got the last laugh because I didn't predict the computer and how YOU WOULD NEED TO KNOW HOW TO TYPE!  Anyway, clubs of all kinds often have a hard time getting women to want to volunteer to participate in anything from being a "board" member to volunteering for "chair" jobs. (But of course you have those who volunteer for everything because they know best and are control freaks.  But that's another blog...) When I joined our club in 1995, we had a large group of women participating.  In 1998, we had 40 teams playing in our memeber guest tournament.  Last year we had 24.  A lot has happened.  Living in the state I do, we lose a great many women to their husband's retiring and then they move to Florida or South Carolina (dang, no state income taxes).  But the biggest hit we've taken,  like many clubs throughout the U.S.,  is the economy.  When I joined in '95,  we had 120 members. Today we have 45- 18 hole players and 20- 9 hole players.  We lost at least 15 from last year due to the economy.  We've had to increase some entrance fees for tournaments but on the whole, we've cut back more on the budgets for the events.  If members are feeling the squeeze financially, we need to put together a fun tournament that won't break their budgets.  But back to volunteering.  Here is a sampling of what we ask people to volunteer for:

Birdie Tree/creates a display for the players who have scored a birdie or an eagle
Informal Guest Day/we have two of these at a greatly reduced cost to the guest
Interclub 9-Holers/interfaces with other clubs to come play, at a greatly reduced price, at our club and vice versa
Halloween/our fun costume 9 hole scramble with the 9 hole group
Handicap/not the most popular person because they post your lowest score if you forget to post
Holiday Couple’s Dinner Party/a sit down dinner cocktail party with the spouses
Hospitality/sets all of the menus for all of the events
18 hole interclub/interfaces with other clubs to play at our course or we, at theirs
Member/Guest/ major budget and the biggest tournament
Member/Member/ our fall classic and second major tournament
Membership/bills all members and keeps up to date lists of members
Nine Hole Liaison/works with the 9 hole group to interface with the board
Par Tree/same as birdie tree except for the 9 hole group
Photography/takes pics at all events for the scrapbook and club newsletter
President’s Cup/bracketed member match play event
Recruitment/tries to get new members
Scrapbook/our year end "look back"
Senior Liaison/interfaces with the senior mens' group for our two team stroke play events
Sunshine/sends out cards and flowers to the ill or devastated
Team Play/interfaces with our 10 match play clubs and sets the match play schedule
Yearbook/sets and prints our annual yearbook which contains the calendar, roster, bi-laws and rules of play
Solheim Cup Invitational/invites members to play based on handicaps and selects the captains for the teams

And, of course, we have our board.  The President is the CEO, the VP finds all of the above chairs and follows their progress, the Golf Coordinator, which is me, is the COO and sets all play day events, sign up sheets, announces weekly winners and determines year end awards, Treasurer (you've got to have someone who knows the numbers!) and our 9 hole liason, who is the Secretary.  At first, we had a president that had a one year term.  But we determined that after one year, year two is easy.  So, for the last 10 years, our presidents have two year terms (with their agreement) and usually, the board stays also.  It works well for us. 

Next time I'll write about a very combustible combination:  You, Your Spouse and Golf....