August Newsletter
From the President
Dean Tremain
After a month off to work on our technology platform for statements and newsletter distribution we are back on track for delivering the monthly newsletter without incurring significant postage costs. As most people are aware we have seen some great new member services online through our website. Statements, tee time viewing, golf tee time booking, current balances and personal contact information can all be accessed through our new system. This will greatly reduce some of the significant costs associated with manually performing these services in the past. Great work by all the staff to get acquainted with the new system while providing the best possible transition and troubleshooting problems along the way.
I would like to thank Sue Cunningham for volunteering her time to help get our daily accounting practices under control and ensuring that we have our systems updated and working as required. We will continue to make improvements to our accounting area as we move forward so that information is captured in a timely manner.
The golf course is in great shape and Gary Grosicki and his team has done a wonderful job managing the tree trimming and overall maintenance of the course. It is a unique challenge to try and maintain an exceptional golf course with out dated and under powered equipment but they still manage to do it through dedication and perseverance.
Financially we saw a very slow June due to it being the wettest June on record so that impacted our public play revenue. The bright spot is that we managed to trim about 70K in losses year over year up to the end of June and that can mostly be credited to our operations team working on managing product costs and compensation. The down side is that we are still showing a significant loss on the P&L for the fiscal year. Hopefully we can have a strong finish to the summer with booked events and other golf revenues so that we can continue to see an improvement. I would estimate that we may be able to cut back the overall loss to approximately $50 – 75k if all goes well. This is a much improved number versus last year but still not a viable financial performance for the organization so we will be putting a Strategic Planning committee together to discuss our 3 – 5 year plan moving forward.
August is looking great weather-wise and hopefully September and October follow with a great Indian summer. Many thanks to the membership for their patience during our recent technology changes and for helping to improve our operations through continued dedication.
My handicap? Woods and irons. ~Chris Codiroli
FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER
Dave Vogel
I would officially like to welcome everyone to August, if you can believe that three main months of our season have come to an end already. May and June unfortunately were not excellent follow ups of April, with many days of rain. Summer hit with a vengeance in July with hot humid weather. It appears the days of 25 degrees and sun simply do not appear that often anymore. During this time however we managed to include our Ladies Club Championship, Men’s Club Championship, and many other wonderful Club events.
Gail Moore re-claimed the ladies title this year, and with no surprise son Chris retained his hold on the Men’s Club Championship. Chris set a new record of 8 under par over the three day. Young junior standout David Fell challenged Chris the first two days entering the final round only 3 shots back. Chris’s second consecutive 67 however sealed the deal.
Congratulations to all the participants of both Club Championships, and to our Flight winners.
TECHNOLOGY
We have now completed month two working with the new Jencess system, and many of the early bugs have been worked out. I have received great feedback on the online home pages, the ability to book online, and the detail in the monthly statements. There is no doubt that we will encounter more bumps along the way to thank you for your patience both now and in the near future. There are still a few back dated adjustments to made to some accounts so if you do not see anticipated adjustments on your July end statement please let me know.
BOOKKEEPING
I would like to thank both Sue Cunningham and Brenda Saunders for their work in the office this past month. We should have our new staff member in place by the first of September.
HOSPITALITY
TGIF – There has been a lot of discussion around our Friday night TGIF dinners the past few months, both positive and negative. For most of this season we have been posting menus well in advance of the evening. On several of these occasions adjustments have been made due to a lack of pre-booking. Booking for TGIF is important only because food orders must be places with our supplier 3-4 days in advance. In placing the orders we must anticipate an estimated number in order to effectively manage the quantity of food being brought in. Last week it was decided to move forward without specialty menus on Fridays, instead offering a choice of dinner specials. This past Friday we entered Friday with 12 reservations. On a very positive note an additional 16 members decided to stay for dinner and enjoy the specials being offered. Unfortunately that limited the amount of specials available to the later reservations. It is very important that we do everything we can to prevent events like this from occurring. It is fantastic that such support is occurring, and we will work to maintain that support with both the service and the product we offer. I would ask however that if possible, reserve when you can for dinner. We will ensure that those that have pre-reserved will have priority on posted dinner specials. Those that do not reserve will be offered any remaining specials as well as anything from our daily menu. I thank you all for your continued support and understanding.
CURLING
I know it seems very early to talk about curling however the season is just around the corner. We have been working most of the summer with Jeff Stillman our new Director of Curling on the Board analyzing and putting into place new membership incentives, and procedures that will provide both a better curling, social, and hospitality experience. We have such a great curling membership at the GCC and that has been recognized in our move forward strategy. I would like to ensure all of our curlers that our best foot is forward moving into this season and we are looking forward to improved customer service and customer experience.
Possibly the biggest highlight will be the addition of Darrin Sinclair as our new Director of Ice Making Services. Darrin as most know is the Head Ice Technician for the
Curling registration will be mailed later in August and will be available on line at www.tgcc.ca. Soon the words "get in” will be replaced by "sweep sweep”.
Senior Men’s Golf
Dick Baker
See you next month
Ladies’ Golf
Dot, Denny,
Nine Hole Report
The Cutten Club played host to the GCC on June 1st. It was perfect weather as 13 GCC and 11 Cutten ladies participated. The GCC winners were as follows: Low Gross – Mary Etta Barclay, and Low Net- Cam Becker. Shirley Scott claimed closest to the line. Cutten outshot us by 9 shots. On June 8th we held the nine hole ladies guest day, as 26 gathered for golf and lunch. The theme of the day was "hats off to golf”, with Cam Becker and Maggie Purdy the hat judges. Prizes were given for most elegant to the tackiest hat and categories in between. Karin Stevens of the GCC won low gross and the hidden hole winner was Mary Etta Barclay. The guest low gross went to Pat Liberatore, guest of Jean Borghesan. Thanks also to Jean for organizing lunch and Joyce George for the flower arrangements. Once again Sheldon did not fail to impress us with a tasty lunch.
On July 6th we had our away game with
On July 26th GCC played host to Cutten, with beautiful weather. Despite the Ladies from Cutten winning the day, we all enjoyed great company, golf and lunch. Twenty players participated overall, 11 from the GCC and 9 from the Cutten Club. Low Gross winner was Karin Stevens, Low Net Betty Fisher, and Hidden Hole Denise Trainor.
Denise
Eighteen Hole Report
Hard to believe another busy month has come and gone! It started with Guest Day. See
A Flight:
Club Champion - Gail Moore 176 Tied for second – Dot Britt and Alex Chisholm 185 B Flight:
Winner – Norma Zuccala 199 Second – Anne Curtis 225 C Flight:
Winner – Kaye Clarke 226 Second – Anne Budra 229 Senior Champion – Dot Britt Net Champion – Gail Moore
The month ended with our visit to the Cutten Club. Twenty-one of our ladies participated and enjoyed both the golf and the lunch. Congratulations to Norma Zuccala –low gross, Jeannine Roberts – 2nd low gross, Franki Robinson – low net and Kaye Clarke – 2nd low net. Don’t forget to sign up for Field day which is August 10th.
Dot Guest Day
The 18 hole ladies guest day was very successful, with a good time had by all. The organizers, Patti Ingram, Donna Wong and Nancy Yeadon had a great time getting ready for the event. The weather was very hot – about 30 degrees warmer than last year!
Many thanks to the contributions that helped may this event successful. Rick Ferraro for the prizes, George’s Doors and Windows for snacks and water, and Chartelli’s for a lovely raffle basket.
Prizes were awarded as follows:
Low Gross – Roberta Cathcart, Low Net – Liz Shannon, Closest to the line guest Vicky Massey and member Wendy Cuthbert, Closest to the pin guest Roberta Cathcart, and member Franki Robinson, longest drive guest Anne Fraser and member Franki Robinson.
Many thanks to the pro shop for helping make this a memorable event. And to Sheldon and staff or a great meal which was enjoyed by all.
Twilight Report
See you next month
Lynn and Teresa
Heritage & Centenary
George Cuthbert
See you next month!
Share the wealth
Donna Wong
July 5th – No Winner #1722
July 12th – No Winner #9008
July 19th – Winner Heather Shipman $620
July 26th – Winner Brent Hackett $155
Volunteer Corner
Donna Wong
FUTURE LINKS
On July 5th this year, the club was buzzing with sixty children attending the Future Links Golf Program. Six years ago, Jake and Mary Etta Barclay started the Future Links Program here at the Guelph Country Club, a program sponsored through the Royal Ontario Golf Association. Initially, the children who attended were grandchildren of several of our members. Under the guidance of Jake, Mary Etta and volunteers, the program has become a very popular summer choice for families in the
A NEW CANADIAN FLAG IS FLYING ON THE GCC POLE
I am sure that many of you, like me, became quite emotional when the Canadian anthem and flag raising occurred at the recent Vancouver Olympics. We were never so proud of our athletes and our country. Recently, our worn and tattered flag was replaced by a brand new one. John Aiken, recently, a big winner in Share the Wealth shared his winnings with our club by purchasing a new flag. This is so timely with our club's centennial celebrations in two years time. Thank you so much John for your generosity.
NESTING BOXES REPORT
Many have asked how our nesting boxes have done this year. I am happy to report that four out of five nesting boxes were occupied this year. Unfortunately, the boxes provided a home for chickadees and not tree swallows. Chickadees and tree swallows do compete for these boxes as they are the earliest birds present in early spring. I saw very few tree swallows this year on our course. I am not sure why. I am wondering if we do not have enough water, yet, we are very close to
WANTED: VOLUNTEERS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM
LOOKING FOR MORE VOLUNTEERS FOR THE CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM Presently we have four volunteers who are interested in being part of the Guelph Country Club Customer Service Team. However, we are still looking for volunteers who may be interested working a couple of hours each week greeting people at the door, answering
phones and some small duties. Please contact Donna Wong at 519-836-4758 if this opportunity is for you.