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USGA Clubs - Membership Conformance
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Pete-L
Legend
 
157 Views    53 Replies    2 Likes   I like it!
I didn't know where to post this, so I thought this may be a good place. I am the chairman of a compliance club here on Stracka, and the topic of club membership has been a hot topic lately between several other chairmen, and I thought it would be good to raise this question to other chairmen and also to the Stracka administrators as their input would really be appreciated.

The comments I have seen are similar in nature, so I thought I would use my club as an example. We have over 350 members registered in the club, and on average, I have been getting anywhere between 4 and 20 members participate in either normal club events and tournaments. We have a tournament next month and only have 17 people confirmed/paid.

Recently, I have been going through the list of people and have already done a couple of things:

1) I removed members that signed up more than 2 years ago, have never played in any club events let alone with other members, and have NEVER posted a score on Stracka. I think this was a pretty safe move.
2) I have identified people who signed up more than a year ago, and have never participated in any event nor have any rounds attested by anyone. Come January 1, these members will be removed from the group for non-participation.

What are other chairmen doing in this area? Also, what is Stracka's stance on not only removing members who do not participate, but also on removing people who have paid Stracka memberships? We as chairmen completely understand they paid to get a handicap, but if they do not participate, why should they even be part of the group? I am definitely not comfortable if any member (paid or free) is participating in a tournament and asks that I attest to his/her handicap if they are not actively involved.
# 1    10/26/2010 1:49:12 PM   
great post, Heff. hopefully this will provide a lot of feedback on this topic. if people don't want to participate then what do they need an "official" handicap for. compete, play golf, and meet new people. i thought that was the whole point. if not, play your casual round and have fun but you don't have to join a club for that.


# 2    10/26/2010 1:52:20 PM   
i would also like to see people that are in no way active on Stracka chime in and defend their right to be equally inactive in a club. you can pay Stracka and join a club that doesn't care if you don't participate but don't be surprised if you get booted from one that actually wants to be a real club that actually does stuff.


Pete-L
Legend
 
# 3    10/26/2010 1:54:55 PM   

i would also like to see people that are in no way active on Stracka chime in and defend their right to be equally inactive in a club. you can pay Stracka and join a club that doesn't care if you don't participate but don't be surprised if you get booted from one that actually wants to be a real club that actually does stuff.


good point and agree


JayPardue
Professional Champion
 
# 4    10/26/2010 2:04:54 PM   
Heff,

I run a club as well, and my standpoint is if you do not participate you are out! Our very first tourney we had 7 participate out of 90. I have already removed the ones who have been inactive and I have warned the ones who do not have a tourney under their belts by year end will be removed as well.


Pete-L
Legend
 
# 5    10/26/2010 2:13:34 PM   

Heff,

I run a club as well, and my standpoint is if you do not participate you are out! Our very first tourney we had 7 participate out of 90. I have already removed the ones who have been inactive and I have warned the ones who do not have a tourney under their belts by year end will be removed as well.


did you receive any specific feedback from members you removed who are paid members?


JayPardue
Professional Champion
 
# 6    10/26/2010 2:44:19 PM   


Heff,

I run a club as well, and my standpoint is if you do not participate you are out! Our very first tourney we had 7 participate out of 90. I have already removed the ones who have been inactive and I have warned the ones who do not have a tourney under their belts by year end will be removed as well.


did you receive any specific feedback from members you removed who are paid members?


I have actually not received any responses from anyone. I also sent out a mass email after the poor tournament showing, stating that if you don't have a tourney in by year end I will remove them, and nobody protested that either.

Heff, I look at this way. No one stepped up to be the chairman, so I did it. If they don't like the rules, they can take the test and be the chairman of their own club. I am doing this because I love golf, and I cannot afford a country club, not to cater to a bunch of grown ups acting like children pretending to like golf. I will step down from the soap box now. Hope that helps and if you have any other questions let me know.


dday39
Professional Champion
 
# 7    10/26/2010 2:47:21 PM   
this will always be an issue with Type 3 clubs. It's up to the chairman to define the club bylaws and enforce them. There are plenty of people who sign up and think they paid for a handicap. What I've been doing is keeping an eye on the membership count. When new people join, they get a message letting them know where to find the bylaws, as well as, telling them they need to play a round of golf with another member within 'x' number of days and have the round attested. I've gotten some hate mail, but my club has been compliant since the beginning.


ArizonaBlue
Professional Champion
 
# 8    10/26/2010 2:56:47 PM   
Heff and I are chairman of clubs in two of the largest cities in Arizona. His membership is more than double my club's membership of 163 ... but my turnout at our club events is just as dismal. I send message after message trying to get people to sign up. At our last event, I had reserved 52 spots at a local course. I had to turn back in to the course 46 of those spots due to lack of participation.

My membership has been told many times that if they don't meet the USGA requirement, then they will be removed from the club. Right now, only 39 have met the requirement. I am promoting the vTours heavily as a way for them to meet that requirement.

Unless things change, recovering from a New Year's Eve hangover won't be the only thing some of my members will be dealing with on January 1st. No longer having a handicap index because they failed to comply will be the other. And I have no reservations about removing them either. They've had plenty of warning.


GreenReader
GolfNet Administrator
 
# 9    10/26/2010 3:15:13 PM   
I've mentioned this before, and it comes up a few times a year....

We are in communication w/ several State Golf Associations and w/ the USGA. They understand that it's near impossible to get everyone out to play in a "traditional" tournament, where members have to schedule their time off from other obligations or priorities.

This is especially true for Type-3 clubs, where there is a 50 mile radius requirement just to get in the club. A 50 mile radius could mean that some members live up to 100 miles apart.....making it even more difficult to coordinate an event or play together. The USGA's recommended course of action for a member that does not participate in the club would be to remove them from a club, but it is not a requirement. I repeat, it is not a requirement.

Now, regarding club participation: In today's day and age of the internet with most users online in some sort of Social network, it's becoming more evident that online social networks are just as (or more) cohesive than a traditional Type-1 golf club. Cohesion online is established w/ our vTour events, comment threads, blogs, forums etc. Even posting a score online and having other members comment on your round can be more interactive than turning your scorecard in at a Type-1.

Stracka already has automation in place that will remove a member from a club. So, who do we automatically remove from your public club? Non-premium members that have a lapsed membership of 180 days will get removed. We allow this time to permit for the off-season. Any member that has not posted a score in the last 365 days will also get removed.


dewsweeper
Legend
 
# 10    10/26/2010 5:37:37 PM   


Stracka already has automation in place that will remove a member from a club. So, who do we automatically remove from your public club? Non-premium members that have a lapsed membership of 180 days will get removed. We allow this time to permit for the off-season. Any member that has not posted a score in the last 365 days will also get removed.


Could the Chairman of the club be notified as such action before hands ?
I mean, if you're going to do everything remotely, you could also take the Chair.
The Chairman should be alerted of such action towards any of the club members.

If we're going to run VTour as a main function for tournaments, then we should have enough of it for every member ( keep in mind of the areas with inactive season ).

we know Stracka is trying to please everyone, but the hammer will have to be dropped when it's due. Otherwise, there is no regulation to be followed.


Racer888
Legend
 
# 11    10/26/2010 6:51:08 PM   
I am a member of NY Area #992 which has over 900 members. I have asked several times if a tournament is being planned and the answer is always "no". Pretty hard to participate in a club outing if the chair never plans any. Does Stracka do anything about non active chair people??


ArizonaBlue
Professional Champion
 
# 12    10/26/2010 6:59:18 PM   
Play in a vTour ... they count a s a club event.

I have asked a membership to the club in hot springs village here in Arkansas and no answer. The club here can't get a chairman so if I join another club how can I play in a in any tournament that they have if I can't make it to the outing.


GreenReader
GolfNet Administrator
 
# 13    10/26/2010 7:48:48 PM   
The automated removal does not include chairs of a club. We don't currently notify a chair of such removal because they really only apply to non-premium members, or member's accounts that we see as dormant...no scores, logins, activity...

If you are in a club that might need a new chair, let us know. We are always recruiting new chair persons, as well as "backup" chairs in case of abandonment.


dewsweeper
Legend
 
# 14    10/26/2010 11:17:06 PM   

The automated removal does not include chairs of a club. We don't currently notify a chair of such removal because they really only apply to non-premium members, or member's accounts that we see as dormant...no scores, logins, activity...

If you are in a club that might need a new chair, let us know. We are always recruiting new chair persons, as well as "backup" chairs in case of abandonment.


I vote for a rotation of the chair position.

If it's not a hassel for the chair position to be changed since the change of the chairman probably require to be registered with the local U.S.G.A. chapter.

Matter of the fact, I'm recuiting a replacement for our club position right now. If you have a candidate please put me in touch with the person.


Scola1234
Professional Champion
 
# 15    10/27/2010 6:24:29 AM   
Well; I attended a conference call meeting with the USGA last season for chairman of type 2 and type 3 clubs.....In that meeting it didn't seem like it was only a suggestion that your members are required to play in at least one club sponsored event with other members in the club AND that this tourney should be in a format that the score can be posted toward your handicap....Also every player in the club should play at least 3 times during the season with other players in the club.....There were other things they talked about in the meeting but these were the main points....not just a suggestion.....Their point was that because our type of club is not at one location where you play with other members all the time that you should have to at least play in one event so that your peers and handicap committee can see that your ability matches your handicap. Greenreader; you were also in that meeting so I'm suprised at what you are saying here.....I know you would like to keep Stracka membership up but; I know at least here in CT the local golf association is not happy about clubs of our type that don't use their web sites to manage our clubs...I would not like to give them any ammunition to have the USGA pull our license for not complying. My club has the stipulation in our bylaws that each member must play in at least one club sponsored event a season and will stick to that....we had 4 club sponsored events this season and had pretty good turnouts...


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