To: Our Members
From: Dave Elbert

I retired last year and always planned on volunteering time at MCC to help things along. Once I found out we were without a Manager again, I decided that it was time to step that up. In the past we have always hired a Mgr, and their wages were based on how many hours they worked. I have seen this lead to discontent based on who gets the best hours. I have served on three different Boards of 9 hole clubs over a period of 40 years and was President here in 2015 & 2016. At that time, a friend told me that we didn’t need a Manager as much as a coordinator of activities. I agreed with him, but we could not do it at the time. However, I would like to try it now and oversee our operation on a volunteer basis, which the Board has approved.
I thought about everything we need to do to get ready for this season and listed them below in order of priority:

Calendar. We have about a month before this needs to be ready for printing to distribute in April. Gayle sent out a very good questionnaire and I will be reviewing these and helping finish up this process.

New Cash Register. We need a new system that is simple to operate and ties into our computer system so that we don’t give Sheryl any more extra work. I want to thank her for all of her help over the years. I am hoping we can get something selected and installed before we start in the spring.

Communication. This needs to be improved to promote our events and keep our members informed. I want to send an email blast every other week for now, and maybe increase that when the season hits. We also need to utilize social media. Another area that needs work is notifying our committees and giving them support as needed. Too often in the past, members would not even know they were on a committee, and the reason we would get is because they should have looked at their calendar. We need to be more proactive.

Electronic Message Board. We need to do some research into this and determine how we want the sign to operate. I noticed that when I can start reading it, it takes me about 10 seconds to get passed the sign. I also time the slides and 3 seconds is plenty of time to read one of them. You will notice that we have some up there that gradually fill in, which takes 2 seconds so we don’t want that. The last thing is to determine what colors are easiest to read. After we decide this, the programming is not that difficult to understand. We want to make sure that we can take advantage of this investment and bring more visibility to MCC.

Food Service. This is a good time to review our menu to determine if our menu selections are adequate and priced right. At the same time, we have to get someone certified again if we are serving food in a public environment. I am open to any suggestions on this.

Breakfasts. It will be important to promote these better and make sure that the volunteers get the support they need to have a successful breakfast. Again, they have to be notified ahead of time.

Staffing. To get through the winter months, we are happy to have McKinzie Talbert on board. Once we get into April, we will be running about the same hours as usual and we will need a good team of employees and volunteers who enjoy working here. Since I won’t be taking any of the hours, we will have more available for our staff and distribute them fairly. This will also be a good time to go over the expectations and responsibilities which were written up years ago and are in the clubhouse.

Membership Campaign. My goal is 15 new members this year and I will be saying more about that as time goes on. This will be a never ending campaign.

Rental Carts. We need to make sure our carts are serviced and ready to go this spring. Once the season starts, they need to be kept clean and full of gas, usually handled by Rick Trabert and Dave Elbert as they empty the trash receptacles.

Leagues. These have been gaining in popularity and we need to make sure that both continue to grow. There will be more discussion on this as we get closer to league time.

Swimming Pool. I would like to thank Tom McMeekin for the stellar job of maintaining our pool. We will need to hire lifeguards and determine our hours when the season hits.

There will be other things that have to be addressed, and I will be happy to discuss anything with anyone. We have a great club with a lot of opportunities and my goal is to get more people to join and more guests to visit.
I will be looking through the questionnaires and contacting the people who have expressed interest in volunteering. If you want to add your name to that list, please let me know.
Thank you for being great members. We survived 2020 in decent shape and we are hoping that 2021 will be much better.
Dave Elbert
Cell Phone 515-360-1150
Email: delbert4224@gmail.com