After a long, successful career with the Golf Club Managers’ Association, Mike Hoare has decided to stand down as chairman of the organisation.
Mike has chosen to stand down from the board completely, and will also relinquish his role as chairman of the national committee – comprising the association’s 16 regional managers.
Formerly the manager at Ely GC, Mike has been a member of the association for nearly 25 years, and first become involved in the governance of the association through the national committee in 1998, before being appointed chairman in 2014, after the GCMA’s incorporation and the creation of the skills-based board of directors.
Mike has been invited to take on another role in golf, closer to home, and offering a slightly different challenge. The association wishes him all the very best, and thank him for his outstanding contribution to the organisation and its members.
Mike Hoare in his own words…
My early career was in education as head of physical education and then head of geography at the King’s School, an independent boarding school in Ely. I joined Ely City Golf Club in 1980 after time did not allow me to follow my earlier sports of cricket, basketball and rugby. I worked on the committee there for several years before being elected to be club captain in 1991.
When the club manager decided to retire I applied for the job and was successful and started work at the club on the 1 April 1994 (whether it was an April fool or not is for the members to decide!)
Before I started at Ely I attended an introductory training course run by John Crowther at Bakewell and then, soon after joining the association, I attended a further training course at Moor Park.
In May 1998 I was asked to be the regional representative for the East Anglian region, which I did for five years. At the end of that period on the national committee I was invited to take on the treasurer’s role which I did for a further six years.
For 14 years I helped out on the association’s training courses, introducing the attendees to the world of accounts and budgeting. Never the most exciting of topics but ones that delegates seemed to enjoy and learn from.
In 2010 I was elected to be national captain after which I started as chairman of the national committee, and subsequently the board of directors once the association became an incorporated body.
The committee at the Ely had a clause in my contract that I should take a full and active part in the Association of Golf Club Secretaries (as it was then), and fully supported my attendance at meetings and the conference. I think over the last 24 years I have managed to do what the committee expected of me!
Find out who will be replacing Mike as GCMA chairman,
By Mike Hyde
