CEO Tom Brooke provides a look back at a busy 2024 and previews what’s to come in the year ahead.
It’s been another busy year for our sport, with all the reports indicating continued strong levels of club membership and rounds played, still far exceeding pre-pandemic numbers.
As always, golf club managers have had a huge role to play in delivering the ongoing levels of success that we’re seeing and as your association, this is an important message that we strive to deliver on your behalf at every opportunity.
It’s also been another busy year for our team at the GCMA – from myself and my fantastic colleagues at HQ, to our National Board of Directors and our Regional Managers. Looking back on our end-of-year letter to you this time 12 months ago, we set out to deliver a number of new initiatives and member benefits and I’m proud to say we have achieved this.
I do hope you’ve had the opportunity to benefit from many of the services that we provide for you and that you’ve found your association membership and the GCMA community of continued value and support.
MEMBER BENEFITS
- Information Library and Helpdesk
Following extensive research, we relaunched the GCMA members online Information Library at the start of this year. Updated with a wealth of resources, insights and guidance spanning all of the key topics important to your role, this is the go-to resource for any day-to-day enquiry that you might have. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, please contact our Helpdesk at [email protected]
- Legal Helpline – NGCAA
As an excellent addition to our suite of member benefits, we have been delighted to announce a new partnership with well-known, industry-leading legal services providers NGCAA. This new partnership provides GCMA members with a free legal helpline, as well as regular insights and updates on a wide range of legal matters affecting golf club operations.
- Member Insurance and Personal Support
In 2024, for the first time, GCMA membership now includes a suite of personal-use support services including a dedicated 24/7 counselling helpline and a legal support and insurance package. This is actually the only one of our services that we of course hope that you will never need, but if you do, you can be assured that the GCMA is able to help you.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
An area that has received significant focus for us this year and rightly so as we aspire to meet the increasing demands on club management and you as dedicated professionals within your roles, as you continue to look for opportunities to further your skills and knowledge and in turn, your careers.
In September, we were delighted to welcome Gareth Morgan to our team as our new Professional Development Manager, which adds dedicated resource to delivering high quality learning opportunities for our members.
- Principles of Golf Club Management
Another successful year for our well established and continually evolving Principles of Golf Club Management course. Suitable for those new to the industry or aspiring to become a Golf Club Manager in the years ahead, we enjoyed supporting another 50+ delegates through the Principles programme this year.
- GCMA Advanced Management Programme
Perhaps our most significant announcement for many years, in September we were extremely proud and excited to announce the launch of the GCMA’s new Advanced Management Programme. With a total of 11 individual Advanced Management Certificates, leading to 1 of 4 individual Advanced Management Awards, the programme is an ideal opportunity for anyone in the industry to further their skills and knowledge in a practical, interactive learning environment. We were also delighted to achieve official ‘Recognised’ status by the Chartered Management Institute for this programme and become a recognised training provider of the CMI. For further details of the Advanced Management Programme, please take a look at the e-brochure.
- GCMA Accreditation
Taking into account not only your CPD and education record, but of equal importance, recognition of your experience, skills, knowledge and achievements within the industry. Launched in 2022, I’m sure the programme is now well-known to many of you. I’m delighted to report that we now have well over 80 GCMA members actively taking part in GCMA Accreditation and we look forward to supporting many more of you in becoming GCMA Accredited over the next 12 months. If you’d like to get started, please do get in touch with our team and we can organise a dedicated 1-2-1 session to run through the platform with you.
- Online Learning
As a reminder, we continue to offer the GCMA Skillgate online learning platform to all Full and Affiliate members of the GCMA, which receives great feedback from those actively engaged with it.
We have also taken recent steps to relaunch our Webinar series and this is something that will continue into 2025.
Keep an eye on GCMA Weekly and our monthly GCMA Professional Development Update for news and dates of all courses and opportunities available to you.
REGIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Regional membership and our regional GCMA communities which provide such an important support network to so many of you, is also an area of continued focus for us. We’ve had some very productive meetings with our Regional Managers in recent months and will be working even more closely together over the next 12 months. Our team at HQ will be providing more support and resources to our Regional Managers and Committees with marketing and communications, and professional development.
We’ve been delighted to see some good progress in the quality of education offered at regional meetings over the past 12 months with several examples receiving excellent feedback from our members. Initiatives such as ‘speed networking’ and peer-to-peer learning have been successful, with more of our members getting involved in sharing case studies and best practice with their peers. Our business partners have also been getting more involved on an insights and information sharing basis, which has been great to see.
BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS
A neat link into providing an update on our highly valuable Business Partnership network. Huge thanks once again to every business within our network for supporting our Association financially, but also with the insights, information and knowledge that they share, enabling us to keep you up to date across all topics that you take responsibility for as a Golf Club Manager.
To find out more about GCMA Business Partnerships click here.
INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS
- England Golf
In February, following the launch of the new England Golf and GCMA Golf Club Governance Guide, we thoroughly enjoyed joining the team at England Golf, along with BIGGA and Players 1st, on a ‘roadshow’ of events around the country. With a focus on sharing best practice and guidance on golf club governance, this highly successful series of events gave us the opportunity to raise the profile of Golf Club Managers and the GCMA to over 450 attendees from over 250 golf clubs.
- Wales Golf
More recently, in October, we were delighted to join Wales Golf at their series of Golf Club Days, with headline topics including Governance and Sustainability. This was another excellent opportunity to present to Golf Club Managers and Volunteers alike and get involved in some key discussions on a number of challenges facing you as Managers and your clubs.
- BIGGA
Our great relationship with our colleagues at BIGGA continues to grow and in the coming weeks, we’re going to be announcing details of a joint BIGGA and GCMA event taking place at BTME, Harrogate, in January. This will be a fantastic opportunity to bring Golf Club Managers and Green Keepers together to collaborate and develop learning, specifically in the space of agronomy and sustainability.
- The R&A
At the beginning of 2024, we were delighted to announce a new partnership with the global governing body, The R&A, as we work together specifically on the topic of sustainable agronomy, an area at the very top of the list for all of us working in golf for the years ahead. The R&A’s new Sustainable Agronomy Service is, as expected, of world leading quality, and it really is excellent for the GCMA to have access to their expertise and resources in this area. We’re pleased to say that this relationship will continue to evolve and grow into 2025.
- GB&I Golf Forum
A quick update for you on our involvement with the GB&I Golf Forum, a collaboration of the R&A, the four Home Unions, BIGGA, PGA, Golf Foundation, BGIA, the European Tour Group and of course, the GCMA. As a group, we meet 3 times a year and over the past couple of years, have accelerated our combined efforts on a number of topical challenges, including projects on Sustainability and Workforce Development. I’m pleased to report that the GCMA’s involvement within this group has certainly been moving forward in recent times, enabling us to better represent the role that the Golf Club Manager has within the industry. Recently, I was also elected as the Forum’s new Chairperson, a role I will be taking for the next two years. I hope to do the GCMA proud during this time and continue some great work with some excellent colleagues within the group.
2025 GCMA NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Following the huge success of our last National Conference in 2023, it’s that time again already as we begin plans for our next Conference, as we return to Cotswold Water Park, from November 16th – 18th, 2025.
We’re looking to make next year’s Conference even better than previous years, as the Associations leading event, an opportunity to further your learning, network with colleagues, meet new friends and celebrate success. Please save the date and watch this space for more details, coming soon!
Apologies for the fairly lengthy letter this year, but I was keen to make sure we covered everything we’ve been doing for you, an insight into everything available to you and the support services we’re continuing to provide. The golf industry can be a challenging place sometimes, and particularly for you as Golf Club Managers. I always find it’s good to know that you’ve got great colleagues around you and support available when you need it – that’s what the GCMA does best.
I do hope you get some time to relax with friends and family as we approach the end of a very busy year. On behalf of the whole team here at HQ, our Board of Directors and Regional Managers, we wish you and your families all a very happy and peaceful festive period.
Thank you,
Tom Brooke, CEO
