Comprehensive Internal Club Marketing

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Comprehensive Internal Club Marketing - How to Get Approval for Member Financing of a $7M Capital Improvement Project.

When Desert Highlands’ Board of Directors began to explore the realities and challenges that accompany a complete replacement of the golf course's 35-year old irrigation system, it was identified that managing the at-large membership's expectations would be key to the success of the potential project. Clear and concise communications to the membership, disseminated on a regular basis, became the foundation to keeping the rumor-mill at bay and garnering majority support for the largest capital improvement made to the Club since member take-over in 1996. Keeping the message consistent, from the initial educational bulletins to ensuring front line staff was knowledgeable on the subject resulted in an overwhelming majority approval vote from the membership to invest many millions of dollars to complete a project vital to the future of the Club.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

Beginning in May 2017, the Irrigation Subcommittee wrote five educational bulletins that were sent out about once a month to the membership and posted on the member website homepage. Each bulletin focused on a different aspect related to the declining functionality of the current, 35-year old golf course irrigation system. To make these communications stand out from other club communications, a new letterhead was designed and used exclusively for these bulletins.

When the Board voted to proceed with sending the proposal to member vote, Informational Meetings were held for members of the Board to present the proposal to the membership, as well as allow a venue to address questions and comments from the membership. This presentation was also professionally videoed and edited so as to be made available on the member website.

A Voter Information Guide containing the information shared during the presentation was designed in-house and professionally printed and sent to the membership in their voting packets containing the ballots. This Guide provided the basis for a newly added section of the website devoted solely to the topic of the proposal and vote. In addition to the Guide content on these pages, the presentation video was posted for member viewing. It was imperative that we duplicated all printed materials electronically and make these available on the website.

In subsequent general communications, notices and reminders of all of the information being available in print or on the website prevented a large amount of misinformation from being shared among members. We created and shared a specific email address for members to submit any questions and comments regarding the proposed project and these were attended to by the Board member or staff person who was best equipped to provide a correct response.

Lastly, one Board member recruited a group of 35 members to volunteer their time to call every eligible voting member of the Club to encourage voting, answer any questions or correct any misconceptions the member may have regarding the proposal.

This extraordinary combined effort of membership and staff was integral to securing the eventual approval of the project. Members have commented that they appreciated the thoroughness and consistency with which the information was shared allowing for their votes to be made based on factual information rather than something false or misleading they heard from another source.