Education

March 2–4, 2024
The Bicycle Chautauqua Hits Las Vegas: Riding, Reflecting, and Pursuing the CCM Mission

Members: $125
Non-Members: $225

In this fast-paced day and age, club management professionals are hard pressed to find time for substantive, casual conversation with fellow club managers. These stressed-out professionals need the Chautauqua Experience because Chautauqua delivers The Big Three—physical health, mental health, and emotional health—in a way that’s fun, interesting, and communal. 

Chautauquas were developed in the mid-nineteenth century as “mobile universities” that moved across America offering popular talks intended to bring insight and entertainment to rural America. The Bicycle Chautauqua has updated the concept by creating a reflective opportunity for working professionals to escape from the trenches; to bond and connect with ideas and people; and to think deeply about club management in a physically stimulating social setting.  

Interspersed amongst three days of bicycling will be three, one-hour, pre-ride Upbriefs and three, two-hour, post-ride Debriefs focusing on that day’s “issues of consequence.” In addition to these organized briefings, each day’s ride will be filled with hours of discussion during breakfast, rest stops, maintenance periods, and dinner.    

Led by Gregg Patterson, the bicycle Chautauqua will start and end at a hotel near the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas and will, using “hub and spokes tactics” (that is, leaving from and returning to the same hotel each day), head into the Nevada scenery for three days of riding and reflecting. During the rides, clubs and “businesses of interest” will be visited, and hidden byways will be explored.   

The Chautauqua starts on the evening before the first day of the ride with orientation and ends at 12:00 noon on the last day. If needed, bicycles can be rented at a “pre-approved” bicycle shop near the Chautauqua hotel. All dinners and accommodations will be paid for separately by each participant.  

Space is limited to 30 club management professionals. All participants must be registered through CMAA. The “Chautauqua Experience” will be worth a total of six Education Credits.  

Contact Gregg Patterson at gjpair@aol.com for further information. 

March 4, 2024
Implementing Effective Strategy: Impacts of Contemporary Challenges

GGA Partners

Time: 8:00 a.m.-12:00 noon

Members: $250
Non-Members: $350

Successful clubs use strategic planning to increase member satisfaction, sustain their vision, build brand quality, and ensure financial strength. In this 4-hour seminar, participants will actively learn how current issues influence strategic planning and how clubs can immediately leverage a core set of planning principles in their clubs.

Attendees will discover various planning processes and tools by working through real-life examples. Targeted scenarios allow participants to delve into components of plan development, including: member research, budgeting and forecasting, external market analysis, capital reserve planning, operational review, understanding human capital resources, and brand/communications. Emphasis will be placed on how contemporary issues such as generational differences and capacity and demand influence strategy and how clubs can effectively overcome these issues.

To deliver important strategic insights for session participants, presenters will provide relevant strategic planning insights, engaging scenarios to apply these insights, and time for question-and-answers. To engage session participants, presenters will facilitate interactive discussions where participants can discuss the various presented scenarios, approaches used in their own clubs, best practices in developing strategies, and relevant issues at their clubs.

March 4, 2024
Wine Fusion: A Journey through Blending, Tasting, and Innovation

Time: 8:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.

Members: $400
Non-Members: $500

You’re invited to an amazing Pre-Conference Wine Workshop. The presenters are among the wine world’s top experts, Bob Paulinski, Master of Wine, and Dave Clouston, winemaker at Clouston & Co, Marlborough, New Zealand; Micah Wirth, winemaker at Bellacana Vineyards in Sonoma, CA; along with Mark Davidson, author and Head of Education for Wine Australia—North America. Don’t miss this fun, fast-paced, interactive, and educational workshop like none other you’ve ever experienced.

Blend Your Own Wine to Offer in Your Club: You’ll receive expert guidance from Bob Paulinski, MW, on the how, why, and when blending will result in a better wine versus the individual components. This will set the stage for you to provide input into creating two wines. Dave Clouston will be the guide for Sauvignon Blanc with a range from the top microclimates of Marlborough. Micah Wirth will follow with a range of outstanding North Coast Cabernet Sauvignons. Each table will work as a winemaking team to assemble ideal blends. The top wines will be exclusive to your club or restaurant. It’ll be a fantastic, unique story to share with your members!

The New Australia: Mark Davidson will present the cutting-edge wines of Australia, artisanal, innovative, family-owned wineries with a strong sense of place, including a tasting of some of Australia’s most highly acclaimed wines from alternative grape varieties. This is the Australia that you really must know!

Options Game: Your chance to show off your wine tasting skills with this interactive blind tasting. Bob Paulinski, MW, and Mark Davidson will lead the session that’ll provide a tutorial on how to discern markers in wines, then you’ll have the chance to show off your abilities. You will have the chance to win great prizes as well!

Education will wrap up with a mixologist showcasing a hot new niche category, botanically infused wine cocktails.

Lastly, a four-course luncheon will be expertly prepared by one of Mandalay Bay Resort’s top Executive Chefs, pairing perfectly with a range of wines that will rock your world!

Don’t miss a day filled with shared experiences, great wines, education, and camaraderie! 

March 5, 2024
Yacht Club Managers Symposium

Time: 10:30 a.m.–4:15 p.m.

Members: $100
Non-Members: $200

This enriching educational event provides club management professionals who manage yacht clubs an invaluable opportunity to convene with their professional counterparts, engaging in insightful conversations about the distinctive challenges and prospects they encounter. The symposium will feature three distinct educational sessions, complemented by lunch as part of the program.

10:30 a.m.-12:00 noon—Financial Trends in Yacht Clubs with Ray Cronin, Club Benchmarking

1:00-2:30 p.m.—What Makes a Food and Beverage Program Great with Chris Dechillo

2:45-4:15 p.m.—Yacht Club Manager’s Roundtable

March 6, 2024
Walk the Las Vegas Strip: A Chautauqua Experience

Members: $75
Non-Members: $100

A Chautauqua is a mobile university, and The Strip Walk is just that—a reflective experience involving a lot of talking and a little walking—with a “caffeine and conversation” stop in the middle of the walk.

There'll be lots of laughs, lots of chat, and lots of good conversation—on clubdom, on management, on life, and on the workshops/seminars you’ve already experienced at Conference.

This four-hour walking workshop is limited to 35 people and will be led and facilitated by Gregg Patterson and Loraine Vienne, CCM, CCE, CAM. The first hour will focus on getting to know each other and exploring the question of the day up brief; the next 90 minutes will focus on walking, talking, and stopping for coffee; and will finish with 90 minutes debriefing the walk, the question of the day, and the essence of clubdom!