UMass Club Management Club Management Enrichment

Entry Details

Over the course of the past few years, with declining enrollment in Hospitality Programs, the club management class at UMass Amherst enjoyed robust enrollment with majors from non-hospitality majors bringing in majors from finance, marketing, accounting, communication, sports management and operations and information system majors.  Most students have little to no experience in club management and some even think the class is about bar management.  Surprise - Surprise.  The challenge then becomes how to introduce and engage non-majors to the club management field.   With new technology and learning platforms developed during the pandemic, this instructor introduced 12 different in-class activities that included -- 1) club near my home and desired location; 2) city club membership; 3) hospitality excellence and service quality in clubs;  4) service recovery in club settings;  5)  PGA and club tour association events and work:  6) what makes a club a club; 6) hospitality service expectations;  7) working in clubs and the GRIT scale;  8) career day panel;  9) the case study method and a trial case study in club management;  10) trends in clubs;  11) non-traditional jobs, jobs for non-majors in club management;  and 12) design inspiration and club technology.

Implementation

Idea was implemented by creating in-class exercises directly related to the topic of the day..... "students learn by doing" and each google form exercise was introduced to get the students searching, learning and applying knowledge about their interest and inquiries about clubs and careers in club management field.   Students expressed high satisfaction in the in-class exercises.  Comments included...."I thought the digital aspect was great. The forms were easy to follow and very helpful"....."Yes I enjoyed these activities they made the class more engaging"...."I loved and enjoyed these exercises -- it brought out the reality of the club field..."