Dear Members,
Happy New Year from EACC! I’m excited to work alongside you and the new Board to address the issues that matter most to our membership.
We held our annual meeting last month, where I shared how thrilled I am to begin my presidency at East Aurora Country Club. Thanks to Drew and Dave’s leadership, our grounds and golf operations are thriving, while Frank and our clubhouse staff continue to make great strides.
As I prepared for the meeting, I reviewed previous versions of our annual presentation. Each year, we’ve talked about “improving the house experience,” yet despite our efforts, we haven’t seen the lasting impact we all desire. Now, with our continued investments in the golf course and clubhouse infrastructure—and with a capable clubhouse leader in place—we can finally begin a member-wide dialogue about strengthening our clubhouse and
social experience. Many of you have ideas about our current offerings and what we could do moving forward, and we want to hear more of your insights as we map out the future.
I’m pleased to share that we’re going to take a decisively different approach this year—one that will generate real progress and aims to change those annual presentation headlines for the better.
To that end, the Board is appointing a task force to identify possible scenarios for the future clubhouse experience. The group will be facilitated by Sean Sullivan, Past President (2022) and the organizer of the club’s planning that led to the improvements implemented in 2021-2023. As in that effort, the process will feature surveys and open member meetings designed to understand what you hope for and what you think about alternatives for
change and improvement. The overarching principle is that the best plan for the future is a plan that meets with overwhelming member acclaim.
The task force has already begun work. They are profiling our current experience and designing a survey to assess your needs, wants and satisfaction with what we are doing today. The group will construct alternative scenarios based upon these survey results and analysis of best practices in the region and around the country. The Board will then convene a forum open to all members to hear your reactions. The advice you give here, and in a follow-up survey, will shape a preferred future scenario that will be recommended to the Board for implementation.
Since member acclaim will determine what we do, this process will rise or fall based upon your participation in surveys, open forums and other ways the process seeks your views. We hope you will enjoy this dialogue and help make your club the best it can be. Stay tuned for other communications, updates and next steps as the process unfolds.
Play well, keep up the pace, and have fun out there.
—Matt