A LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT WARREN SIBLEY If you’ve been around the Club lately you’ve noticed the changes. We’ve now opened our new dining room, The Elm, lounges in both the men’s and ladies’ locker rooms, and the updated Golf Pro offices and storage area. They look fantastic! To stop and think where we were and what the Club looked like just a few years ago; before the 19th Hole was renovated, and a fire led to the redo of the Oak Room, it is truly outstanding. We’ve dramatically upgraded our facilities and believe the membership will enjoy the new spaces and feel very proud to show off their Club to family and friends. Having said that, I want to state the obvious, it’s not perfect. Not everyone will love all of the changes or all of the design decisions. That’s just the nature of the endeavor. No project of this magnitude goes off without a hitch, or tough design decisions, compromises, or a bit of “give and take” from those making the day-to-day choices. We expected surprises and the unexpected, and, this project certainly did it’s best to test our resolve.
and responsibility to be much more discerning as we accept new members into our ranks. Not only has demand increased (and resignations decreased) but the average age of the member joining has dropped and their familial involvement has increased over the typical member of 1020 years ago; meaning these members not only will not be leaving, they, and their family, will be enjoying the Club for more years than those joining in the past. Some have already noticed how this is affecting those interested in joining our Club, and those who are patiently waiting on our evergrowing waitlist. The Board has directed the membership department to keep the junior members at around 10% of the golfing membership, letting one junior member in for every 10 Resident Golf members. Our Membership Chairman, Whitney Ragsdale, along with our Membership Director, Cari Wheatley, are tweaking how we review potential members. We are placing a greater emphasis on the sponsoring members and their view of how each potential new member will integrate, strengthen, participate, and support the Club. These efforts are being made to secure a solid future for our Club.
Through it all, our General Manager kept reassuring us that all would be completed on-time and to our satisfaction. As we neared the promised date, those promises seemed almost laughable. Yet, here we are, and the spaces were delivered as promised. Giant kudos go out to not only our GM and his tireless staff, but also to Scott+Reid and their project supervisor, Tim Monk. No thanks would be complete without thanking you, the membership, for your patience and trust in that all of the inconvenience would be worth it. Hopefully, we delivered what we promised many months ago.
Last year, Covid-19 prevented us from having our annual Open House and Toy drive. We will be renewing that event. This year we will donate the toys we collect at the Member Open House & Toy Drive to Sharing Life Outreach based in Mesquite, Texas. The mission of Sharing Life is to “Demonstrate Compassion” by assisting our local Community with programs and services from food, educational programs to financial assistance and coaching to families in need. They are partnering with us to help with their “Christmas Faire” program so the children in the local area will have a joyful and meaningful Christmas.
The facilities upgrade is part of the continued evolution of our Club. As we’ve discussed over the last year, we are evolving into a new phase of our Club life, much like the other member-owned clubs in our area and across the country. For the entirety of my involvement at DAC, and for much of our Club’s past, the energy and effort expended by our membership director and in the membership area of our Club was spent on recruitment. That has changed. For most of our Club’s history we could look over a stretch of time and predict that a certain amount of people would leave the Club and we would add about the same number of members to take their place. That is not what is currently happening at our Club, or country clubs in general. Now, members are not leaving, and the demand to join our membership is unprecedented. The Board of Directors and members alike are doing our best to reconcile our new normal.
Lastly, I want to remind all the members (not that I need to) how wonderful our employees are and how fortunate we are to have them and for their loyalty to us. I’m sure you are aware of the labor shortage and its effects on the labor force. Brent has done a great job with employee retention and even recruitment during this very difficult time. One way for us to show our appreciation for them is giving to the Employee Christmas Fund. The Christmas Fund also helps reward those we don’t often see: kitchen staff, the grounds crew, maintenance staff, etc. Please consider being extra generous this year.
Membership has now solidly moved from the “recruitment” model, to a “gate-keeper” model. We now have the privilege
I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and I hope you can celebrate with us in our new facilities.
Warren Sibley President
DALLAS ATHLETIC CLUB | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 | 3
