The secret secretary: We didn’t need to employ GDPR advisers

I own a small 18-hole golf club and we never employ companies like IT firms that offer to sort out, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) issues some bigger clubs might have been concerned about.

We succeed and keep low fees because we keep our overheads down. Many golf clubs (particularly private members’ clubs in financial trouble) are easy game to the host of parasites who prey on committees who feel ‘we must have an expert in or we will get a big fine’.

GDPR is not for little golf clubs like ours. Neither are HR firms, rate appeal firms, marketing firms, machinery insurance companies and so on.

They are all sophisticated scams.

If a golf club hasn’t got the brains and common sense to handle these things themselves very competently they really do deserve to have financial problems.

I’ve had a company that offers alternative memberships on to me recently.

At first I thought they had come to ask for advice as we started a flexible membership category in the 1990s and have been doing free lessons to recruit beginners to golf twice a week for the last 20 years.

I pointed this out and said: “Why would I pay you my hard earned profits for something I advise my colleagues how to do?”

Any golf club manager worth their salt (unless they’ve had their arm twisted by soppy committees) should be doing all these things themselves. What else is there for them to do?

A large nearby club had a secretary and five office staff about four years ago. At that time I used to do all those jobs and do the greenkeeping too. When I pointed that out to their committee, they saved money by ‘combining roles’. Most clubs could save a fortune by being a bit braver in their duties.

That is why I say we should let our golf club managers and secretaries present to each other the things they have had success at.

It would boost the confidence and status of many who seem frightened of their own shadow.

Have you heard how one club manager I know uses his greenkeepers in the slack winter months to sell firewood? Brilliant!

We are thinking of doing the same.

Many would say: ‘A golf club manager is not employed to prepare and sell firewood’. But then they are employed to deal with all the issues clubs pay ignorant outsiders to do – people who have never run a golf club in their lives.

We managers ARE the experts!

The opinions expressed on ‘secret secretary’ are those of the authors, not The Golf Business. The authors change from article to article, but so far have only been golf club managers or golf club owners. If you’re interested in contributing a ‘secret secretary’ article for The Golf Business, email golf@unionpress.co.uk