March 31, 2025 • 37 mins
his one’s a blast.
Jenna Jardin is the kind of leader who’s juggling everything—membership, events, communications, and full-tilt programming—at one of the most active and unique private clubs in the country: Beacon Hill Club.
There’s no golf and no downtime.
Just a massive outdoor rink, hundreds hockey players, an iconic winter recital, curling nights, teen trips, family dinners, a beautiful club house and a member experience that runs year-round.
Jenna joined the club in the middle of the pandemic, coming straight from the world of NYC hotel sales—and has since helped shape Beacon Hill into a place where members aren’t just participating... they’re showing up, staying late, and asking what’s next.
In this episode, we dig into:
- How to run a high-energy club without relying on golf or courts
- The importance of smart programming and even smarter communication
- Jenna’s transition from hard sales to community-building
- What it takes to design events people actually want to attend
- And how Beacon Hill’s team culture helps them pull it all off
This isn’t your traditional club model. And that’s what makes it so good.
Follow us on the socials
Private Club Radio Instagram
Private Club Radio Linkedin
Denny Corby Instagram
Denny Corby Linkedin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club
Radio Show, where we give youthe scoop on all things private
golf and country clubs, frommastering, leadership and
management, food and beverageexcellence, member engagement
secrets, board governance andeverything in between, all while
keeping it fun and light.
Whether you're a club veteranjust getting your feet wet or
somewhere in the middle, you arein the right place.
(00:20):
I'm your host, denny Corby.
Welcome to the show.
In this episode, I am joined bythe one and only Jenna Jarden.
Now you're about to hear howshe's helping run one of what I
think one of the most unique andsuccessful clubs in the country
, the Beacon Hill Club in Summit, new Jersey.
Now, this isn't your typicalprivate club, because there is
(00:41):
no golf, there's no drivingranges, but they do have
something else they do a massiveoutdoor skating rink where they
have hundreds of members whocome and play hockey.
They do an amazing ice recitalthat rivals the masters and a
community vibe that most clubswould just absolutely kill for,
(01:02):
and they're open year round.
But they really have a truewinter wonderland and among many
other events and things thatthey do throughout the year, but
in this episode we kind of talka lot about that is their
winter programming and what thatall entails.
And Jenna is right at the heartof all of it, and we talk about
her leap from Manhattan hotelsinto private clubs and how she
(01:24):
juggles memberships, events andcommunications and what it takes
to build a club culture that isenergetic.
It's fun and completely one ofa kind.
So Jenna brings the energy, thestories and some serious
takeaways.
So I am so excited for thisepisode, especially if you're
looking for some fresh ideas onmember events, engagement and
(01:45):
year-round membership connection, so you are going to absolutely
love this one.
Before that, I just want to givea big thanks to some of our
show partners.
We have our friends Members,first, club Capital Group Member
Vetting, golf Life Navigatorsand Concert Golf Partners, as
well as myself.
The Denny Corby Experiencethere's excitement, there's
mystery.
Also there's magic, mindreading and comedy.
(02:07):
One of the most fun memberevent nights you can do hands
down.
If you want to learn more, headon over to DennyCorbycom and
reach out, let's chat, let'shave a conversation.
Enough about that, though.
Let's get to the episode.
Private Club Radio listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Let's welcome to the show, jenna jarden I started
december 2020 but this is myfirst club like I was
transitioning out of like hoteland restaurant sales.
My hotel manhattan closed and Iwas like what am?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I gonna do.
That had to be.
That had to be stressful.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That had to be very stressful around that time yes,
yes panic sets in I kind of liketook a leap of faith, didn't
know really what to expect.
And four plus years later, samerole.
I'm loving it.
It's been a really nice changeof pace.
It's been nice to build on therelationships and see the same
faces, as opposed to.
You know the turn and burn ofsales.
(02:55):
Once they sign it you're on tothe next.
So it's, you know, nice to likesee the same people and watch
the little kids grow up.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And you know all those heartfelt juicy moments
that there was little.
Yeah what?
What were some like did youbring anything over from hotel
sales to clubs?
Like that?
Maybe you didn't expect, like,were there anything that like
stuff that you brought over thatthe club was like this is
innovative.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You know it's funny I feel like in a pandemic
industry is either tanked orflourish.
So I'm coming from the side ofwhere it tanked Big events no
longer a thing.
And then I come into this cluband my little sales girl heart,
we're on a year plus wait list.
So you're getting all thesecalls every day.
I'm moving to the suburbs outof the city how do I join?
And I'm like, oh my goodness,call me back in 10 years when
(03:41):
you basically give me yourfirstborn child.
So it was definitely a change of, you know, kind of like cold
calling, outbound sales that Iwas used to versus I don't want
to say like reactive.
But you know I'm doing a littlebit of everything at the club.
So I do membershipcommunications and then I help
with club events.
So, yeah, just definitely achange of having to basically
(04:03):
turn all these people away thatwere like, oh, we don't care
what it costs, we just want toget into the Beacon Hill club
community.
So that was definitely a littlebit of a learning curve for me.
I mean, I'm coming more fromthe side of like the sales and
like large events where we wouldhost their holiday parties and
like corporate kickoff meetingsand press junkets and things
(04:23):
like that, so not necessarilylike apples to apples and the
events that, like the club, wasfor members.
So I mean, I guess, I mean Ijust some of the skills overlap,
not necessarily like what I'mdoing on the day to day, but,
like you know, just being like apeople, person and, you know,
responding to emails in a timelymanner and picking up the phone
(04:44):
sometimes, as opposed to likejust being, you know, stuck
behind your email.
Yeah, yeah, things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I'm sure having that more what's the word?
I want to use that more.
I don't want to say aggressivesales approach, but I'm sure
that also helps too, like whenyou come from that background
and like and like and the kindof use that you're not afraid to
pick up the phone, callsomebody like kind of put on
your sales hat a little bit morethan like you might normally
would for like a normal clubperson.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So yeah, yeah, totally, and I'm like whenever
my boss doesn't want to make aphone call, he'll be like oh,
jenna, can you call this person?
And he like in a loving mannerif he ends up watching this, but
he calls me the pit bullbecause he like sends me after
people that owe money and he'slike just send Jenna after them.
So it's like a running joke atthe club.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Members have your numbers saved to see a call like
oh no, they're afraid to comeinto the club.
I'm the kind, lovable pit bullthe rescue pit bull.
Exactly so before you came,because your club does a lot of
(05:50):
cool stuff, were they alwaysdoing cool stuff?
Did you help them do more coolstuff?
What's tell me the story of thecool stuff, um?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
so I coming in like in the heart of the pandemic, I
mean we weren't really doingevents.
So you know, like every otherclub, we were trying to get
innovative, doing other thingsand then obviously still being
able to use the amenities of theclub.
So I kind of came in and myhead was spinning because it was
, like you know, signing, therewas capacities for everything.
So even, like you know, we havean ice rink, so that's our kind
(06:21):
of our claim to fame.
We do not have golf an ice rink, so that's our kind of our
claim to fame.
We do not have golf replacedgolf with, like a huge outdoor
ice rink.
So everyone skates, figureskates and or plays hockey on
top of you know, rackets, pool,summer cam swim, team dining.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Do people sign up just because of like the ice
skating?
Like is that a big?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
it's a big draw for why you become a member at
beacon hill club.
You want to skate and or playhockey?
Um, we have.
We have five over 500 activehockey members, 300 plus on the
youth team, and then the restadults teams, including the
women's team, and then, uh, wehave a figure skate like learn
to skate program for the littleones up through, like figure
skating for the little girls.
Which just ended theculmination of the season, it
(07:07):
was our big ice skating.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Talk about that.
What is an ice skating recitallike at at a club that had to be
so unique?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
So basically there's a coupleof different figure skating
programs from kindergarten girlsup to, I want to say, maybe
like eighth grade girls, um.
So basically the whole point ofthe program is that you know
the recitals the last day whenit all ends and everybody gets
like two to three minutes on theice to a choreographed song
that they work all season.
(07:38):
They're either doing it insolos, duets or trios.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
They come dressed and you know, like a full figure
skating all out leotard, Isuppose the word is.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I mean, it's a big, it's a big to do what um.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
What was the funniest song or the most unique song
somebody had?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I mean I feel like every year it's funny, because
last year it was all taylorswift theme.
So basically there's a bigrecital on the ice and then we
do a big after party up at themain clubhouse where we have a
DJ, dancing, photo booth, dinner.
Everyone's family comes,extended family, everyone gets
roses at the end of theirrecital.
I mean it's a very it's a verybig day.
I'm trying to think like what itwould equate to at a golf club,
(08:18):
maybe like whatever the biggestgolf golf event of the year is
something similar to that.
But I mean, yeah, last year wastaylor swift, this year, I
would say, was very heavily um.
Sabrina carpenter and gracieadams, gracie abrams I think I'm
probably saying the names wrong.
Like I said, I'm like bold atheart, so I kind of know these
(08:38):
artists, but not really.
But uh, it gets a littlecompetitive though, because
there's a spreadsheet there's.
I want to say there was like 36performances between the girls
and then a big grand finale atthe end.
So getting the choreography andthe music cut and getting the
girls on and off the ice thelittle girls do group
performances.
There's just like a lot ofmoving pieces.
You know getting the girls ontothe ice for the next
(09:00):
performance and you know havingthem all over campus.
But where was I going with thisthe song?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, was there any just like unique funny songs?
You were like wow, that is a,that is a unique one.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, trying to think nothing necessarily unique, but
you know, the couple of daysbefore we only get the oh, I was
, I got my train of thought now.
But, um, so when they sign upfor this program, we send out
something like a spreadsheetwhere what song do you want to
do?
And we don't want repetitionbecause I mean everyone's
sitting there so it startsgetting a little competitive
(09:35):
with the song choices and allthat.
And then like, finally, oncethe music is all cut, everyone
makes their selection andeverything.
You know, the week leading upto the recital they're on the
ice with the music and I guess,a lot of clean versions.
I guess a lot of these songshave curse words in them and you
know these girls, they don'teven know what the heck they're
dancing to.
For the most part there's someof them are five, six, seven,
eight years old.
(09:56):
So Friday night it's like ascramble to get all the clean
versions of the songs for therecital, for the recital on
saturday.
So just just a lot of movingpieces.
Between the weather, thenthere's always a rain date.
You know you have to cross yourfingers that it's going to be
like the perfect day and thenyou have to have all the vendors
on backup for the rain day.
Just a lot of moving pieces,and we also had a hockey
(10:19):
jamboree earlier in the morningwhat was the hockey jamboree is
that?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
was that for all the hockey teams and the hockey
people?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I think it was for the little ones, the might
development, which is like ourlittlest.
I don't know if there's an ageparameter on it, but it's
basically like might developmentis the prerequisite before you
get onto like a hockey team yeah.
Little like typically four andfive-year-olds.
They're adorable, but and thenthey get into.
You know all these newterminology I learned coming to
(10:50):
the club because I'm not, youknow, super familiar with hockey
.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But might squirt phantom, peewee, midget, all
these different teams.
The closest I get to hockey isprobably watching the show
letter kenny.
Um, it's just a dumb canadianshow that you can only watch
like two or three episodesbecause, like they start, I
can't even describe how theytalk.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
But it's very like Canadian okay, speaking of
Canadian, didn't they just wonthe four national?
I know we had a part of viewingparty last week, but the four
nation?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I don't want it over time.
If I'm, I think I watched thefirst court.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
is it quarters?
Is it three quarters?
I know there's three sections.
There's three sections, there'sthree.
No, it can't be a quarter.
It can't be a quarter because,a quarter is 25% oh you're great
.
People are going to stoplistening to Private Club Radio
because of this.
Who are these dum-dums justtrying to figure this out?
(11:45):
This?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
girl works at a hockey club.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And like so you actually have a league as well
there, like hockey leagues Wow.
Yes, is it just for membersonly, like is it members and
their guests, or is it strictlyjust members?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Members.
We have full members and wehave hockey members.
So some are just solely for thehockey program.
Um, but our full members, youknow, take first yeah, this is a
very unique club.
Yeah, that is cool there aretravel teams, so they're going
all over new jersey, they'regoing to long island, they're.
You know they're playing alldifferent teams, wow wow, and,
and how many like.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
How is?
It is in season or so when does?
When does the rink technicallyopen?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
uh, weather dependent , but typically first or second
week of november through firstor second week in march.
That's like our season, that'sour busy most nights?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
is it?
Is it open most nights?
Are there any off nights and isit like?
Is it slammed?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
oh no, it's open.
Every moment of that ice isvery regimented.
Let me tell you like takingfive minutes away from like
hockey to go to ice skating, orvice versa, is like world do you
guys have like your own, yourown zamboni?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
yep so, so.
So this is like oh yeah, thisis actual sized hockey rink like
this is yes, like I don't knowwhat actual size means.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
But it's, it's like I always say, nhl size.
But again, don't call me olympicsized, but yeah, yes wow yeah,
we have a whole chiller system,zamboni, cut so pretty much from
.
Like, ice maintenance startsearly in the morning, you, you
know 7, 8 am, but basically oncethe ice maintenance is done for
the morning, it's straightthrough.
(13:27):
So the hockey and the figureskating has all their different
programming and then we have anopen skate, which we call
general skate, and then openhockey, pickup play, which is
called pond hockey.
So between the general skate,which is the open skating, and
the pond hockey, which is theopen hockey, pickup play, which
is called pond hockey.
So between the general skate,which is the open skating, and
the pond hockey, which is theopen hockey, every other minute
of time is regimented betweenthe figure skating and the
hockey programs through, youknow, 9 o'clock at night and do
(13:50):
you guys own all of theequipment?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Is it like your own stuff?
Do you rent it?
Do you lease it?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I know a mix of of both.
I feel like something's alwaysgoing wrong with that Zamboni,
so and I'm assuming, then youmust have like special staff
just for your rank yes, yeah, Imean most of our maintenance
crew has been with us 30 plusyears, so that, like in winter
season, I mean, there's somenights that they're sleeping at
the club because they're youknow, they're going the last
(14:18):
Zamboni cut at the end of thenight.
You know nine, nine ish o'clock, and then they're back at it 70
in the morning.
So, um, yeah, they're amazing.
I don't know when they sleep orhow they do it, but and then,
pretty much between all that,there's probably like 10 or 15
zamboni cuts a day that's sothat everyone gets fresh,
pristine ice any are there?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
do do the leagues allow fights?
Like are there any fights onthe rink?
Like do you ever see peoplejust brawling out?
I mean I I'd have to ask herhow yeah, I know I feel like I'm
so this is crazy, wow, and youguys have a.
Is it a curling league too,like you do curling?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
we.
That's one of our four adultflagship events a year.
Sadly, we just had to cancellast week because there wasn't
enough participants, butinitially it was scheduled for
January.
We got rained out because everyagain everything's very weather
dependent with the ring, sothat's, you know, adds a whole
nother element.
So our January event got rainedout, unfortunately.
But we had about 140 memberssigned up and then, just based
(15:20):
on availability of the companythat we work with and what else
we had going on at the club, wepushed it to this past weekend.
But between the hockey playoff,hockey jamboree and the ice
skating recital we just didn'tget the numbers that we wanted
to move forward with it.
So we're going to try again fornext year.
But yeah, that's definitely oneof the more fun events and you
know definitely something thatyou can't do everywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
So how many people did you have for your big
recital?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Like there is 36 performances.
There's about 90, 95 girls inthe program and then the
prerequisite to that is thelearn to skate program.
So obviously they have to, youknow, be able to skate to, to be
in a performance.
But yeah, there's about, yeah,85, 90 girls in the program from
kindergarten has their own.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So that show had to be about two hours.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Uh, three is actually only is three 30 to five.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
precisely it was an hour and a half.
That's impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Some of those acts are a little shorter than others
, and then some of them thatperform in the duos and the
trios and all of that.
But yes, it's definitely a veryfun day.
The weather was kind to us.
Thank goodness it wasn't, youknow, wasn't too cold yeah, so
what do you do?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
so what's what's big in the club when in like the
fall, the summer, because therethere is no golf.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So there is no golf, but we do have a pool, we do
have a swim team, we do run afull summer camp and then a full
rackets camp.
So we're pretty much an allyear.
We we close in March for acouple of weeks, kind of like to
get right, closing out thewinter season and then getting
ready for spring.
But, unlike most of the golfclubs that are closed, you know,
january to March that's ourbusiest time of the year.
(16:58):
So, on top of being busybecause we're an outdoor golf
club, we're also hosting prettymuch everybody's reciprocals
right now because we're the onlyclub that's open.
So this is definitely our busytime.
Um, I mean, yeah, winter'sexcuse me, summer's definitely
busy too, between, yeah, poolcamp, swim team, tennis,
pickleball, all of that.
So we don't really have like aslow time.
(17:21):
I mean maybe, like August, is alittle bit slower.
One swim team's over.
One summer camp is over.
You know people are going totheir beach homes for you know
the month of August, for themost part before back to school
and start up again, but we'repretty consistent throughout the
year.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
That's really impressive.
That's awesome and verydifferent, and you do a lot of
different and unique programming.
Obviously, like what othercause?
I think it even boils down tojust your different events and
your different like.
You do so much cool stuff.
You have a big, a big fall fest, right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So we do, yeah, we do .
We do a ton of events, um, wedo family friendly events, we do
kids only events, we do adultonly events.
Um, or we do four big likeadult flagship events of the
year and kind of just change thetheme.
Every year we do a summer party, a fall party, the holiday
party and the curling event.
So, like this past year, ourholiday party for the um, the
(18:12):
theme was like winter wonderland.
So we work with our florist andwe transform the entire space
until like literally a mystical,magical winter wonderland
brought in all these trees andbark and lights and snow, and it
was actually beautiful.
It really turned out to be agreat event.
Summer and fall we haven'treally nailed down this year.
I mean last year we did ourfall party.
(18:32):
If I'm getting all my yearscorrect, I think it was like a
fall harvest.
We did like a big outdoormechanical bowl and we brought
in a beer truck and a bunch ofdifferent elevated barbecue
foods.
There's always a band.
We encourage you to dress forthe theme.
And then our summer party.
We did like a Caribbean theme.
So we had a reggae band comeand Caribbean style food, tiki
(18:55):
bar, you know all the thingsthat coincide with that go with
the theme.
Tiki bar.
You know all that, all thethings that coincide with that
go with the theme.
So you know, we're alwaystrying to elevate and bring new
ideas to the table and you know,do things that other clubs
aren't doing, or how?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
do you do that?
Do you have a committee?
Is it on you and the staff?
Is it a mixture of both?
Like what like, like how?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, we have a committee.
We have a committee that prettymuch oversees everything.
So I mean for eventsparticularly, there's an events
committee, so there's a trusteeand then there's a couple of you
know volunteer committeemembers.
So we'll meet with them on aquarterly basis and you know
kind of put the bones togetherof like how many kids events,
how many adult events, how manyfamily friendly events.
(19:37):
We incorporated a couple likebus trips into in.
We're trying to figure out thisyear how do we get the teens
and tweens they're too cool tohang out at the club how do we
get them to do something?
We did an outing to New YorkCity and we took them to see the
Blue man Group.
That was something a little bitfun and different.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Women's hockey teams.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It was a great time you know they just got to leave
their parents.
Oh, that's cool.
So you guys kind of chaperonedit or you had a few chaperones
and yeah that was cool.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, we had a few chaperones and myself and
another oh, so there weren'teven parent chaperones, it was
staff there was, yeah, there wasa couple parent chaperones.
I was like I, I can't yell atyour children, you just might
not work there too much longer,but yeah, so yeah, one of the
chaperones was our eventstrustee, so she she knew what we
(20:28):
were getting ourselves into, soshe luckily volunteered herself
.
But yeah, it was a fun nightout, something that the kids
look forward to.
Um, we have, um, like a newgirls hockey team.
I want to say it's the U10girls, so this year we did it.
They went to like aprofessional women's hockey game
at Prudential a couple weeksago.
It was the New York Sirensversus, I think it was, versus
(20:49):
some Canadian team, but we'retrying to incorporate, you know,
something that obviouslyoverlaps and is important with
the club.
So obviously we're a big hockey, centric, spirited club.
So we've done a devil's game,we've done a Rangers game.
So the women this year werelike, let's do a women's game.
You know all this hype aroundgirls and women and all of that
and having this new girls team.
A couple of them just won theleague championships a couple of
(21:10):
weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So when you, when you go to these games, you just get
like a nice big party bus or anice like luxury style bus,
bring everybody in.
Do you guys supply food andsnacks or anything Like?
Walk me through the experiencefor the members.
I think that's really cool, andthere's a lot of clubs, I think
that are so close yet so faraway to like a major city that
that's something just neat to do, and even if only like 15, 20
(21:33):
members or even if it's lessshow up, that's still a neat
thing to do.
You don't have to worry aboutdriving and just have it so so.
So what did what did theevening look like?
What did you guys provide?
What did you do?
What was that whole experiencelike for for the members?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, we did.
We just typically do like a boxlunch.
I'm also thinking we just didlike we went to the Rockettes
also to kick off holiday season.
We took a bus to New York cityright outside New York city, so
that was something kind ofdifferent.
But yeah, we'll typically try toget 30 people to come to make
it worthwhile to get the grouptickets and to be able to
support the price of thetransportation.
(22:08):
And then, a couple of days inadvance, we'll send them just a
Google Doc to fill in withwhatever they want to eat on the
bus.
So everything's kind of packedup like a grab and go lunchbox
basically.
So either have you know a salmonwrap, a salad, a cookie, a
drink it's all boxed and baggedfor you and then you just eat it
on the bus and then usuallymyself or someone else has the
(22:28):
tickets, or the members have thetickets in advance, depending
on.
You know where we're going, butit's pretty seamless for them.
You know they come to the clubat a certain time and then the
bus drops them back off at theclub a certain time and that's
really all that they have to beresponsible for.
So it just, it just makes iteasy.
I mean it's just something niceand different.
I mean it's, you know, notsomething that you know, like
(22:48):
the event at the club or we're,you know, making money on.
We're just really trying tobreak even but offer kind of
just different outside the boxexperience.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
No, I think it's really important.
That's really good.
You guys are doing that as well.
I love stuff like that.
Even if it isn't like a hugesuccess, at least you're still
trying, you're still doing stuff, you're still putting it out
there.
Have you ever had anything thatjust flopped horribly?
And when I say flop, I meanmembers just didn't show up.
(23:15):
Like did you ever havesomething that's just like it
just wasn't a good fit for, justlike it just wasn't a good fit
for, like it just wasn't a goodtime?
Because I always thinksometimes clubs go like oh, it
was a flop and like, oh, what,what happened?
Like no one showed up.
It's like, well, that doesn'tmean it was a bad event.
Uh, so you ever have like anevent that just like flopped?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I mean a lot of times if, like, the registration
numbers aren't there.
Well, you know, it's alwayslike.
You know, do you want to hostthe event and move forward with
it and take pictures and buildup the hype and the anticipation
for next year, you know, andtake the hit this year, or do
you go ahead and cancel it butthen you disappoint the people
that signed up.
So even like with the curlingevent I mean that's one of our
four flagship events We've neverhad to cancel that event.
(23:53):
So it was kind of disappointingthat it rained in January, we
had to do the date change andthere was kind of a lot going on
.
But I mean, at the end of theday, if 20 people, 30 people,
sign up for something, it has tolike, make sense, obviously for
the club.
(24:15):
So I'm trying I can't reallythink of anything that's been a
flop that we've moved forwardwith.
But obviously it's alwaysdisappointing with, like, the
work and the anticipation andyou know getting members to sign
up and you know sending allthese emails, sign up, sign up
and then still having to cancelit, because it's like you're
basically putting in like thesame amount of work to cancel an
event a couple of days beforethen to just kind of go forward
with it.
Um, so you know, the hope isalways, even even on some of the
(24:36):
smaller events, yeah, just tokind of um, build traction and
hope for bigger and better nexttime, like some of our dining or
, you know, wine dinners andthings like that we've gotten
like small turnouts for.
But it's all about, like thosecouple of people that sign up,
you know, giving them amemorable experience, having
them spread the word to theirfriends, taking pictures,
posting on socials, drawing upthe hype for next time.
(24:58):
So you know, sometimes we moveforward, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Did you ever, did you ever do do an event that had a
good turnout and people werejust like this is lame.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Maybe behind my back, not to my face, I'm.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I'm the pit bull.
Remember there was so much fun,Jenna, we had a blast Like oh,
I'm trying to think, um, it wasso much fun, jenna, we had a
blast.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I'm trying to think, yeah, no, nothing really, to my
face.
I mean, I know one event that'skind of like chaotic, but it
obviously all still goes well.
We've done it every year, everyclub does it, but like our
gingerbread decorating event,it's just like utter chaos
Sticking is everywhere.
Candy and icing and squirtbottles, kids squirting each
(25:44):
other with the icing.
I mean it's always a success,Don't get me wrong, but there's
just a lot of like a lot ofmoving pieces.
It's a mess, Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So we can do without that one.
But you know, it's one of thoseannual family events that I
don't think is going anywhereanytime soon.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But if anyone has the creative idea to have had a you
know, not get kids to squirticing in each other's hair and
all over the club.
You just line the whole room,just just like a giant, a giant
crime scene.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You just have like have those, that's what we gotta
do for like, yeah, just putgarbage bags all over the walls
and just put the kids in garbagebags.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
What else you guys got cooking, anything fun.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
What do we got cooking?
Well, we're winding down withice.
Ice is closing this weekend andthen we're pretty much closed
for the month of March.
But obviously gearing up for abusy spring and summer.
And you know, camp registrationgoes out in March, swim team,
spring tennis for the kids,ladies tennis teams.
So a lot of things in thepipeline getting getting all the
events on the calendar for therest of the year, figuring out
(26:52):
themes and vendors, and all ofthat.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
When do you where?
Where does the hockey rink orwhere does the ice skating rink
go?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
it doesn't go like where is it on property?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Is it over the pool?
Where does it go?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It's next to the pool , so it's like a five-minute
walk.
So again, we're not a golf club, so we're not this huge
sprawling.
So from my office up in themain clubhouse to walk down to
the hockey rink maybe a five orsix-minute walk, and that's the
two extremes of the club.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That's where, that's why my head was as if you're not
, if you don't have golf, likewhere's the space at?
Like, where is it like part ofthe?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
yeah, so to maximize the space, though, um, they put
like a foam I don't know whatyou want to call it and, like
you know, at the gym thoselittle tiles like foamy.
So basically in the in thesummertime, in the springtime
we've made half of it into threeadditional pickleball courts
just pickleball nets, whatever.
And then for summer camp theythe foam top, they put soccer
(27:54):
nets and basketball hoops andparachutes and all that kind of
stuff.
So we utilize that for likethat we call the sport court, um
.
So kids use that in the summerfor camp, then if you're at the
pool again, because it's a veryquick short walk to pool, if the
kids want to play on that andthey're at the pool.
So we were able to kind ofutilize it for the most part
outside of just winter season,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What uh uh cause.
You also help with themarketing and the communications
and stuff as well.
Right, that has to be a lot ofwork between that.
And then do you do you alsohelp with the membership sales?
Is that part of your wow?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, a little bit of everything, but it's fun Every
day is something different?
How do?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
you manage your time, like how?
Like I and I know it's probablyyou know a cluster a little bit
, but like, do you have any?
Like I don't want to say hacks,but things that you might use
that help you.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Like.
This is my, this is my currentto do list.
This is what I good old pen andpaper.
I'm the most good old again,I'm like an 80 year old at heart
, like I said a bunch of times.
But yes, I literally use a penand paper.
Um membership is a we try tolet members in on like a
somewhat of a quarterly basis sothat they're, you know, the
(29:02):
couple families, couple offamilies that get we typically
admit at, you know, maybe 30 ishfamilies a year give or take Um
, but they kind of all come inin groups together.
So you know I'll have all likemy new member orientations all
around the same time.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Then there'll be like a little bit of lag until the
next group Um and then do you dothe same also when, like you
kind of do your quote unquotesales for them.
So, like, when someone reachesout and like, oh, like, hey, I
would like membership, do youfollow?
Like, how do you follow up?
You say, hey, you know I'llreach back out in X amount of
time.
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I kind of say so.
Like the way the process worksis that you need five families
to support you.
So five, right.
So it's kind of like call meback when you know people and,
like I said, the little salesgirl in me.
it breaks my heart when they'rejust like well, pat, how do we
(29:54):
get in?
We've heard amazing things.
We just moved to Summit and I'mlike and a lot of times they're
like well, we just moved here,how do we even get the process
started?
Like, where do we begin?
Um, and I know that before mytime I to my understanding, they
did some kind of like mix andmingles type for people to get
to know each other.
But now, with the clubs beingso full and on a wait list and
(30:16):
so many people already knowingeach other, I know a lot of
clubs kind of steered away fromthat because, because you still
really don't get to knowsomebody in in just a little mix
and mingle thing Like that's.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Anybody could put out in a front and see, and they're
looking for.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
you know in the letters of support they're
looking for, you know like notjust like the Smith family would
be a great addition to the clubthey're looking for, like the
meat and bones, like that.
You really know this family andlike they want.
You know personal stories andexperiences.
So it takes time, it reallydoes.
I mean I'm just like talk toyour neighbor, Like you're going
to know somebody.
Eventually, just moving intotown You're going to see
(30:52):
somebody wearing a hat or abeanie.
Get them be friends with themyour kid's school, you know
start the conversation andthat's like your foot in the
door to get it started.
But realistically, becausewe're on a wait list and such I
mean I'm and it's kind of hardfor me to follow up because they
have to come back with likeknowing the families and having
the tenure and having theexperiences.
(31:12):
So I'm there to kind of likehelp them through the process
and talk them through what itlooks like and like what the
expectation is.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That's actually a cooler, that's a cool unique
process, though Like that's sodifferent than the app, because
there's so many clubs that likeit's like a, like a pitch fest,
you know, it's like it's they'rethey're giving the hard sale
and really getting them to wantto come.
So you guys are in a veryfortunate place and to be able
to have five people that's, Ithink, what normally it's like
two or three, five it's my first, I don't, I'm, I don know.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think it's like three to five typically, but
yeah, so, yes, that's membershipcommunications.
I mean the website.
We have a mobile app.
We have an Instagram pushnotifications sending all the
club emails, um, so that thatdefinitely takes a bit of time
(32:06):
because you're kind of workingfor you know everyone in the
club.
So, like you know, summer campregistration I'm working closely
with the camp director.
Tennis registration I'm workingclosely with the rackets
director, swim team, the swimcoach.
You know hockey right now.
All the communication leadingup to the recital, um, so I
don't know.
You just got to kind of managelike what's important?
I, like I said, I start my, Istart my day with a to-do list
every day, do I?
(32:27):
Sometimes things just getthrown away.
You get a 911 call and you getthrown off your you know to-do
list.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Sally, ate it on the ice.
It's all bloody.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
No, I think a lot of it too is just like managing
expectations, right, likeeveryone's going to throw
something at you because theydon't know what you're working
on for all the other people thatwork at the club.
So you know, I'm always likegive me, you know, is this, is
this urgent?
Is it okay if I turn around in42 to 78 hours?
You know what?
So try to get a little cause.
You know everyone throws stuffat you and says urgent, 911, but
(32:58):
you know, realistically it'slike okay, 911 to you might be
like 72 hours to me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, yeah, how.
How big is the staff?
You must have a decent sizedcrew.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I'm trying to think.
I mean, yeah, so full-time, wehave a lot of seasonal between
you know, like the the ice, likeour hockey director seasonal,
or blades instructor seasonal.
I mean our full-time people,I'd probably say 10 or 15 of us,
Like between upper management,clubhouse staff, maintenance
(33:35):
team, all of that, somethinglike that.
So not super big, but not supersmall.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And then, yes, a lot of seasonal support.
Are you guys open most days forlunch and dinner?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yes, so our main clubhouse is open Wednesday
through Sunday and then our kindof secondary food and beverage
operation is open when thepool's open and when the ice is
open, Pretty much seven days aweek.
So for a smaller club we'repretty much open like when we're
(34:04):
busy in season seven days aweek for some type of dining.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
That's people are cranking yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, that's good, it's all good stuff.
Rather be busy than you knowsitting there twiddling your
thumb.
So yeah again, every day is.
Every day is a new adventure, anew experience.
But you know, the days, thedays go by.
There's always something to beworking on, planning for the
future.
You know how do we make thisbetter?
Okay, let's, let's get anInstagram post.
Let's, you know, hype this up.
(34:34):
So there's always there's, evenwhen you're sitting there,
there's like obviously alwayssomething that can be done to
elevate the number experience.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I know what you mean.
Hey, thank you so much forcoming on.
I really appreciate you sharingand all this with the club and
you guys do some really cool,unique stuff Like this is.
This is awesome.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hope you all enjoyed that episode.
I know I did.
If you did give it a like,share, subscribe.
A five-star rating means theabsolute world.
It costs nothing.
That's this episode.
Until next time, catch y'all onthe flippity.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club
Radio Show, where we give youthe scoop on all things private
golf and country clubs, frommastering, leadership and
management, food and beverageexcellence, member engagement
secrets, board governance andeverything in between, all while
keeping it fun and light.
Whether you're a club veteranjust getting your feet wet or
somewhere in the middle, you arein the right place.
(00:20):
I'm your host, denny Corby.
Welcome to the show.
In this episode, I am joined bythe one and only Jenna Jarden.
Now you're about to hear howshe's helping run one of what I
think one of the most unique andsuccessful clubs in the country
, the Beacon Hill Club in Summit, new Jersey.
Now, this isn't your typicalprivate club, because there is
(00:41):
no golf, there's no drivingranges, but they do have
something else they do a massiveoutdoor skating rink where they
have hundreds of members whocome and play hockey.
They do an amazing ice recitalthat rivals the masters and a
community vibe that most clubswould just absolutely kill for,
(01:02):
and they're open year round.
But they really have a truewinter wonderland and among many
other events and things thatthey do throughout the year, but
in this episode we kind of talka lot about that is their
winter programming and what thatall entails.
And Jenna is right at the heartof all of it, and we talk about
her leap from Manhattan hotelsinto private clubs and how she
(01:24):
juggles memberships, events andcommunications and what it takes
to build a club culture that isenergetic.
It's fun and completely one ofa kind.
So Jenna brings the energy, thestories and some serious
takeaways.
So I am so excited for thisepisode, especially if you're
looking for some fresh ideas onmember events, engagement and
(01:45):
year-round membership connection, so you are going to absolutely
love this one.
Before that, I just want to givea big thanks to some of our
show partners.
We have our friends Members,first, club Capital Group Member
Vetting, golf Life Navigatorsand Concert Golf Partners, as
well as myself.
The Denny Corby Experiencethere's excitement, there's
mystery.
Also there's magic, mindreading and comedy.
(02:07):
One of the most fun memberevent nights you can do hands
down.
If you want to learn more, headon over to DennyCorbycom and
reach out, let's chat, let'shave a conversation.
Enough about that, though.
Let's get to the episode.
Private Club Radio listeners.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Let's welcome to the show, jenna jarden I started
december 2020 but this is myfirst club like I was
transitioning out of like hoteland restaurant sales.
My hotel manhattan closed and Iwas like what am?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I gonna do.
That had to be.
That had to be stressful.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
That had to be very stressful around that time yes,
yes panic sets in I kind of liketook a leap of faith, didn't
know really what to expect.
And four plus years later, samerole.
I'm loving it.
It's been a really nice changeof pace.
It's been nice to build on therelationships and see the same
faces, as opposed to.
You know the turn and burn ofsales.
(02:55):
Once they sign it you're on tothe next.
So it's, you know, nice to likesee the same people and watch
the little kids grow up.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
And you know all those heartfelt juicy moments
that there was little.
Yeah what?
What were some like did youbring anything over from hotel
sales to clubs?
Like that?
Maybe you didn't expect, like,were there anything that like
stuff that you brought over thatthe club was like this is
innovative.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
You know it's funny I feel like in a pandemic
industry is either tanked orflourish.
So I'm coming from the side ofwhere it tanked Big events no
longer a thing.
And then I come into this cluband my little sales girl heart,
we're on a year plus wait list.
So you're getting all thesecalls every day.
I'm moving to the suburbs outof the city how do I join?
And I'm like, oh my goodness,call me back in 10 years when
(03:41):
you basically give me yourfirstborn child.
So it was definitely a change of, you know, kind of like cold
calling, outbound sales that Iwas used to versus I don't want
to say like reactive.
But you know I'm doing a littlebit of everything at the club.
So I do membershipcommunications and then I help
with club events.
So, yeah, just definitely achange of having to basically
(04:03):
turn all these people away thatwere like, oh, we don't care
what it costs, we just want toget into the Beacon Hill club
community.
So that was definitely a littlebit of a learning curve for me.
I mean, I'm coming more fromthe side of like the sales and
like large events where we wouldhost their holiday parties and
like corporate kickoff meetingsand press junkets and things
(04:23):
like that, so not necessarilylike apples to apples and the
events that, like the club, wasfor members.
So I mean, I guess, I mean Ijust some of the skills overlap,
not necessarily like what I'mdoing on the day to day, but,
like you know, just being like apeople, person and, you know,
responding to emails in a timelymanner and picking up the phone
(04:44):
sometimes, as opposed to likejust being, you know, stuck
behind your email.
Yeah, yeah, things like that.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I'm sure having that more what's the word?
I want to use that more.
I don't want to say aggressivesales approach, but I'm sure
that also helps too, like whenyou come from that background
and like and like and the kindof use that you're not afraid to
pick up the phone, callsomebody like kind of put on
your sales hat a little bit morethan like you might normally
would for like a normal clubperson.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So yeah, yeah, totally, and I'm like whenever
my boss doesn't want to make aphone call, he'll be like oh,
jenna, can you call this person?
And he like in a loving mannerif he ends up watching this, but
he calls me the pit bullbecause he like sends me after
people that owe money and he'slike just send Jenna after them.
So it's like a running joke atthe club.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Members have your numbers saved to see a call like
oh no, they're afraid to comeinto the club.
I'm the kind, lovable pit bullthe rescue pit bull.
Exactly so before you came,because your club does a lot of
(05:50):
cool stuff, were they alwaysdoing cool stuff?
Did you help them do more coolstuff?
What's tell me the story of thecool stuff, um?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
so I coming in like in the heart of the pandemic, I
mean we weren't really doingevents.
So you know, like every otherclub, we were trying to get
innovative, doing other thingsand then obviously still being
able to use the amenities of theclub.
So I kind of came in and myhead was spinning because it was
, like you know, signing, therewas capacities for everything.
So even, like you know, we havean ice rink, so that's our kind
(06:21):
of our claim to fame.
We do not have golf an ice rink, so that's our kind of our
claim to fame.
We do not have golf replacedgolf with, like a huge outdoor
ice rink.
So everyone skates, figureskates and or plays hockey on
top of you know, rackets, pool,summer cam swim, team dining.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Do people sign up just because of like the ice
skating?
Like is that a big?
Speaker 2 (06:46):
it's a big draw for why you become a member at
beacon hill club.
You want to skate and or playhockey?
Um, we have.
We have five over 500 activehockey members, 300 plus on the
youth team, and then the restadults teams, including the
women's team, and then, uh, wehave a figure skate like learn
to skate program for the littleones up through, like figure
skating for the little girls.
Which just ended theculmination of the season, it
(07:07):
was our big ice skating.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Talk about that.
What is an ice skating recitallike at at a club that had to be
so unique?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah.
So basically there's a coupleof different figure skating
programs from kindergarten girlsup to, I want to say, maybe
like eighth grade girls, um.
So basically the whole point ofthe program is that you know
the recitals the last day whenit all ends and everybody gets
like two to three minutes on theice to a choreographed song
that they work all season.
(07:38):
They're either doing it insolos, duets or trios.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
They come dressed and you know, like a full figure
skating all out leotard, Isuppose the word is.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I mean, it's a big, it's a big to do what um.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
What was the funniest song or the most unique song
somebody had?
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I mean I feel like every year it's funny, because
last year it was all taylorswift theme.
So basically there's a bigrecital on the ice and then we
do a big after party up at themain clubhouse where we have a
DJ, dancing, photo booth, dinner.
Everyone's family comes,extended family, everyone gets
roses at the end of theirrecital.
I mean it's a very it's a verybig day.
I'm trying to think like what itwould equate to at a golf club,
(08:18):
maybe like whatever the biggestgolf golf event of the year is
something similar to that.
But I mean, yeah, last year wastaylor swift, this year, I
would say, was very heavily um.
Sabrina carpenter and gracieadams, gracie abrams I think I'm
probably saying the names wrong.
Like I said, I'm like bold atheart, so I kind of know these
(08:38):
artists, but not really.
But uh, it gets a littlecompetitive though, because
there's a spreadsheet there's.
I want to say there was like 36performances between the girls
and then a big grand finale atthe end.
So getting the choreography andthe music cut and getting the
girls on and off the ice thelittle girls do group
performances.
There's just like a lot ofmoving pieces.
You know getting the girls ontothe ice for the next
(09:00):
performance and you know havingthem all over campus.
But where was I going with thisthe song?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah, was there any just like unique funny songs?
You were like wow, that is a,that is a unique one.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, trying to think nothing necessarily unique, but
you know, the couple of daysbefore we only get the oh, I was
, I got my train of thought now.
But, um, so when they sign upfor this program, we send out
something like a spreadsheetwhere what song do you want to
do?
And we don't want repetitionbecause I mean everyone's
sitting there so it startsgetting a little competitive
(09:35):
with the song choices and allthat.
And then like, finally, oncethe music is all cut, everyone
makes their selection andeverything.
You know, the week leading upto the recital they're on the
ice with the music and I guess,a lot of clean versions.
I guess a lot of these songshave curse words in them and you
know these girls, they don'teven know what the heck they're
dancing to.
For the most part there's someof them are five, six, seven,
eight years old.
(09:56):
So Friday night it's like ascramble to get all the clean
versions of the songs for therecital, for the recital on
saturday.
So just just a lot of movingpieces.
Between the weather, thenthere's always a rain date.
You know you have to cross yourfingers that it's going to be
like the perfect day and thenyou have to have all the vendors
on backup for the rain day.
Just a lot of moving pieces,and we also had a hockey
(10:19):
jamboree earlier in the morningwhat was the hockey jamboree is
that?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
was that for all the hockey teams and the hockey
people?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I think it was for the little ones, the might
development, which is like ourlittlest.
I don't know if there's an ageparameter on it, but it's
basically like might developmentis the prerequisite before you
get onto like a hockey team yeah.
Little like typically four andfive-year-olds.
They're adorable, but and thenthey get into.
You know all these newterminology I learned coming to
(10:50):
the club because I'm not, youknow, super familiar with hockey
.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
But might squirt phantom, peewee, midget, all
these different teams.
The closest I get to hockey isprobably watching the show
letter kenny.
Um, it's just a dumb canadianshow that you can only watch
like two or three episodesbecause, like they start, I
can't even describe how theytalk.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
But it's very like Canadian okay, speaking of
Canadian, didn't they just wonthe four national?
I know we had a part of viewingparty last week, but the four
nation?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I don't want it over time.
If I'm, I think I watched thefirst court.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
is it quarters?
Is it three quarters?
I know there's three sections.
There's three sections, there'sthree.
No, it can't be a quarter.
It can't be a quarter because,a quarter is 25% oh you're great
.
People are going to stoplistening to Private Club Radio
because of this.
Who are these dum-dums justtrying to figure this out?
(11:45):
This?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
girl works at a hockey club.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
And like so you actually have a league as well
there, like hockey leagues Wow.
Yes, is it just for membersonly, like is it members and
their guests, or is it strictlyjust members?
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Members.
We have full members and wehave hockey members.
So some are just solely for thehockey program.
Um, but our full members, youknow, take first yeah, this is a
very unique club.
Yeah, that is cool there aretravel teams, so they're going
all over new jersey, they'regoing to long island, they're.
You know they're playing alldifferent teams, wow wow, and,
and how many like.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
How is?
It is in season or so when does?
When does the rink technicallyopen?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
uh, weather dependent , but typically first or second
week of november through firstor second week in march.
That's like our season, that'sour busy most nights?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
is it?
Is it open most nights?
Are there any off nights and isit like?
Is it slammed?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
oh no, it's open.
Every moment of that ice isvery regimented.
Let me tell you like takingfive minutes away from like
hockey to go to ice skating, orvice versa, is like world do you
guys have like your own, yourown zamboni?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
yep so, so.
So this is like oh yeah, thisis actual sized hockey rink like
this is yes, like I don't knowwhat actual size means.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
But it's, it's like I always say, nhl size.
But again, don't call me olympicsized, but yeah, yes wow yeah,
we have a whole chiller system,zamboni, cut so pretty much from
.
Like, ice maintenance startsearly in the morning, you, you
know 7, 8 am, but basically oncethe ice maintenance is done for
the morning, it's straightthrough.
(13:27):
So the hockey and the figureskating has all their different
programming and then we have anopen skate, which we call
general skate, and then openhockey, pickup play, which is
called pond hockey.
So between the general skate,which is the open skating, and
the pond hockey, which is theopen hockey, pickup play, which
is called pond hockey.
So between the general skate,which is the open skating, and
the pond hockey, which is theopen hockey, every other minute
of time is regimented betweenthe figure skating and the
hockey programs through, youknow, 9 o'clock at night and do
(13:50):
you guys own all of theequipment?
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Is it like your own stuff?
Do you rent it?
Do you lease it?
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (13:58):
I know a mix of of both.
I feel like something's alwaysgoing wrong with that Zamboni,
so and I'm assuming, then youmust have like special staff
just for your rank yes, yeah, Imean most of our maintenance
crew has been with us 30 plusyears, so that, like in winter
season, I mean, there's somenights that they're sleeping at
the club because they're youknow, they're going the last
(14:18):
Zamboni cut at the end of thenight.
You know nine, nine ish o'clock, and then they're back at it 70
in the morning.
So, um, yeah, they're amazing.
I don't know when they sleep orhow they do it, but and then,
pretty much between all that,there's probably like 10 or 15
zamboni cuts a day that's sothat everyone gets fresh,
pristine ice any are there?
Speaker 1 (14:39):
do do the leagues allow fights?
Like are there any fights onthe rink?
Like do you ever see peoplejust brawling out?
I mean I I'd have to ask herhow yeah, I know I feel like I'm
so this is crazy, wow, and youguys have a.
Is it a curling league too,like you do curling?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
we.
That's one of our four adultflagship events a year.
Sadly, we just had to cancellast week because there wasn't
enough participants, butinitially it was scheduled for
January.
We got rained out because everyagain everything's very weather
dependent with the ring, sothat's, you know, adds a whole
nother element.
So our January event got rainedout, unfortunately.
But we had about 140 memberssigned up and then, just based
(15:20):
on availability of the companythat we work with and what else
we had going on at the club, wepushed it to this past weekend.
But between the hockey playoff,hockey jamboree and the ice
skating recital we just didn'tget the numbers that we wanted
to move forward with it.
So we're going to try again fornext year.
But yeah, that's definitely oneof the more fun events and you
know definitely something thatyou can't do everywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
So how many people did you have for your big
recital?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Like there is 36 performances.
There's about 90, 95 girls inthe program and then the
prerequisite to that is thelearn to skate program.
So obviously they have to, youknow, be able to skate to, to be
in a performance.
But yeah, there's about, yeah,85, 90 girls in the program from
kindergarten has their own.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
So that show had to be about two hours.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Uh, three is actually only is three 30 to five.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
precisely it was an hour and a half.
That's impressive yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Some of those acts are a little shorter than others
, and then some of them thatperform in the duos and the
trios and all of that.
But yes, it's definitely a veryfun day.
The weather was kind to us.
Thank goodness it wasn't, youknow, wasn't too cold yeah, so
what do you do?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
so what's what's big in the club when in like the
fall, the summer, because therethere is no golf.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So there is no golf, but we do have a pool, we do
have a swim team, we do run afull summer camp and then a full
rackets camp.
So we're pretty much an allyear.
We we close in March for acouple of weeks, kind of like to
get right, closing out thewinter season and then getting
ready for spring.
But, unlike most of the golfclubs that are closed, you know,
january to March that's ourbusiest time of the year.
(16:58):
So, on top of being busybecause we're an outdoor golf
club, we're also hosting prettymuch everybody's reciprocals
right now because we're the onlyclub that's open.
So this is definitely our busytime.
Um, I mean, yeah, winter'sexcuse me, summer's definitely
busy too, between, yeah, poolcamp, swim team, tennis,
pickleball, all of that.
So we don't really have like aslow time.
(17:21):
I mean maybe, like August, is alittle bit slower.
One swim team's over.
One summer camp is over.
You know people are going totheir beach homes for you know
the month of August, for themost part before back to school
and start up again, but we'repretty consistent throughout the
year.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
That's really impressive.
That's awesome and verydifferent, and you do a lot of
different and unique programming.
Obviously, like what othercause?
I think it even boils down tojust your different events and
your different like.
You do so much cool stuff.
You have a big, a big fall fest, right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
So we do, yeah, we do .
We do a ton of events, um, wedo family friendly events, we do
kids only events, we do adultonly events.
Um, or we do four big likeadult flagship events of the
year and kind of just change thetheme.
Every year we do a summer party, a fall party, the holiday
party and the curling event.
So, like this past year, ourholiday party for the um, the
(18:12):
theme was like winter wonderland.
So we work with our florist andwe transform the entire space
until like literally a mystical,magical winter wonderland
brought in all these trees andbark and lights and snow, and it
was actually beautiful.
It really turned out to be agreat event.
Summer and fall we haven'treally nailed down this year.
I mean last year we did ourfall party.
(18:32):
If I'm getting all my yearscorrect, I think it was like a
fall harvest.
We did like a big outdoormechanical bowl and we brought
in a beer truck and a bunch ofdifferent elevated barbecue
foods.
There's always a band.
We encourage you to dress forthe theme.
And then our summer party.
We did like a Caribbean theme.
So we had a reggae band comeand Caribbean style food, tiki
(18:55):
bar, you know all the thingsthat coincide with that go with
the theme.
Tiki bar.
You know all that, all thethings that coincide with that
go with the theme.
So you know, we're alwaystrying to elevate and bring new
ideas to the table and you know,do things that other clubs
aren't doing, or how?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
do you do that?
Do you have a committee?
Is it on you and the staff?
Is it a mixture of both?
Like what like, like how?
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Yeah, we have a committee.
We have a committee that prettymuch oversees everything.
So I mean for eventsparticularly, there's an events
committee, so there's a trusteeand then there's a couple of you
know volunteer committeemembers.
So we'll meet with them on aquarterly basis and you know
kind of put the bones togetherof like how many kids events,
how many adult events, how manyfamily friendly events.
(19:37):
We incorporated a couple likebus trips into in.
We're trying to figure out thisyear how do we get the teens
and tweens they're too cool tohang out at the club how do we
get them to do something?
We did an outing to New YorkCity and we took them to see the
Blue man Group.
That was something a little bitfun and different.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
How did that go?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Women's hockey teams.
That was fun.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
It was a great time you know they just got to leave
their parents.
Oh, that's cool.
So you guys kind of chaperonedit or you had a few chaperones
and yeah that was cool.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Yeah, we had a few chaperones and myself and
another oh, so there weren'teven parent chaperones, it was
staff there was, yeah, there wasa couple parent chaperones.
I was like I, I can't yell atyour children, you just might
not work there too much longer,but yeah, so yeah, one of the
chaperones was our eventstrustee, so she she knew what we
(20:28):
were getting ourselves into, soshe luckily volunteered herself
.
But yeah, it was a fun nightout, something that the kids
look forward to.
Um, we have, um, like a newgirls hockey team.
I want to say it's the U10girls, so this year we did it.
They went to like aprofessional women's hockey game
at Prudential a couple weeksago.
It was the New York Sirensversus, I think it was, versus
(20:49):
some Canadian team, but we'retrying to incorporate, you know,
something that obviouslyoverlaps and is important with
the club.
So obviously we're a big hockey, centric, spirited club.
So we've done a devil's game,we've done a Rangers game.
So the women this year werelike, let's do a women's game.
You know all this hype aroundgirls and women and all of that
and having this new girls team.
A couple of them just won theleague championships a couple of
(21:10):
weeks ago.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
So when you, when you go to these games, you just get
like a nice big party bus or anice like luxury style bus,
bring everybody in.
Do you guys supply food andsnacks or anything Like?
Walk me through the experiencefor the members.
I think that's really cool, andthere's a lot of clubs, I think
that are so close yet so faraway to like a major city that
that's something just neat to do, and even if only like 15, 20
(21:33):
members or even if it's lessshow up, that's still a neat
thing to do.
You don't have to worry aboutdriving and just have it so so.
So what did what did theevening look like?
What did you guys provide?
What did you do?
What was that whole experiencelike for for the members?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, we did.
We just typically do like a boxlunch.
I'm also thinking we just didlike we went to the Rockettes
also to kick off holiday season.
We took a bus to New York cityright outside New York city, so
that was something kind ofdifferent.
But yeah, we'll typically try toget 30 people to come to make
it worthwhile to get the grouptickets and to be able to
support the price of thetransportation.
(22:08):
And then, a couple of days inadvance, we'll send them just a
Google Doc to fill in withwhatever they want to eat on the
bus.
So everything's kind of packedup like a grab and go lunchbox
basically.
So either have you know a salmonwrap, a salad, a cookie, a
drink it's all boxed and baggedfor you and then you just eat it
on the bus and then usuallymyself or someone else has the
(22:28):
tickets, or the members have thetickets in advance, depending
on.
You know where we're going, butit's pretty seamless for them.
You know they come to the clubat a certain time and then the
bus drops them back off at theclub a certain time and that's
really all that they have to beresponsible for.
So it just, it just makes iteasy.
I mean it's just something niceand different.
I mean it's, you know, notsomething that you know, like
(22:48):
the event at the club or we're,you know, making money on.
We're just really trying tobreak even but offer kind of
just different outside the boxexperience.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
No, I think it's really important.
That's really good.
You guys are doing that as well.
I love stuff like that.
Even if it isn't like a hugesuccess, at least you're still
trying, you're still doing stuff, you're still putting it out
there.
Have you ever had anything thatjust flopped horribly?
And when I say flop, I meanmembers just didn't show up.
(23:15):
Like did you ever havesomething that's just like it
just wasn't a good fit for, justlike it just wasn't a good fit
for, like it just wasn't a goodtime?
Because I always thinksometimes clubs go like oh, it
was a flop and like, oh, what,what happened?
Like no one showed up.
It's like, well, that doesn'tmean it was a bad event.
Uh, so you ever have like anevent that just like flopped?
Speaker 2 (23:32):
I mean a lot of times if, like, the registration
numbers aren't there.
Well, you know, it's alwayslike.
You know, do you want to hostthe event and move forward with
it and take pictures and buildup the hype and the anticipation
for next year, you know, andtake the hit this year, or do
you go ahead and cancel it butthen you disappoint the people
that signed up.
So even like with the curlingevent I mean that's one of our
four flagship events We've neverhad to cancel that event.
(23:53):
So it was kind of disappointingthat it rained in January, we
had to do the date change andthere was kind of a lot going on
.
But I mean, at the end of theday, if 20 people, 30 people,
sign up for something, it has tolike, make sense, obviously for
the club.
(24:15):
So I'm trying I can't reallythink of anything that's been a
flop that we've moved forwardwith.
But obviously it's alwaysdisappointing with, like, the
work and the anticipation andyou know getting members to sign
up and you know sending allthese emails, sign up, sign up
and then still having to cancelit, because it's like you're
basically putting in like thesame amount of work to cancel an
event a couple of days beforethen to just kind of go forward
with it.
Um, so you know, the hope isalways, even even on some of the
(24:36):
smaller events, yeah, just tokind of um, build traction and
hope for bigger and better nexttime, like some of our dining or
, you know, wine dinners andthings like that we've gotten
like small turnouts for.
But it's all about, like thosecouple of people that sign up,
you know, giving them amemorable experience, having
them spread the word to theirfriends, taking pictures,
posting on socials, drawing upthe hype for next time.
(24:58):
So you know, sometimes we moveforward, sometimes we don't.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Did you ever, did you ever do do an event that had a
good turnout and people werejust like this is lame.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Maybe behind my back, not to my face, I'm.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I'm the pit bull.
Remember there was so much fun,Jenna, we had a blast Like oh,
I'm trying to think, um, it wasso much fun, jenna, we had a
blast.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
I'm trying to think, yeah, no, nothing really, to my
face.
I mean, I know one event that'skind of like chaotic, but it
obviously all still goes well.
We've done it every year, everyclub does it, but like our
gingerbread decorating event,it's just like utter chaos
Sticking is everywhere.
Candy and icing and squirtbottles, kids squirting each
(25:44):
other with the icing.
I mean it's always a success,Don't get me wrong, but there's
just a lot of like a lot ofmoving pieces.
It's a mess, Yep.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
So we can do without that one.
But you know, it's one of thoseannual family events that I
don't think is going anywhereanytime soon.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
But if anyone has the creative idea to have had a you
know, not get kids to squirticing in each other's hair and
all over the club.
You just line the whole room,just just like a giant, a giant
crime scene.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You just have like have those, that's what we gotta
do for like, yeah, just putgarbage bags all over the walls
and just put the kids in garbagebags.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
What else you guys got cooking, anything fun.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
What do we got cooking?
Well, we're winding down withice.
Ice is closing this weekend andthen we're pretty much closed
for the month of March.
But obviously gearing up for abusy spring and summer.
And you know, camp registrationgoes out in March, swim team,
spring tennis for the kids,ladies tennis teams.
So a lot of things in thepipeline getting getting all the
events on the calendar for therest of the year, figuring out
(26:52):
themes and vendors, and all ofthat.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
When do you where?
Where does the hockey rink orwhere does the ice skating rink
go?
Speaker 2 (27:00):
it doesn't go like where is it on property?
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Is it over the pool?
Where does it go?
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It's next to the pool , so it's like a five-minute
walk.
So again, we're not a golf club, so we're not this huge
sprawling.
So from my office up in themain clubhouse to walk down to
the hockey rink maybe a five orsix-minute walk, and that's the
two extremes of the club.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
That's where, that's why my head was as if you're not
, if you don't have golf, likewhere's the space at?
Like, where is it like part ofthe?
Speaker 2 (27:31):
yeah, so to maximize the space, though, um, they put
like a foam I don't know whatyou want to call it and, like
you know, at the gym thoselittle tiles like foamy.
So basically in the in thesummertime, in the springtime
we've made half of it into threeadditional pickleball courts
just pickleball nets, whatever.
And then for summer camp theythe foam top, they put soccer
(27:54):
nets and basketball hoops andparachutes and all that kind of
stuff.
So we utilize that for likethat we call the sport court, um
.
So kids use that in the summerfor camp, then if you're at the
pool again, because it's a veryquick short walk to pool, if the
kids want to play on that andthey're at the pool.
So we were able to kind ofutilize it for the most part
outside of just winter season,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
What uh uh cause.
You also help with themarketing and the communications
and stuff as well.
Right, that has to be a lot ofwork between that.
And then do you do you alsohelp with the membership sales?
Is that part of your wow?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah, a little bit of everything, but it's fun Every
day is something different?
How do?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
you manage your time, like how?
Like I and I know it's probablyyou know a cluster a little bit
, but like, do you have any?
Like I don't want to say hacks,but things that you might use
that help you.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Like.
This is my, this is my currentto do list.
This is what I good old pen andpaper.
I'm the most good old again,I'm like an 80 year old at heart
, like I said a bunch of times.
But yes, I literally use a penand paper.
Um membership is a we try tolet members in on like a
somewhat of a quarterly basis sothat they're, you know, the
(29:02):
couple families, couple offamilies that get we typically
admit at, you know, maybe 30 ishfamilies a year give or take Um
, but they kind of all come inin groups together.
So you know I'll have all likemy new member orientations all
around the same time.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Then there'll be like a little bit of lag until the
next group Um and then do you dothe same also when, like you
kind of do your quote unquotesales for them.
So, like, when someone reachesout and like, oh, like, hey, I
would like membership, do youfollow?
Like, how do you follow up?
You say, hey, you know I'llreach back out in X amount of
time.
How does that work?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
I kind of say so.
Like the way the process worksis that you need five families
to support you.
So five, right.
So it's kind of like call meback when you know people and,
like I said, the little salesgirl in me.
it breaks my heart when they'rejust like well, pat, how do we
(29:54):
get in?
We've heard amazing things.
We just moved to Summit and I'mlike and a lot of times they're
like well, we just moved here,how do we even get the process
started?
Like, where do we begin?
Um, and I know that before mytime I to my understanding, they
did some kind of like mix andmingles type for people to get
to know each other.
But now, with the clubs beingso full and on a wait list and
(30:16):
so many people already knowingeach other, I know a lot of
clubs kind of steered away fromthat because, because you still
really don't get to knowsomebody in in just a little mix
and mingle thing Like that's.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Anybody could put out in a front and see, and they're
looking for.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
you know in the letters of support they're
looking for, you know like notjust like the Smith family would
be a great addition to the clubthey're looking for, like the
meat and bones, like that.
You really know this family andlike they want.
You know personal stories andexperiences.
So it takes time, it reallydoes.
I mean I'm just like talk toyour neighbor, Like you're going
to know somebody.
Eventually, just moving intotown You're going to see
(30:52):
somebody wearing a hat or abeanie.
Get them be friends with themyour kid's school, you know
start the conversation andthat's like your foot in the
door to get it started.
But realistically, becausewe're on a wait list and such I
mean I'm and it's kind of hardfor me to follow up because they
have to come back with likeknowing the families and having
the tenure and having theexperiences.
(31:12):
So I'm there to kind of likehelp them through the process
and talk them through what itlooks like and like what the
expectation is.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
That's actually a cooler, that's a cool unique
process, though Like that's sodifferent than the app, because
there's so many clubs that likeit's like a, like a pitch fest,
you know, it's like it's they'rethey're giving the hard sale
and really getting them to wantto come.
So you guys are in a veryfortunate place and to be able
to have five people that's, Ithink, what normally it's like
two or three, five it's my first, I don't, I'm, I don know.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think it's like three to five typically, but
yeah, so, yes, that's membershipcommunications.
I mean the website.
We have a mobile app.
We have an Instagram pushnotifications sending all the
club emails, um, so that thatdefinitely takes a bit of time
(32:06):
because you're kind of workingfor you know everyone in the
club.
So, like you know, summer campregistration I'm working closely
with the camp director.
Tennis registration I'm workingclosely with the rackets
director, swim team, the swimcoach.
You know hockey right now.
All the communication leadingup to the recital, um, so I
don't know.
You just got to kind of managelike what's important?
I, like I said, I start my, Istart my day with a to-do list
every day, do I?
(32:27):
Sometimes things just getthrown away.
You get a 911 call and you getthrown off your you know to-do
list.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Sally, ate it on the ice.
It's all bloody.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
No, I think a lot of it too is just like managing
expectations, right, likeeveryone's going to throw
something at you because theydon't know what you're working
on for all the other people thatwork at the club.
So you know, I'm always likegive me, you know, is this, is
this urgent?
Is it okay if I turn around in42 to 78 hours?
You know what?
So try to get a little cause.
You know everyone throws stuffat you and says urgent, 911, but
(32:58):
you know, realistically it'slike okay, 911 to you might be
like 72 hours to me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, yeah, how.
How big is the staff?
You must have a decent sizedcrew.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
I'm trying to think.
I mean, yeah, so full-time, wehave a lot of seasonal between
you know, like the the ice, likeour hockey director seasonal,
or blades instructor seasonal.
I mean our full-time people,I'd probably say 10 or 15 of us,
Like between upper management,clubhouse staff, maintenance
(33:35):
team, all of that, somethinglike that.
So not super big, but not supersmall.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
And then, yes, a lot of seasonal support.
Are you guys open most days forlunch and dinner?
Speaker 2 (33:44):
Yes, so our main clubhouse is open Wednesday
through Sunday and then our kindof secondary food and beverage
operation is open when thepool's open and when the ice is
open, Pretty much seven days aweek.
So for a smaller club we'repretty much open like when we're
(34:04):
busy in season seven days aweek for some type of dining.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
That's people are cranking yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Yeah, that's good, it's all good stuff.
Rather be busy than you knowsitting there twiddling your
thumb.
So yeah again, every day is.
Every day is a new adventure, anew experience.
But you know, the days, thedays go by.
There's always something to beworking on, planning for the
future.
You know how do we make thisbetter?
Okay, let's, let's get anInstagram post.
Let's, you know, hype this up.
(34:34):
So there's always there's, evenwhen you're sitting there,
there's like obviously alwayssomething that can be done to
elevate the number experience.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
I know what you mean.
Hey, thank you so much forcoming on.
I really appreciate you sharingand all this with the club and
you guys do some really cool,unique stuff Like this is.
This is awesome.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, thanks for having me, it was fun.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hope you all enjoyed that episode.
I know I did.
If you did give it a like,share, subscribe.
A five-star rating means theabsolute world.
It costs nothing.
That's this episode.
Until next time, catch y'all onthe flippity.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.