The Pellucid Perspective - October 2010 - (Page 13)

TREND SPOTTING SCGA-PLGA merger: Sign of the times? Advocacy strategy designed to protect golf’s flanks from political attacks By Jim Dunlap W hen the Southern California Golf Association and the Public Links Golf Association of Southern California announced in mid-August that they were merging, the immediate effect was creation of one of the nation’s largest golf associations. Perhaps more crucially for the golf industry as a whole, it also signaled a new commitment and a new approach to golf ’s relationship with the legislative and regulatory bodies whose decisions impact the industry so dramatically. On the arithmetic side of the ledger, as of January 1, 2011, the nearly 80-year old PLGA will add its 42 member facilities, 131 affiliate clubs and 13,000 unique members to the SCGA’s 150,000 members, giving the SCGA 163,000 members, 437 member clubs and 880 affiliated clubs. That’s a decent-sized bloc of potential voters, but until this point, their voices have been neither audible nor effective. That may be about to change. The golfer members of both organizations will undoubtedly benefit from the merger via increased programs and services for their money (and the SCGA will certainly welcome the $390,000 in additional dues from 13,000 new members at $30 per year each). The real key to the merger, however, may be the PLGA’s executive director, Craig Kessler, and his extensive experience in advocacy and the shaping of legislative and bureaucratic decision-making. Nearly 85 percent of the facility members of the PLGA of Southern California are municipal courses, so Kessler is well versed in the ways of the various political bodies and regulatory agencies impacting public golf, and golfers. His role with the bigger and better SCGA will be to develop and carry out a legislative advocacy program that is proactive, not merely reactive. The recent scares in California, North Carolina and other locales involving attempts to expand the sales tax to a wide range of services and recreational pursuits, including golf, have heightened golf ’s awareness of the importance of legislative advocacy. While golf ’s major organizations have just recently seized onto the concept of legislative advocacy with the employment of professional lobbyists to carry the “We Are Golf ” message to Washington, D.C., Kessler has been working city halls and agency office buildings for years. Through the relationships and dialog he had developed over time, he played a key role in fighting off some emergency water regulations that would have all but scorched the 33 courses within the district served by Los Angeles Water & Power. An initial proposal to limit golf course watering to Mondays and Thursdays only, before 9AM and after 4PM, eventually was changed to allow courses to water seven days a week as long as they cut water usage by 20 percent of the previous year’s usage in that month. “There is some wisdom in sometimes signing onto some- thing you consider aberrant,” said Kessler in a recent address to the California Golf Course Owners Association quarterly meeting. “I’d hate to think that our strategy is just to exhale every time no new tax is passed, and then one day an avalanche comes and buries us. It’s probably impossible to beat the sales tax indefinitely, so we need to plan for that.” SCGA Executive Director Kevin Heaney, who initiated the PLGA merger talks, said that SCGA and the Northern California Golf Association each allocate $24,000 annually to a lobbying effort in the state capitol of Sacramento, but said that is not sufficient to develop the key relationships at either the state or the local level that are necessary for a proactive strategy. “Efforts in other states have been reactive, not proactive,” Heaney said. “Nobody has been really successful, although Arizona has had some success. It goes back to Craig’s point about forging relationships.” n MORE CHANNELS THAN BASIC CABLE, BUT WITH THE SAME PROFIT POTENTIAL. Introducing Visage, the first mobile golf information system. See what one touch of our 10-inch screen can do for your operation. To learn more, visit visagegolf.com. Visage is a joint development from Club Car, Inc., and GPS Industries. www.PellucidcorP.com The Pellucid PersPecTive 13 http://www.visagegolf.com http://www.visagegolf.com http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - October 2010

The Pellucid Perspective - October 2010
Contents
Bringing a Pellucid Perspective to Golf Industry Information
What's In a Name.... and an Email Address?
September Weather Impact, August YtD Utilization
Will the PGA TOUR be Subject to Repricing?
Alternative Uses for your Golf Course 'Factory'
Los Angeles Market Profile
Survey Says... You're Still Employed
SCGA-PLGA Merger: Sign of the Times?
Sunshine Laws and Midnight Marketing

The Pellucid Perspective - October 2010