bhadella
* Ace Member *
What DG Club has the most active members? Our Charlotte DGC is big (over 500 tags for 2019) but wanted to know what other clubs have large membership bases and what kinds of activities they do for members. Peas and thanks!
Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)
$14 ChildrenThat's huge. Wow. What do you guys charge for membership out of curiosity?
SFDGC usually weighs in the upper 300's, maybe touching 400 by the end of the year. Membership dues are $40 (or we usually do $20 specials for the remainder of the year at The Safari, which is held in September).
$14 Children
$23 Regular Member No Disc
$29 Regular Member plus Club Disc
How ironic on the timing of this post. I received my membership packet in the mail yesterday for the Charlotte Disc Golf Club. The bag-tag (mini) has number 526 on it. Guess I'm fortunate to live in the Charlotte area. Lots of great courses.
Sweet! Thanks for supporting the club! It honestly does go right back into the courses as upkeep, maintenance and then approvals.
JyLi from Jyväskylä, Finland, had about 450 members few years ago. The city has only about 140 thousand inhabitants.
I wonder how the older members of the club feel about "club culture" before/after growth. I imagine that must be difficult to maintain?
That must be like Emporia on steroids in terms of the penetration of disc golf in the local mainstream culture! Do you see other golfers outside of the course daily?
That's a great question.
My perspective is a bit short sighted (only been involved since 2012) but I'll try to describe the dynamics of Charlotte.
Starting even in the late 80s/early 90's there was a big DG culture. We had a few cherished courses that were hand made, blood sweat and tears. The tournament scene grew and the club was able to run Worlds '97 which is a big event that brought together the team even closer. And continued to build a relationship with Innova East. The club continued to grow in scope and activity. Deciding to attempt the combined Pro/Am Worlds in 2012 was a herculian task. It was a bold proposal (adding up to 10 courses) and an amazing amount of work. And they pulled it off. At that time, people like me who had a casual relationship with DG (played for years and accidentally ran into the Brent Hambrick NT at my local course) found out about what the club did, volunteered at
Worlds and then were energized. The guys who carried to monstrous workload from 2012 were beat. A new wave of folks energized by 2012 pushed the club forward for a few years and then decided to run 2018. In comparison to 2012, 2018 was a breeze. We were able to finely sand some of the rough edges on courses and get more outside help to make 2018 less of a beast to work. The 2012 guys were more of the sage consultants/specialists that helped us along. Sometimes the relationships were frayed but afterwards regained some strength. And luckily the 2018 Worlds has energized another new set of people to help the club move forward. Between courses, events, membership, etc the club is hitting new peaks.
So long story short, each big milestone encouraged new people to be involved. And those who carried the club in prior stages took some time to accept the change but in time became confidants, champions and co-members with the new wave of cocksure, gung-ho youngins.
Wow, it's fascinating that adding those feathers in the cap created significant enough momentum to capitalize on. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise if you study human nature, but it sure dents the commonly held cultural belief as far as how to properly grow the scene. I feel like while our numbers are growing, our culture is still "niche" and not widespread, so the common mentality of "if you build it, they will come" is not nearly as ironclad as it is presented to be.
I'm running the SF Safari this year, which will be an A-tier for the first time ever. Sean Jack has now run two DGPT events at the next nearest course for us (Gleneagles), and the club is in the spotlight with local companies because of the events that it is either hosting or assisting...so your perspective kinda puts into a new light what the possibilities are when you continue to add to the plumage. It also tells me I should open my mind to the possibility that important members of the team could be from the less expected and less experienced parts of the club, since there may be people that want to help and are awaiting the opportunity.