City, State: Motor City Chain Gang, Troy, Michigan (metro Detroit)
Club Origin: (City, Course, Municipality, Club/Group, etc.) Local with club events limited to a few area courses.
Annual Dues: $25/yr
Package: Annual membership includes a different, custom shirt each year, custom club stamp disc in premium or limited edition plastic/mold, and weekly league play @ $1/wk. Since non-members can play in weekly league for $2/wk, the $25 membership pays for itself over the 24-25 weeks our league runs (from Late April - Oct).
>> Every week, the top few handicapped scores in each division win players choice of baseline plastic from a decent selection offered by the club. 6 additional premium discs are given away each week for CTP's and longest putts on designated holes.
>> Optional (at additional cost): Ace Pool, Super Pool, and two different 50/50 CTP's that pay cash, with designated rules for rollover and payouts.
>> Optional Bag tags $10 (different tags for Pros; Masters; Amateurs; Womens divisions) to increase competition within each group) with bag tag money going directly to the course improvement fund.
Benefits: local course improvements, access to club events, leagues, and ace pool, and chances to win plastic to try molds you're interested in. League division winners get trophy + club script to buy merch at end of year. All members get can win club script for good attendance (missing 0-2 weeks), and for helping out on a fairly regular basis (e.g. recording and posting weekly league scores, adding up score cards... voluntarily doing any ongoing activity that makes running the club go more smoothly.
Is this a good value? Definitely. 25 wks of league play ends up costing members & non-members, the same $50/yr....but members get the shirt and disc.
How could your club improve?
1) They should make the club budget completely transparent and available to all members. How much is coming in each week? Precisely how is the money being spent, and where's it going? Don't get me wrong... I don't have any reason to think anyone's skimming the club money, or that it's being handled poorly. But transparency is really the way to go, and effectively eliminates any suspicions people might have.
2) They could do a much better job of limiting the # of players per card/hole to improve pace of play... but they don't like breaking up groups of friends because it's a social event.
3) They should let players accumulate their "winnings" from multiple weeks and "trade -up," so that after winning 3 weeks, you can select 3 baseline discs, or 2 pro, or 1 premium. There's only so much baseline plastic you need.