Page 9 - english winter 2017

1991 phone call from Mark Seabrook started it all....
OCTOBER, 1991
I owned a small sports marketing business that I had started in 1985. Business was pretty good and the fall was a busy time of year respond- ing to RFPs and negotiating contracts, so I had been out of the office most of the day. Without email technology, I had a slew of voicemails awaiting my return. One in particular caught my attention...
“Hi Jeff, it’s Mark Seabrook calling. We just had a meeting with a few owners to discuss doing some group purchasing for the Ottawa area golf courses. I’m wondering if you’d be interested in a management contract to handle that for us. There might be $100K in it for you, so give me a call back to discuss.”
To this day, Mark still jokes about having not mentioned that the $100K might be spread over a couple of decades!
The concept that led to the NGCOA Canada originated from that voicemail. I then met with Mark and that small group of Ottawa area courses and we started to build out the vision for what might lie ahead. It didn’t take long to realize that broadening the concept to become national in scope and to include other related services for golf course operators would make sense.
At the time, there was a fairly modest NGCOA USA in existence and a couple of loosely structured regional groups of owners in Canada, however there was no strong voice representing the best interests of Canadian golf course owners. With the pros, managers, supers, golfers and suppliers all organized into their respective associations, there was a void at the very “hub of the wheel” where each of those groups either worked or played.
Furthermore, golf had been gradually evolving from its roots as a great game for the upper class and the private clubs that served those members, to more public access, diversity, and golf courses as businesses. By the early ‘90s, that trend had gained considerable momentum and golf was projected to continue expanding in that direction well into the future.
There was the need for a trade association to represent the best interests of golf course ownership, fillingthatemergingvoid.Inclose coordination with the NGCOA USA, a parallel NGCOA Canada was born in 1992.
1992
Together Mark & Jeff launch the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada in 1992.
Head office is located in the national capital, Ottawa.
The NGCOA Canada logo is designed based on the NGCOA USA brand.
So, now what? We had an association on paper but no members, no mem- ber benefits, no staff, no credibility, and no money. It was a framework only. Although I was quite capable of writing a business plan proposing to financial institutions how we would borrow a million dollars to launch the NGCOA Canada into a multi-million dollar enterprise, you can’t do that when you’re a start-up, not-for-profit association with no collateral.
The financial solution needed some creativity. Mark convinced a few local golf courses to donate $1,000 each as founding members, and the fledgling Ottawa Valley Golf Course Owners Association agreed to lend up to $19,000 of its small bank balance and become the first NGCOA Canada chapter. That was the extent of our seed capital. It wasn’t enough to get very far, or pay me for what needed to be done.
The rest of the financial solution came from me agreeing to a fairly en- trepreneurialmanagementcontract. I would absorb all of the NGCOA Canada operating expenses in exchange for a commission on mem- bership and revenues from the group purchasing program we had just launched, called Golfmax. It was a 5-year contract with no risk or investment by the NGCOA Canada, and I was young and ambitious.
Golf Business Canada 9