Assignment 2

Urbana Country Club(UCC)-Private membership Organization By Sungwon Kim (kim203)

Introduction

Urbana Country club(UCC) is a private membership organization that has been established in 1922. This historic country club provides various types of leisure activities such as dining, sports, and different types of social events. Its' intimate atmosphere and premier service gives members a relaxing time. UCC is beyond the place for an individual activities. It's the place where social bonding happens through banquets, holiday events, and host-catered events such as the weddings. The members of UCC has been passing its cultures from generations to generations and now serves over 500 members ages ranging from 20's to the 90's.

Background

Urbana country Club is a private club and they have a limited membership. It is a exclusive organization so that they only accept limited number of memberships. And their memberships are processed by annual subscription. Most of the country clubs in US including UCC are mainly located in suburban or rural ares surrounding a traditional neighborhood. Originally UCC was first founded in 1922, however the club has to wait until 1940 to become officially in membership system under the leadership of presidents Frank Terry, T.E Larson and particularly Fred Corray. The club mainly provides two aspects of activities:Outdoor Recreation and Clubhouse activities.
Outdoor Recreation activities include golf, swimming ,and tennis. Members not only can enjoy these activities themselves but UCC have professionals in each areas who can give exclusive lessons to improve their skills. On the other hand, clubhouse activities are filled with musical entertainment, pool parties, holiday celebration and many more, providing welcoming environment where all the members can blend comfortably in a home like setting.


Employment

Employment opportunities in UCC are divided into various parts. Considering different aspects of leisure services they provide, they hire employees from collecting golf balls in driving range to servers in the restaurant. To get a foot in the door to start off, employees are expected to work mainly behind the scenes such as maintaining facilities at a fine level. UCC does not look for specific requirement for these types of jobs. These positions include golf course maintenance, arranging golf carts, clubhouse cleanings, servers and bartenders. Next tier of positions include golf&tennis pro, lifeguard, clubhouse manager, and chief in the restaurant. The staff positions in this area require specific degree of education, certificates or even a professional experiences for tennis and golf. Moving into the highest authority in organization, the board of directors are in charge UCC's whole decision-making. Board of directors starts with the president of UCC to committees in each parts. To become a board of director, they must be elected by the owner of the organization. It takes number of years to become board of directors
with the promotion. In addition to higher education degrees and various experiences in their own fields, they have to show commitment to the organization.



Current issues and trends

Tennis and golf had been most popular sport activities during last couple of months. UCC has been hosting Summer Serve Club which is three weeks program. Serve club teaches all participants how to serve efficiently and basic techniques of tennis. In addition to lessons of tennis, Serve club provides variety of tennis events such as power/accuracy serve competition, individual match challenges, and mixed doubles parties. Winners from each competitions receive medals ranging from gold to bronze. The participants are varied from children to seniors and reported that they all had such a memorably experiences.

Golf always has been one of the popular fall sports and now it's reaching the peak in terms of popularity. Considering that golf is limited season activity, UCC members are pouring into the fields to get the last taste of golfing season. In fact this time of years attracts more golfers than any other months of season. Usually during September, UCC hosts club championships for both men and women. The club championships are basically biggest golf tournaments for the club during the season, and it means to wrap up the season successfully with a great expectations for the next season.


Meaning of leisure in UCC

As I mentioned at the introduction part, UCC is place where social bonding happens. It is almost characterized as a small society where people can share sports interests, celebrate on holidays, or just socialize with people by dining together. UCC is always trying to provide family-type of atmosphere toward the members. They have several events and programs that can bring people together such as kid's pool party, banquets, and variety of sporting events. If you are a new member of UCC, then the membership committee will introduce you to the rest of club members and you can experience sense of belonging right away. Moreover UCC offers weekly emails and montly newsletters to let members know about upcomming events, and they also provide news for the members' special accomplishment and celebrations.


Synopsis

After visiting UCC personally, I felt that the country club is more of a community based organization than an individual based facility. Members of UCC get great benefit from various social services. It's also excellent place for family members to spend quality times regardless of generation difference. However, in addition to the membership fees, UCC demands addtional requirements form the applicants, including residency requirement, sponsorship, and connection within the current members. People from foreign countries might not be approved for being a member because of residency requirement. Another cons of this private organization is that this facility has a limited access within the members. For instance, golfers are only allowed to play certain round of golf in a year in consideration of crowding conditions.