Humour Helps Ease That Rainy Day Feeling

As I mentioned in my previous blog, after opening early this year, we have been hit with inclement weather including snow and rain that have affected rounds played here at Cottonwood.

Honestly, you get sick and tired of talking about the weather. You’ve got to keep people positive, not only the members, but also the staff.

You want to keep people positive. You want to keep people employed and you don’t want to lose your hourly staff to an indoor job that isn’t as dependent on the weather.

It’s important to keep them motivated because they get tired of starting things, then having to change them and move things around because of the weather. Many people don’t want to come and take lessons when it’s cold out and they don’t want to golf in the cold and we haven’t had many nice days.

I’m lucky enough to have an owner who gets it when it comes to the weather. I don’t have a board of directors who sit and say, `Why don’t these numbers look right?’

Our owner, Lyle Edwards, understands it from his own experience. He looks out from his office every day and sees it raining, just like everybody else. That’s a positive for me and my job is to make sure the rest of the staff is pumped up.

Recently, we had a big staff barbeque where Lyle and I cooked burgers for 75 people, including staff members and their families. We told them, `We’re glad you’re here, we’re looking forward to a good year and everything is going to come around.’

It wasn’t anything big, but we also held a really neat draw in which we pulled one name. Nobody knew what the draw was for, but for the winner, we picked a shift and that person got the day off with pay while I had to work that shift and Lyle came in and worked mine.

I had about 15 staff members shaking their hands saying, `Pick me! Pick me!’ I didn’t know if I was going to be cutting rough, changing pins or washing dishes. It was just good kibitzing and a good way to keep staff morale up.

The sun will come out and it’s going to get busy. We’ll need all hands on deck and we’ll need them to be organized and going when that happens, especially since they haven’t been at full speed for awhile because of the weather.

They’re sick of cleaning and they’re sick of organizing. If they’ve been in the industry for awhile, they know it’s going to get better, but for now, a little sense of humour goes a long way.

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