11
January
2023
We talk to GCMA members about how they do their jobs and ask what advice they can share with peers like you. This week, we speak to Broadstone general manager Jon Dry. In an average day, what meetings do you have and who with? In terms of structured meetings, that would mainly be with internal staff, so particularly our course manager, clubhouse team, office team, and our head professional - usually on a daily basis. Then we have a weekly staff meeting, and in addition to that it's an awful lot of knocks on the door and people coming in to see me. My office is the first door as you come off the 18th green so, as you can imagine, if there's any problems my door is being knocked on frequently through the day. How much of your day do you spend on email and calls? Do you manage that time in any way? I would say probably a third of my day, but I try and do it in blitzes. I drop my little boy off at nursery and pick him up each day, so I get up at the crack of dawn, do an hour's work before he wakes up, and then I'm lucky enough to be able to do the nursery runs. Then that means I'm on top of my inbox by the time I get to work, which is always a nice feeling, and then I get to work. If I don't get another chance to sit down and attack my inbox, then at least I've had a good crack at it already, because quite often in our role you go to work with a plan and something else crops up. What hardware or software could you not be without? I would say the club software for competitions. With WHS now, you wouldn't want to be doing all the results manually, that's for sure. Give us a good productivity tip. Structure your day and commit to those timings. Certainly, for me, blitzing the inbox first thing in the morning is gold, because it means - worst case scenario - I've ticked that box and it's done for the day, plus no one tends to reply at that time of day as well, which is a bonus! What major projects are you working on currently? Mainly the conditioning and the presentation of the golf course. We're just coming to the end of our Project 125, ahead of the club’s 125th anniversary this year. So really we're just polishing off that task list and focusing on the presentation of the golf course going into what will be a big year with the 125th and the English Amateur. How much pressure has there been on you as the manager to deliver a successful 125th year? It certainly brings a lot of attention and focus from all areas. Obviously, the English Amateur will bring attention from outside the club, but we have got to ensure that focus is still... Please LOGIN to read the full article.
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