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2005 State of the Association Address
Distinguished Members, I am pleased to report that the state of the association is strong. (Which is more than I can say for my knee!) I have had a lot of fun this past year with the tournaments and I appreciate the fact that my impeachment process was quashed in the lower courts earlier this month, so I am able to serve another year as your president. (Does this job come with interns?) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Once again, I would like to start off by thanking our board of directors; Tom Halley, Jose R. Diaz and Meghan Halley for the continued assistance and tireless effort they each put in to make the association run smoothly. Thank you very much, guys, for making me look like I know what I’m doing. Thanks also to our sponsors who graciously donated prizes for our tournaments. More on that in a minute. We thank our staff photographer and fellow member, Bob Alt, for the tournament pictures that appear each month on our newsletter. They are also featured in the photo gallery section on our web site. Bobo keeps getting more creative with the lens each month, however, if he gets any more up close and personal with our local croc, we may have to refer to him as Captain Hook! Speaking of web sites, we would also like to extend our appreciation and thanks to our official web master, Guillermo Wolf, from Cyberbox.net, who assists us each month by publishing our tournaments results, photos, etc on the web. Along with continual updates, he has just helped us redesigned our site to make it easier to navigate. Please be patient with the updates because unfortunately, Guillermo recently experienced a detached retina, which has sidelined him for a while. Couple that with the fact he has a small child and the poor guy is running around like a one-eyed chicken with no head. (?) Our best wishes for a speedy recovery. A special thanks to David Kilmer, sports editor for the Islander News, who graciously reads my monthly tournament results, sifts through the ramblings and extracts the salient points for publication each month. Although, I am getting a little tired of reading about Marvin Marcus all the time, lately. (Note to David: If you see Marvin’s name in the winner’s column again, change it to yours. I know I speak for the entire association.) Our thanks and appreciation to the golf course management, Carlos, Karen and Mariana for not only helping us with the tournaments, but more importantly, putting up with my barging into their offices, unannounced, at all hours, with my questions, comments and crap, while still pretending to like me. Thank you all. (This is beginning to sound like an academy awards speech.) We must also thank our friends at The Links Restaurant, Andres, Yanet, Fernando, Lucho, Carlos, Anna, Jimmy, et al, for their assistance and service during the breakfasts and lunches for our tournaments. As the official sponsor of the KBMGA, The Links is offering all members a 10% discount off your entire party’s bill whenever you dine or drink in the restaurant. Just show them your KBMGA handicap card. The Links has also started a “Happy Hour”, 5-7 pm, Monday through Friday featuring 2-for-1 drinks. (Sorry, the 10% discount does not apply – Tim Henshaw.) So, as you’re driving home over the bridge, decompressing from a long day’s work, stop on in and buy me a beer! (Two, actually). And last but not least, to all of our members for making all the work we do seem almost worthwhile. Because of you, it’s a lot of fun playing in the tournaments. (Well, most of you.) GHIN SYSTEM: The biggest news of the year is the addition of the GHIN system in the pro shop. This computerized system (Golf Handicap Index Network) is able to accept your scores directly on the computer screen in the pro shop - or - you will be able to post scores from any other course in the country that utilizes the GHIN system - or – you can post them from your computer via the internet – or - from the international space station – the Hubble telescope, etc. As you can see, this will enable each member to post his own scores from virtually anywhere, so it’s important that each of you study up on the GHIN system and all the benefits it has to offer. Speaking of studying up, yours truly needs to bone up (if I can say that) on the whole system as well, as I am an old dog and this is a new trick. The golf course will also be installing a printer to allow you to print a current handicap card whenever you want. (No more waiting for me to mail it up to Boca once a month - John Herman.) Once the membership list is cleaned up this week I will send out a list of all our current members and their respective GHIN numbers. (I should probably post it on our web site, as well.) But alas, as life would have it … I have recently been advised by the golf course that they will also offer GHIN numbers to the general public for an annual fee of $15 (the same fee they are charging the association per member.). This fee is included in your $100 annual dues so I suspect that some members who are just in it for the handicaps may bail out of the association and save a few bucks. So goes the price of automation, I guess, but technology marches on. The annual dues enable us to afford the various benefits and prize monies for the tournaments. In addition to our sponsor’s gifts, we now have quarterly golf clinics by PGA master professional, Kevin Perkins, range balls, breakfast and lunch with free beer. But is that good enough for us? … NO!!! (well, it is for me, but J.R. keeps telling me there’s more to it than free beer.) We want to INCREASE the benefits for this year. We want to be the most prestigious men’s golf association in South Florida! We want benefits!!! Tons and tons of benefits!!!
Which brings us to … OBJECTIVES: More benefits!!!!! Our primary objective for 2005 is to create more benefits for the members … and the best way we can think of doing that is to secure more sponsors. We have lined up certain prizes already this year such as:
We are currently working on other prizes, which the board tells me I can’t mention because they have not been secured yet (boat rentals) which will definitely add to the benefits of your membership. By having sponsors donate prizes; the association can then utilize the cash saved, by applying it to the monthly tournament fees. So, instead of paying $95 (which is what we each pay now to play in a tournament in the peak season) the association could pitch-in to bring the cost down and still receive all the benefits we enjoy now, plus some. Which brings us to … SPONSORS: Now that we know how we would benefit from the sponsors, it’s important to be able to explain to the sponsor how we can benefit them. We would like to develop the KBMGA as a premier association, with 150+ of the most affluent golfers in South Florida. (That’s us, guys!) So, for the sponsors, placing their company’s logo and link on our Pulitzer Prize winning monthly newsletter will expose their product to our membership. Also, by placing their logo and link on our web site’s home page, their product will have worldwide exposure. (Hey, remember the four German guys who challenged us to a match from Spain? Well, they found us on the internet!) But we need your help … please reply to this e-mail with your ideas for sponsors (or any suggestions for the KBMGA) … your involvement is appreciated!! IN CLOSING … It’s been another great year and I, personally, look forward to our best year ever in 2005. And, although I’m not one to brag about our achievements, I am on the short list for the succession to the papacy. (I think it’s down to me and Luigi.) See you on the course. Sincerely, Bill Hayes El Presidente Pope Diddy
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