The Kirtland Country Club

The Kirtland Country Club was just terrific. If Canterbury is the Cadillac of country clubs, Kirtland is the Bugatti. Their hospitality and passion for their club was unparalleled. the word that kept jumping into our minds as we strolled through His heaven on earth was class, class, class. It was the complete opposite of our experience at Walden. Kirtland Country Club embodies the idea of a family club that is the home away from home. 80% of the members come from Cuyahoga County, when the club resides in Lake County. With most of its members living in Shaker Heights or Gates Mills, it really is a destination country club. Just off I-90, it is an oasis of glory. When we first stepped foot on this great club, we immediately felt like we were entering are own home with the welcome we received. Once we entered, we were stunned by the elegance and yet homey comforts of a mantioned built at the turn of the century for an old Cleveland family by the name of Everrett.

Kirtland is known to be a family club. Financially: Kirtland can be used by the entire family not just dad or who ever holds the membership. With over seven membership options and nearly 500 members, Kirtland has a plan for every family who wishes to be appart of this elite club. Also, Kirltand holds holiday events and parties to include the entire family. One thing that symbolizes Kirtland's commitment to the family is the four hole junior golf course so that youths can feel comfortable while learning the game of golf. The average age is from 58-60.


Golf:
Mr. LaRocca and Mr. Quigley were kind enough to escort us throughout the premises and the back nine holes. Mr. LaRocca claimed, "The back nine is one of the most beautiful nine wholes in Ohio." After seeing these nine wholes, we can only believe him. Not only is the course maintained at a championship level, the beauty of Kirtland's rolling hills was magnificent. It reminded us of Frodo's journey to destroy the ring and save middle earth. Kirtland is a non tee time golf course allowing members to just walk up and play.

The food and beverage at Kirtland centers around their kitchen, which is divided into two sections: one for banquets and the othe for al la carte. They offer a brand new club room, which we had the pleasure to enjoy a terrific lunch in. There is a grill room for a more relaxed burger or hot dog. Near the course is a men's locker house, which houses the men's only grill with a coed patio attached. Kirtland has enough room for decent sized banquets. The customer service is terrific because the chef has worked there for 30 years. A great feature to the club was that almost every employee has worked at Kirtland for over 15 years. They know every member's name and wishes.

Kirtland could not have been any kinder to us. Their passion for the club business was obvious and their respect for our project.

Signature of Solon

Signature of Solon is a 'for profit' club that is owned by Eagle Golf Corporation, whose management was an offshoot of club corp. Like Walden, Signature of Solon is a club designed around residential homes and the real estate market. The point of the club is to attract people to buy homes, and the membership comes along with the house. You can also buy a membership from anywhere including Hawaii.
The club offers various family oriented facilities and activities. From a kid's pool, equipped with a water slid and a zero entry baby pool, to baby sitting. There are 550 members with 310 being golf members. One of the strongest points of the club is its average being 48. They offer Thursday night ladies golf leagues and make sure to include the women in all aspects of the club.

Food and Beverage:
The main attraction to Signature of Solon is their upstairs banquet facilities. This is a world class destination to have meetings or social events such as weddings or proms. There is a kitchen and two bars to service the banquet aspect without interrupting the club atmosphere downstairs. This part of the club helps generate outside revenue through its use and popularity. Mr. Atkinson the GM emphasized how important it is to the club. There are dining rooms on the main level in which members can enjoy lunch and dinner.

Golf is very popular and quite beautiful around the residential area. It is new and fresh for the members. They do not have any plans to hold a big tournament, maybe a amateur. They hold charity events such as a Livestrong golf shotgun tournament. The course was designed by Craig Schriner.

Membership:
There is a full golf membership, Social/golf: golf 8 times a year. Social: All except golf. Cooperate: membership promoting the recruitment of members from your business. Mr. Atkinson said that every club had issues with the economy. However because Signature of Solon revolves around the real estate market, there was quite a hit. Their goal is to recover and grow and focus on their strengths such as the upstairs banquet hall.

Mayfield/Sand Ridge Club (Mayfield Location)

Mr. Welc set up a round table discussion for us with the Assistant General Manage Mr. Cosgrove and the head of golf Mr. Wood. We had a really interesting and fun conversation that went beyond our interview questions.
Many of our questions centered around the recent mergers: with Sand Ridge five years ago and Oakwood this past year. Sand Ridge was a simple acquisition because it only had golf facilities and fewer members. Oakwood, a historically Jewish country club, brought in about 200 members with all new wants and needs. With 815 members the Mayfield/Sand Ridge/Oakwood is "bursting at the seams."
Mayfield's number one goal is to continue to be a family club. There is a relaxed dress code to add to an atmosphere that kids and families feel like they're at home. They offer a kids camp over the summer along with many junior golf and tennis activities. Women have always been included in the club and are even on the board.

Food and Beverage:
Mayfield's food and beverage has experienced a huge change with the cultural change by adding the members of Oakwood. The Jewish culture uses the club's dining facilities especially for lunch to the maximum. Also by bringing over Oakwood's chef, the menu is in transition to appease the Jewish pallet. With such a huge increase in membership, the kitchen has been pushed to its highest capacity. Such a challenge was expected and has been dealt with an increase in staff. There is a dining room that is open six days for an upscale meal. Also a snack bar by the pool and an annex by the golf course. With 815 members, the club is able to turn a profit of the al la carte, because of the high turnover rate.

Golf:
Mayfield members can brag to their friends that they belong to a club that has two golf courses. The Mayfield Course $900,000 to run and more of a home course for the Mayfield members. The Sand Ridge Course is $1.2 million, but its country feeling requires more expenses. There are 750 golf members that belong to the club. The proshops are owned by the club and they turn about $700,000 in sales. They have held NCAA regional finals but don't want to hold any huge tournaments because it takes the course away from the members. Bert Way designed the Mayfield course along with the famous Firestone.

While golf is the main attraction, tennis is on the rise. It is cheaper in time and money so members are beginning to get back into tennis. Mayfield plans to build an indoor facility, similar to the one at Oakwood that the members loved.
Membership:
Mayfield offers various memberships. The Golf is 'all in.' Membership is everything besides golf. Clubhouse is the dining, fitness and limited golf. We discussed the idea of a semi-private club and Mr. Welc said, 'you're either private or not.' The average age was 53 before the Oakwood merger but now it has to be closer to 60. Part of Oakwood's failure was everything and everyone became really old.
Mayfield's location used to be prime and known as out in the country. Now in 2010 they wish the location was not so urban. However, the location does not really bother the members. Mayfield's goal is to keep the members and continue to adapt to the recent merger. Their staff is extremely knowledgeable and experienced, the future seems very hopeful.

Fourteenth Day of Project

Today I finished doing all the injections into the GC! and then I also finished recording the area under the peaks for all the graphs. After recording all the data I entered them on Excel and strated doing calculations to find the sum, the area of each component as a percentage of the total area. From then on I had to compare the percentages I got to the actual percentages (assuming that the solutions phase separated equally). I then made graphs out of the information, to compare it to the one I had made last week from the single phase separations, and to see if the UNIF had made the right assumptions in generating the data and graph I was using as a guide.

What's left is to discuss the graphs and the data with the Prof. and figure out the next step - whether I will have to redo some of the injections, or do some more data collection. :)

Thirteenth Day of Project

So yesterday was a bit challenging! I had to make up more solutions of methanol/1-octanol/water, but this time they had to be 2-phase solutions; which means that after I make them they should phase separate. I started off with the calculations, figuring out the percentage combinations that would give me solutions that would phase separate - and to help me with that I used the graph generated by UNIF (a program used to generate information without doing the actual experiments). After getting all the percentage combinations, I figured out the masses of the components I would actually need to make the solutions based on the percentages. The math didn't take that long, and so I went on to making the solutions. Obviously I wasn't getting the exact masses I was supposed to based on the calculations (they were pretty close though), so I after making up 10 solutions, I sat down again with the calculated and calculated the exact percentages of the methanol, water and 1-octanol I had ACTUALLY put in the solutions. (The I had to shake the solutions, and let them settle and phase separate)!

TODAY... I started doing the injections on the GC. So I have to make 20 injections (bottom layer and top layer for each solution). Each injection takes about 13 minutes..and then I have to wait for the GC to cool down to the initial temperature of 40 degrees celsius from a final temperature of 190 degrees celsius! So doing a total of 20 injections takes, pretty much, a long time. So, I did injections for 8 solutions, and I took some of the areas under the peaks in the different graphs, for the different layers of the different solutions! (I will at some point have to put the data on Excel and create some graphs out of it).

Lot of work...I feel like I am working as much as people who have "REAL" jobs!

Beechmont Country Club

We met with Mr. Downey at Beechmont Country Club. He was extremely kind and wanted to help us out. He began by saying that each club is very different culturally. Therefore, the wants of each culture is different so a general manager has to adjust. Beechmont is a primarily Jewish club so Mr. Downey says the main focus of his members is dining as opposed to golf.
Beechmont is a medium sized club with 381 members and Mr. Downey told us that there is a $5.5 million annual revenue. The economy hit Beechmont hard but not as bad as other clubs. He said that some members were even effected by the Bernie Madoff scandal. Mr. Downey estimated that Beechmont had a net loss of 20 members during the economic commotion.

Family Club:
Beechmont has an average age of 54. It really includes the children through the various activities and its extremely popular Camp Beechmont. They are involved in 'Super Clubs' which is a group of clubs around that have competitions in various sports, ranging from volleyball to golf, with young adults. Mr. Downey as a GM is very personal with the children through his involvement and passion with the camps.
Food and Beverage:

Mr. Downey explained that with a Jewish population the dining is the main attraction. Members look to their club as the number one option to eat and entertain friends and business. Therefore, the club has to offer the best dining facilities and accommodations for the members. The chef is very personal and has mastered the Jewish pallet, perfecting staples like brisket or matzo ball soup. Since the food dynamic is the focus at Beechmont it is hard to compare it to other clubs.
Golf is still an attraction to Beechmont. The course is extremely nice but could not hold a high end golf tournament. The expense is extremely high for the course but Beechmont claims that they are smart with how they spend their money. Mr. Downey says they know how to stretch a dollar but still offer a good value to the members.

Mr. Downey plans to eliminate the club's debt over the next few years. He wants to improve the club physically by spending money on the course and main building. He is pleased with how his club has handled the economic crisis and he believes in a good future. The people of Beechmont are proud of their club and should stick by it for a good while.

Third week of project

It's hard to believe that we're already on our third week of senior project. Recently, to my surprise, I discovered that there is actually one 8th grade, 7-person French class left at Old Trail. Since Senora was going to be teaching the same lesson in both of the 8th grade Spanish classes that day, I dropped by the French class. There was a student in the class who was behind because of missed school, so I was able to pull him out into the hallway and teach him what he missed, catching him up. Although I'm really enjoying learning the Spanish language, it was a nice chance to practice one I've already studied.




Also, I was able to work with Juan Pablo (the Spanish-fluent 4th grader) and record him reading some books. And later in the day, we went to the Young-5's class, where he read aloud one of the books we've recorded. The five year olds loved him! It was really fun listening him read and observing the reactions of the five year olds.

Today, the 7th graders in Spanish class learned many new verbs, all of which I learned how to conjugate and wrote them down in my notebook. In 8th grade, we finished watching the Don Quijote video. Sadly my day was cut short because of the mid-project report day, but it was still really fun.