2010 Membership Drive

[Chris K]

The Board and I want to thank each of you for supporting disc golf in St Louis & the surrounding area and our club. We are 5 months into our fiscal year and we have passed the 300 member threshold. That means we have $3000 to put towards course improvements just from memberships. So far we have spent $800 at JB (bridge on hole 10), $500 at Quail Ridge, $500 at Unger (Kiosk) and $500 at Creve Coeur (Kiosk). The parks department is in the process of getting the 2 kiosks built and installed.

The club has committed to improve and support all the courses in the area through work days, tournaments, and materials. The municipal courses are a little tougher to support and we will be working to resolve that in the future.

All of the money pays for materials and machinery and the club members supply the labor. Therefore the true value of what we do for the disc golf courses is much greater than the money we spend. I want to personally thank each of you who have volunteered your time and expertise in the past and I thank each of you who will volunteer your time and skill in the weeks and months to come.



My goal this year is to triple our membership from last year so we have the capital to improve all the courses. The only way that will happen is if each of you encourages your golfing buddies to join us. As you can see, $3000 gets swallowed up pretty quickly.



I believe we are worthy of your support and that the club is heading in the right direction. I think of membership as ‘greens fees’ for the year and I buy memberships from every club/course I play; even out of town clubs. It is important to the growth of the sport and other clubs that we do what we can. That said; it is up to us to improve what we have and count our blessings that we have so much to work with.



Every park needs work; some more than others, so please contact me and/or your course captain and offer your services.

Unger is still too wet to work on but we are redesigning it so it is playable even when it floods.



The parks department has agreed to mow Creve Coeur on a monthly basis this year but they won’t be mowing the whole park. We have agreed to define the fairways for them by planting trees, bushes and other markers. Creve has lost an extraordinary number of trees and more are targeted for removal for safety reasons. The parks dept will be planting trees in the park too, and they have agreed to work with the course captain, Ben Hart and brothers Joe and Morgan, to place the trees in strategic locations. The club is going to need your help to plant trees at Creve Coeur. The baskets also need sanding and painting.



We are preparing for the tournament season and although we have tournaments all year long, the weather and soil restrict what can be done to a few weekends. However, you can make improvements every time you play by picking up trash along the way and placing fallen branches at the base of trees; it is the most noticeable improvement of them all. Many of us are out of work and are available during the week so let me know who you are to schedule some projects. All of the work on the courses also qualifies for ‘community service’ hours. There is a Maintenance and Improvement topic on the ‘DISCussion/Courses’ thread to post/record your name, course, task, and hours. This is submitted to the Parks Department quarterly. http://stlouisdiscgolfclub.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9&sid=959ed9063592a211503436b5a306b037





The club has a Mach 3 portable basket valued at $450 and a $450 Titan basket that we will be selling raffle tickets for; $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. These will be concurrent raffles so 1 ticket gives you a chance at both baskets. One of the baskets will be drawn at the St Louis Open. Tickets can be purchased throughout the year and the drawing for the second basket will be held at the Club Championships.



In addition, we will be giving you a ticket for every new member you recruit as well as the new member. Your names will be recorded and written on the tickets when the memberships are turned in (no tickets will actually be handed out so you can’t lose them). It is also not necessary to be present to win. The drawing will be held at the Club Championships in October. The person or course captain who has a tag is just a resource for the one selling it.

I.E. Joe is a member and brings his friend to me to sign him up. Joe and his friend get a ticket put in the jar. If I ask someone to join and they sign up, then the newbie and I get a ticket.



Thanks for hanging with us. Send me an email or give me a call.



Chris K

President

River City Flyers / St Louis Disc Golf Club

314-583-3340

[Chris K]

ARE YOU A RIVER CITY FLYER MEMBER YET?

The St Louis Disc Golf Club is raising money to improve our area courses. Our goal is to raise $10,000 for course maintenance and improvements by tripling our membership from 300 to 1000 members. We also hope to help finance the installation of 36 holes in one location. The Club is going to need your help so we created an incentive for you and the new member.

We are raffling 2 baskets worth $450 each.
Tickets may be purchased for $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.
Tickets may be earned by recruiting a new member to the club; both you and the new member get a ticket. Obviously, if each current member recruited a friend or 2 to join us (never happens), we would reach or exceed our goal.

One of the baskets will be drawn at the St Louis Open in May and one will be drawn at the Club Championships in October. You do not need to be present to win. No tickets will actually be given out (so you can’t lose them) but if you must, you may collect them at the next RCF tournament. Your name will be written on the ticket that is put in the jar. The names of the recruiting member and the new member will be posted on the website weekly. All members and recruiters that signed up in March will be included in the raffle.

Club Membership Disc - $5.00
Bag Tag, Ace Pool, Reduced Fees, Voting Rights, Basket Ticket - $15.00
Supporting your local Disc Golf Community - PRICELESS

Chris Kinsella
President
River City Flyers / St Louis Disc Golf Club
314-583-3340

Call your course captain and introduce yourself
Pick up trash during every casual round you play
Do not damage or alter the course
Leave your chainsaw at home
Call the owner of a found disc
Know the rules of play
Practice putting
Throw at 80%

[Chris K]

This is the list of new members and their sponsors for the raffle;

Member Tag Sponsor

1 Sean McClean 252 Denis McClean
2 Brennan Sullivan 294 Chris K
3 Denis McClean 325 Red
4 Josh Galati 327 Chris K
5 Bill Hecht 330 Chris K
6 Mark Drone 331 Chris K
7 Nathan Sauer 334 Brad Fortman
8 Brad Field 349 Chris K
9 Matt Farmer 350 Chris K
10 Don Sarnowski 354 Red
11 Ross Sirek 355 Don Sarnowski
12 Mike Basinger 356 Don Sarnowski
13 Mark 'Holes' O'Brien 357 Chris K

[f-b-i-]

i dont think its a good idea. nobody outside of the club board or people that are on this message board know a thing about this membership drive to give a way two baskets worth close to a grand to people that sign up knew members. the way things are now you are xcluding 99% of club members. instead of wasting club members money on something that the avg. member has know idea of whats going on. lets spend the club members money on something that can benafit the whole club. a news letter comes to mind. the money that is being spent for those baskets could proably be enough to pay for 5 years worth of news letters. the board is so worried about getting 1000 new members that it forgetting about the members it has now. lets use the money more wisely to benafit the whole club not just a select few. i think this is the worst way to spend club members money. keep club members informed. if we had a news letter with the mins of each meeting in it the avg.club member would know whats going on. every club member has a right to now were their money goes as it is the responability of the board to be transparent and fourth comming on all club issues. the board is droping the ball. this membership drive is fine and all,but dont reward a very select few when they are the only ones that know.

[Chris K]

Roger, give it time; we only started the membership drive this Saturday and we already have 13 new members. Didn't you get the email that went out to the membership on Friday? It's the same email I posted on this site to start this thread. But to ease your fears, we are creating flyers to be posted at the kiosks for those members w/o internet. Announcements will be made at all the leagues and handouts will be available. Again, we are just getting started so give it time; 700 new members is simply the goal; 13 down, 687 to go. I’m told there are 10,000 golfers in the St Louis area playing our courses. Go sponsor one.

We are using 2 golf course quality baskets as the incentive for the membership drive and fundraiser. We hope that out of towners playing our tournaments become members and also buy tickets therefore we are drawing for one of the baskets at the St Louis Open in May. The membership drive is continuing to the Club Championships so people can still be excited about signing up to get a ticket and support our club and the golf courses.

One ticket gives you and the new member 2 chances at a basket until the St Louis Open. Go sponsor one soon.
All of the course captains will have tags, discs and forms for this drive. It might be a good idea to pre-purchase a couple of tags and discs so you can have them available in your golf bag. You can return them if you haven’t moved them over the weekend.

I am in a better position to move tags because I have them to move. I am also actively asking people if they are members yet. Of the 300 plus members, 25 have signed up because I asked them to. Can you imagine how much we could do for St Louis disc golf if each of our members simply asked a newbie to join us?

It doesn’t really matter what position you are in if you don’t do anything with it.

I am in no better position than you are to pick up trash. I pick up trash every time I play and it makes a huge difference on the golf course. Can you imagine how good our courses would look if all of us picked up trash while we played? For one, my rounds of golf would go faster.

You mention that the membership drive only benefits the few and not the entire membership. You are completely missing it. You are looking at the winning of the baskets as the only prize. You are forgetting about the money raised from the membership drive going back into St. Louis area courses. You are not seeing the larger pool of resources, contacts and larger circle of influence and potential sponsors. You are not seeing the larger tournament payout from more tournament players. This is why we do everything we do; to promote disc golf and to improve existing courses and open new courses.

Regarding the newsletter, unless you are volunteering to put it together, write it, get the artwork, format it, get a mailing list together, stuff the envelopes, stamp them, and take them to the post office, this is not a viable endeavor right now. The existing board members are already doing as much as they can; we are not adding new duties.

Regarding the minutes, there is so much planning and debate over the course of 2 to 3 hours that posting it is not productive and adds clutter to the message board. There are on average, 12 people hashing out ideas. For our email debates, we include 50 more of which you are one. Most people don’t want to be bothered with details, they want to play golf. Any club member can contact Dan, our secretary, and ask for the minutes. Any club member can contact Steve, our treasurer, and ask for the bank balance. Any club member can contact me, the prez, and ask for the tournament report.

As the President of our Club, it is my duty to be a good steward of your money and your trust. It is my responsibility to steer the club in the direction the members want to go. It is my obligation to do the best I can with what I have. It is my hope that you support me.

Chris K

[mkane]

Yeah Roger!
Chris you suck(in a nondistateful way!)
I bet the basket raffles raise over 2500 dollars this year.
I bet the payouts this year and next will be bigger.
I wonder how many strokes Geoff Bennett will win the St. Louis Open by this year.
I bet if half of the members got just one person to join we would have almost 500 members half way to our goal of 1000 members.
I kind of thought that about some of the members who have been around for a long time. Are we shutting them out, the answer is no, no we are not. What we are doing is changing, and it is common that "resistance to change" puts a bad taste in your mouth. I know it is hard to deal with change, and some very important to the club members feel the are being distanced the way Roger expressed clearly in the post above. Roger, Hitman, Brian, Southern Illinois Chain Gang, Festus JC Sharpshooters, St. Charles Cuvy Members, this is where we pull it together, take a deep breath, make sure we understand that growth is not without pain, but certainly will have benefits, I depend on the elder statesmen of this club to stand firm, do not drift away. Heck we still need a couple of B tiers to happen, in addition to all the other club events.
Change is scary but not as bad as imagining a static club with nothing new to offer.
Hang in there, guys!

[Chris K]

I have reconsidered my earlier position of asking our members to pre-purchase tags and discs for this membership drive. If any of you would like to have tags and discs handy for new members, give me a call and make arrangements to pick them up. I am on the courses frequently and can often meet you there.
We are still working on the flyers and handouts to make it easier for you to give information to non members.
I went into a Subway for lunch yesterday and my dentist was there. I told him what we were doing and he asked to join us. He has no interest in disc golf yet but he wanted to help us reach our goal. Yea!

[Chris K]

14 Steve Fleischut 358 Chris K
15 Dave Rosenzweig 271 Dave Garver
16 Joe Pona 259 Mark Dude
17 Stephan Hart 346 Tim Finan
18 Jason Bressman 347 Tim Finan
19 Brian Cunningham 348 Tim Finan
20 James Stewart 359 Neil Brown
21 Alan Robinson 360 Neil Brown
22 Logan Swank 361 Neil Brown
23 Ray May 372 Matt Augustin
24 Chris Moore 307 Matt Wellman
25 Kyle Hayhurst 308 Matt Wellman
26 Dan Golden 412 Chris K
27 Bob Derhake 413 Tim Conlon
28 John Schepers II 315 Mark Dude
29 Ben Frericks 335 Brad Fortman
30 Brad Cagle 336 Ben Frericks
31 Tim Conlon 375 Tim Finan

[Chris K]

Paul Dorries 5 tickets @ $20
Adam Johnson 1 ticket @ $5

[Chris K]

32 Shawn Depew 199 Chris K
33 Cory Thrasher 204 Chris K
34 John Crusen 351 Red
35 Tony Reiss 369 Tim Finan
36 Michelle Forrest 341 Tim Finan
37 Brandon Shelton 447 Chris K
38 David King 449 Chris K
39 Joe Bryson 305 Dave Garver
40 Rickie Wells 304 Dave Garver
41 John Maguire 352 Red
42 Nick Wilson 301 Andy Majesky
43 Jim Nelms 302 Andy Majesky
44 Alex Romero 303 Andy Majesky
45 Chris Berry 368 Tim Finan
46 Andrew Freiberger 367 Tim Finan
47 Jamie Streiler 370 Tim Finan