ASTORIA GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB COMMUNIQUE DECEMBER 2018 PRESIDENT S REPORT - 2 MANAGER MUSINGS - 3 FORE THE LADIES - 4 PRO-NOUNCEMENTS - 5 TURF TALK - 5 NEW CLUB MEMBERS - 6 MEMBERSHIP MATTERS - 6-7 WINE OF THE MONTH - 7 EVENTS AT A GLANCE - 7 CLUB NEWS & EVENTS - 8-9 DECEMBER CALENDAR - 10 WHAT S NEW AT AGCC? THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THROUGH OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER. WE HOPE IT BRINGS YOU INSIGHT TO UPCOMING EVENTS AND BETTER KNOWLEDGE OF THE CLUB! AFTER ALL, HAVING HAPPY MEMBERS IS OUR GOAL. BECAUSE WITHOUT YOU, NOTHING IS POSSIBLE! - THE STAFF AT AGCC Clubhouse 503-861-2211 Pro Shop 503-861-2545 Website www.astoriagolf.com 1
PPRESIDENT S REPORT CLIFF FICK OFFICERS PRESIDENT: CLIFF FICK VP: STEVE PHILLIPS SECRETARY: GARY RUEPPELL TREASURER: JOHN GARBUTT DIRECTORS JEFF ROBERTS PETER ROSCOE RUSS TAGGARD RON WILLIAMS COMMITTEE CHAIRS GREENS COMMITTEE Russ Taggard MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Gary Rueppell GOLF COMMITTEE Jeff Roberts HOUSE COMMITTEE Steve Phillips FINANCE COMMITTEE John Garbutt LEGACY COMMITTEE PRESIDENT S REPORT Well fellow club members, this is my final newsletter message as Club President. It has been quite a year for the club and quite a personal experience for me. Our core asset, the golf course, has never been in better condition. All our golfing membership and guests that visit us, are, to a person, very impressed with our golfing complex. Not only our course, but our practice facility stands as one of the best in the entire northwest. We have a great team managing our assets. Our staff is dedicated to making our club a fun place to be. They all work very hard for our benefit. This past year, I spent a lot of time with our staff. It made me so appreciate each of them, not only as employees, but as people. They take pride in their work and care about each of you. Challenges remain. Our greatest challenge remains stabilizing our membership. In the past 10 years, we have experienced a general membership decline. Managing costs is the primary challenge in the face of our membership decline. We are assertively seeking new ways to operate our club in a cost-effective manner while sustaining the services we all expect. This process will continue. I wish to thank our board for taking on the challenges to keep our club in such good condition. Their dedication is so admirable as they volunteer their time for the benefit of the club. The board also needs your input and opinions. All members should consider joining one of the various committees. Remember, we are a club run by the membership. Diversity and new perspective are necessary to continually improve the club and reflect the desires of our membership. Success is a journey, not a destination. Finally, I want to thank our club members. It has been an honor to serve on the board and be your president this past year. It is a humbling experience. Remember to fill your divots and fix your ball marks. It makes our course better for everyone. See you at the club! Cliff Fick, Club President CONTACT INFORMATION CLUBHOUSE: 503-861-2211 PRO SHOP: 503-861-2545 GOLF MAINTENANCE SHOP: 503-861-2637 E-MAIL: MANAGER@ASTORIAGOLF.COM WEBSITE: ASTORIAGOLF.COM FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/ASTORIAGOLFCOUNTRYCLUB INSTAGRAM: @ASTORIAGOLFCOUNTRYCLUB TWITTER: @ASTORIAGOLFCC 2
MMANAGER MUSING ED LEINENKUGEL STAFF CLUB MANAGER Ed Leinenkugel CLUB PROFESSIONAL John Kawasoe SUPERINTENDENT Lonny Radford EXECUTIVE CHEF Gehrett Billinger BANQUET MANAGER Tiffany Schraeder ACCOUNTANT Jessica Hinman MANAGER MUSING On behalf of the clubhouse employee team, I want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season and the merriest Christmas possible. We have so much to be grateful for, and our employees appreciate the opportunity to serve the best collection of club members anywhere. Yes, like many clubs, Astoria GCC has its challenges, but I remain optimistic and hopeful that this wonderful club as we know it, and the amazing people who support it, will come together to shape the club into a gathering place that appeals to future members who haven t yet discovered the virtues of our special club, while meeting and exceeding the expectations of our current members. There is no doubt that we have one of the most remarkable golf courses in the Pacific Northwest, if not the entire US. Did you know that we are the only private golf and country club on the Oregon coast? That makes our club unique; a noteworthy fact that we will do a better job of promoting to the world. AGCC Proprietary Members are encouraged to attend the club s Annual Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, December 12, at 6 pm. Preceding the annual meeting at 5 pm is a special meeting to discuss some matters brought to the attention of the board of directors. Both meetings are open to Proprietary Members only, and no alcohol will be allowed in either meeting. After the Annual Meeting is adjourned, at approximately 7 pm, a no-host dinner buffet will be available to all club members. We hope to see you on December 12. Make your reservation for the club s New Year s Eve celebration on Monday night, December 31. Join us for a memorable evening of delicious food, libations, and dancing to the up-tempo sounds of the Portland band, Soul Suspect. We will toast the New Year at 9 pm (New York time), and the band will play until 10 pm. To learn more about the band, go to the band s website: http://miguelmusic.com/ soulsuspect/index.php Lastly, please join us on Saturday, December 22, for dinner with Santa, from 5 pm to 8 pm. This is an opportunity to bring your young children and grand-children to meet Santa. Our regular dinner menu will be served and will also include a special kid s meal for $10. Santa will be at the club from 5 pm to 7 pm. Tiffany has also worked up some additions to last-year s successful event, including face painting, a photo booth, and an official mailbox for Christmas wish lists. See you at the club! Ed Leinenkugel, Club Manager ADMINISTRATION Amanda Aronhalt NEWSLETTER EDITOR Susy Laureano FIND YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER Somewhere in this issue is a member s account number enclosed in parentheses (like this). If that person notifies the office prior to the 15th of the month, he or she wins dinner for two at our Wednesday night Prime Rib Dinner Special. Winner must use free dinner in the month that it was won. 3
FFORE THE LADIES PEGGY DAWSON FORE THE LADIES Well Ladies, the end of my term as your esteemed President is coming to an end. It was a busy year for our group, with lots of fun tournaments with clever decorations and excellent menus. I am very thankful for your support and your encouragement throughout this past year. Our Board was very active in considering ways to make recommendations to all of you that would allow us to use email in order to vote on specific changes in how we operate. Thanks to Diane Tiedeman s persistence and helpful changes to our By-Laws, we can now vote on how we wish to act to make changes for our Group. Many of you leave for warmer climates, which make it difficult to arrive at a quorum to effect the changes. Thanks to the internet, we did receive approval for the By- Law changes, the Election of Officers for the coming year and a new Budget for 2019. We dispensed with operating the Snack Shack during the Oregon Coast Invitational, and while it was somewhat sad to turn it over to the Club, it was time. We evaluated how to raise money for our annual Scholarship and were pleased to learn that we have excellent support amongst you willing to donate in favor of this cause. We had a change in our Vice President position due to Christine Miles Brigham having suffered a horrendous fall close to Christmas which caused her to forego participating in our many activities. We were sorry to lose her, and hope that she will be back in another capacity in the near future. Debbie Little stepped to the plate to take over as Vice President, for which I am particularly grateful. Debbie was an enormous help in putting on the Closing Brunch and making sure that all the changes to our roster were voted on and approved for our next year. Debbie also planned the Christmas Luncheon for us, as I had my hip replaced the first week of November and was unable to take part. I want to thank everyone on our Board for their efforts this year; Diana Butler for planning all of the Golf weekly events, Barbara Vistica for herding the 9-Hole players every week to make sure they all knew the game plan and got us out the door in a timely fashion. Thank you to Susan Brown for all her minute taking and attending the House Committee Meetings. Also, thanks to Diane Tiedeman for her work as our Treasurer and By-Law Cocoordinator. Sara Carlson and Cheri McGowan are to be commended for our fun social gatherings and last but not least, Karen Radditz for her guidance as Past- President to our current Board. I personally wish to thank Ed, Tiffany and Susy for all of their work on our Tournaments. Thank you Lidia and her crew for their help during our events and Jessica and Amanda for helping me out with assistance for all office needs. I also wish to recognize John, Chanelle, Bradley and Cody for giving us so much help putting on our Golf Tournaments. We as a group need to thank Todd and Forrest who have assisted us throughout the year for always being there to lend a helping hand in whatever endeavor we had in mind. With a bit of financial assistance from the Club, we were able to do a nice little cosmetic update to our locker room which definitely freshened up its appearance. Happy Holidays. Peggy Dawson, Ladies Club President 4
PPRO- NOUNCEMENT JOHN KAWASOE PRO-NOUNCEMENTS Happy Holidays from the Golf Shop. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Don t forget that the Microwave is available for inclement weather practice. Gift Certificates for lessons are easy and GREAT gift ideas. John has a Holiday Special going on. Buy 3 lessons and get the 4th one free. The special lasts through December. The final Breakfast Club was held on December 2nd. We were blessed with great fall golfing weather, and enjoyed a hearty breakfast in the morning and a delicious dinner in the evening, featuring Beef Wellington, at which time we gave out our annual Breakfast Club awards. The next Breakfast Club, and the first for 2019, is scheduled for Sunday, January 13. What a great way to meet new members, as well as to get reacquainted with those you enjoyed golfing with in the past. Our annual Golf Shop Open House is December 7th, from 5-7 pm. We have some fun new merchandise for the Holiday season. Please join us for some Holiday spirit and a lot of fun. There are several new rule changes in The Rules of Golf that take effect in 2019. John recently attended a rules seminar to get up to speed on the changes. We will schedule some Rules Talks for our members in the coming weeks. From the entire Golf Shop Staff, we wish everyone a very happy Holiday Season. Thank you for an outstanding year. We look forward to a great 2019 season. See you on the Links, See you on the links, John Kawasoe, Golf Pro T TURF TALK LONNY RADFORD TURF TALK I hope everyone enjoyed a great Thanksgiving. On the golf course, we completed deep-tine aerification on the fairways and will now focus on tees and approaches. We also started our greens needle-tine program. This program will be performed once a month, and includes light topdressing combined with solid-tine aerification. Sanding of (27390) fairways, tees, and approaches will begin in December. In November, we started cutting back some of the landscapes on the golf course; examples of this are behind #8 and #14 greens. We will continue to do more of this landscape work throughout the property. Cleaning and cutting back these landscapes will allow for healthier plants to emerge in the spring. Have a happy and safe holiday season! Aerial view of the golf course, looking south towards Tillamook Head Lonny Radford, Assistant Golf Course Superintendent 5
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS Welcome New Members! ASSOCIATE CHAD FLEISCHMAN & TRACI PARKER MILITARY BRIAN & CHANTEL SCHNEIDER SOCIAL MAURY & NANCY PLUMLEE GRANT & NICOLE SCHARER EVENTS AT A GLANCE FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UPDATES ON AGCC EVENTS! Members and guests having a ball at the 2017 / 2018 New Year s Eve Celebration 6
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS CONTINUED... DECEMBER MONTHLY WINE DRAWING WINNER JEFF ETCHISON Congratulations! We drew the cork from the bottle of wine you purchased. AGCC will provide you with a complimentary bottle of wine of your choice (valued up to $25) during your next dinner at the club. *Must be redeemed within 90 days (by 3/1/19). NOVEMBER COMMENT CARD DRAWING WINNER DON JENSEN Congratulations! We drew your comment card from the stack of cards submitted. AGCC will provide you with a complimentary lunch (valued up to $15) during your next lunch visit to the club. *Must be redeemed within 90 days (by 3/1/19). HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When a member or spouse has a birthday, you may pick up a certificate from the office. This may be used any night there is dinner service during your birthday month, and must be coordinated through the office prior to your reservation. The certificate is not good for take out so bring your friends and family to help celebrate your special day! DECEMBER EVENTS AT A GLANCE SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2 BREAKFAST CLUB FINALE WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12 TEAM PLAY WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12 ANNUAL MEETING (PROPRIETARY MEMBERS ONLY) SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22 DINNER WITH SANTA TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25 MERRY CHRISTMAS (CLUB CLOSED) MONDAY, DECEMBER 31 NEW YEARS EVE PARTY 7
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