Kurt D. Kuebler, CCM, CMAA Fellow, Partner

Kurt joined the firm in 2007 – KOPPLIN & KUEBLER – after a highly successful career managing clubs and club communities for more than 28 years. Kurt’s club career includes appointments with the Tavistock Group, in Orlando, FL, where he was the general manager/COO of Isleworth Golf & Country Club, Isleworth Home Services and Isleworth Community Association. Previously, Kurt served in a similar capacity at The Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, FL, and the Desert Highlands Golf Club in Scottsdale, AZ where he served as vice president and general manager.

Kurt also worked at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, Grosse Pointe Shores, MI, before his first general manager appointment at Birchwood Farm Golf & Country Club, a large residential resort community in Harbor Springs, MI.

Kurt has also served as president of the Florida Chapter Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) and served as a national director for the CMAA. His comprehensive background and experience working for both member-owned and private developer clubs, as well as having successfully managed country, golf, and yacht clubs along with homeowners’ associations and support amenities allows him unique insights to all aspects of the club industry and its evolving state.

Kurt is the recipient of The BoardRoom Magazine’s Gary Player Educator Award in 2011.

Email: kurt@kkandw.com

Phone: 561-747-5213

Resources & Insights from Kurt…

Hospitality is an imperfect business and while you can plan to deliver the highest levels of product and service consistently, even the world’s best service providers have breakdowns.

Planning for inevitable mistakes separates the best businesses from the average ones…

Over time, while completing executive placements for private clubs and when reaching out to top-performing general managers, we have consistently been surprised to discover that in many scenarios there is a subjective process for performance evaluation or not one at all.

This is concerning as we often see a connection between managers who aren’t receiving feedback and managers who are being let go from their positions…

An eager and extremely qualified GM begins a new job with a great club. The club president and board give the new GM goals and set initiatives.

Everyone is excited about the new working relationship. Within a year or two, the GM completes the initiatives set forth … yet confusion and frustration begin to arise in factions of the membership. Then those feelings begin to spread to more members. Soon the staff also begins to raise concerns that are then fueled by members’ frustrations … all because members and employees don’t know or understand the board’s directions to the GM. The problems snowball and suddenly the GM is let go … even though the GM did exactly what the board asked the GM to do.

When it comes to board policies, board decisions and club bylaws, it can be complicated to keep track of everything. For the club executive to be as effective and efficient as the position requires, simplifying governance should be a priority…

In our travels, we get to see/experience a number of clubs around the country, and get to hear the success stories of many of those club leaders.  One of the best recent stories was from Jeffrey Kreafle, GM/COO at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis.  Jeffrey related to me the inspiration he and his team got from the book, “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer.  In it, Meyer suggests that you always have the chance to write the last chapter of any service experience…