Captains View 2017

I thought I could at least equal the time that Kit and Hal put into Wintergreen. It was their example I was following.

But after two years, Ta Da, it’s over!

Here are my thoughts about my two years as Club Captain!

Once upon a time, long ago, someone thought a hill near Bragg Creek would be a good place to build a resort.

A ski hill and a golf course with a scattering of homes, I think that was the plan.

Remember this was before emails and internet!  Long ago!

I believe members then had a vision of ownership and that like the 1990’s is long gone!

The Ski hill and the Golf course were built and Wintergreen was bornJ By 1992 our master agreement was being written. 1994 it was signed by no one of concern now!

It has not been changed since!

Being neglected for so long our agreement does not even have the current owner of Wintergreen mentioned anywhere!

Everywhere in this agreement there is, the Owner must this and the Owner must that, nothing about what the members must or the members should!

 

I asked on our web site who was the most important person at Wintergreen?

I offered a $100 for the right answer. Only 2 members tried, Barb G and Ron M were both wrong and I was able to keep my money. Whoop, Whoop!

The answer to my question was….Murry Edwards! DUH!

Mr Edwards is the reason we get to play at Wintergreen.

Do you think we would be playing here if Charley Locke was still in charge, his last business plan at Wintergreen was a hole in one contest for the golf course.

Now Mr Edwards pays the bills and chooses who to employ to make Wintergreen work.

For me the best choice I have seen by Mr Edwards was Alf Beaudry!  So many members agree with me on that point! A very few do not!

For the last year, Your Board and Mr Beaudry have been dealing with, what I would call, a “Rogue Member”.

As my first year went by I was learning about our little Payton Place.

I found it amazing that with our small membership we have quite a varied expertise to draw on.

I would like to thank Wintergreen members Pat Cherek and Josh Friesen for their council during this trying time.

Pat gave me an example of how other clubs deal with inappropriate conduct and what other member agreements look like.

Josh took the time to review and advise the Board on our Directors insurance.

Threats and more Threats!

I believe as members you need to be aware of the conduct of other members that may affect our golfing experience!

The Board also feels it is their responsibility to oversee the work environment of Wintergreen staff when it concerns the behavior of Members.

This why my last task as Club Captain is to inform the members I have tried to serve, of what your Board and Wintergreen Staff have been dealing with.

I have been asked to take the “High Road” and go easy! Sorry not happening!

May the truth set you free!

Since there has only been one disciplinary action taken against a Wintergreen member and that resulted in a one year suspension!

This suspension was not shared with the membership at that time!

I do not know why any objectionable behavior should be hidden.

2011

My thoughts are that anyone that has been suspended should be ineligible to run for the Board as well as a member under investigation.

2016 Rake Gate!

A member was asked by the Board to attend a meeting to state his views on an incident that happened last September.  5 minutes before the meeting a text or Email was received that stated “since this incident is being investigated by Senior RCR management” I will not attend the board meeting.

This member went above the Board with his complaint to RCR. This goes against our Master agreement, 2.02 E IV .

All other invitations to address this incident and meet with the Board were futile.

The original incident was a heat exchange between the member mentioned and Tom Day our golf Pro.

Hearing the exchange from his office, General Manager, Alf Beaudry confronted said member.

In the following months there have been many threats made, to RCR, Wintergreen staff, Wintergreen Society Board of Directors and even implied threats against Mr Beaudry’s family!

Said Member phoned myself and Tom Day stating “For the sake of Stacey and the children” I want to end this. I informed this member that the incident was now under investigation by the Board and I could not comment!

Said member also approached a female Board member playing golf and verbally threatened her with law suits.

Said member would attend events that Mr. Beaudry and his family attended away from Wintergreen, something I would call “Harassment”, “Intimidation” or “Bullying”!

Said member keeps stating this is all about safety, yet even with microphone in hand, not one word of warning to anyone in the membership!

Said member was in opposition to allowing Men’s Night registered players that were not members a 10 day booking privilege for the 4 hours of Men’s Night.

While on holidays said member booked 10 days in advance for his friends on 3 occasions!

The board received another letter from this member on the 28th of September 2017 over a year since the start of this vexation!

Member states $3500 has been spent on legal counsel and there will be 3 to 5 more years before this will be over?

I think the $3500 could have been better spent! Give me a Duh!

The number one question I hear from Wintergreen members is why is this troubled member is still playing and still a member at Wintergreen?

I call into question the integrity of this member!

If the interpretation of our Master Agreement is the reason for this ongoing misbehavior there must be change!

We need change to be able to confront misbehavior, ensure all members have a positive golfing experience and Wintergreen staffs have a positive and safe working environment!

If we want to address the needs of Wintergreen and our Members in 2017, we need to revise this outdated document!

Back to something on a positive note, I was proud of how Rav and I kept the web page up to date and hopefully informative!

I enjoyed the doing the Captains Cup and I received a quite a few more score cards than last year.  A thank you goes out  to all the lady Captains.

Men’s night was a great success. Thanks to Rick Kalef! Also less work for Mike and more golf fun, shared with a few new golfing buddies!

Thanks, Tim Grant and Bob Galloway and sometimes Jimmy Dymianiw for making Thursday afternoons fun for me and Barry Cooper!

Team Chainsaw had to be the highlight of my year, cutting up them Sharks was a blast. Good to see some faces not seen for a while and some first timers in our Challenge Cup. Thanks Alf for the Chainsaw, you should have seen Rav run!

Wintergreen is like big family to me, unfortunately every family has some “Black Sheep” so I say “Ba Ba”.

It’s been a blast!

The end, Mike:)