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A conversation with Jeff Morgan, President and CEO of CMAA
By Ed Shanaphy
When Jeff Morgan joined the Club Management Association of America in 2014, he followed a leader who had held the position for 25 years.
For any general manager or director of golf or racquets stepping into the shoes of a longstanding predecessor, that situation will sound familiar. There are established relationships, expectations and traditions. Before making changes, a new leader has to understand the people behind them.
Jeff’s approach began with listening.
Having worked in four nonprofit associations, he understood association management. The club professionals who made up CMAA’s membership brought the industry knowledge. Moving the organization forward required bringing those perspectives together.
As he explained during our recent Beyond The Baselines podcast conversation, “I had to listen really hard to the members to understand what the members wanted and needed.”
With his retirement approaching in September 2027, our conversation offered an opportunity to reflect on how both CMAA and the clubs it serves have changed—and what their next leaders will face.
Building a Bigger Tent
One of Jeff’s most significant changes was widening the association’s welcome.
The shift from the Club Managers Association of America to the Club Management Association of America reflected an industry in which leadership extends across more departments and specialties.
Human resources, membership, finance, fitness, wellness and racquets professionals all contribute to the success of a club. They need professional development even when becoming a general manager is not their career goal.
Supporting those professionals also strengthens the manager leading them.
Jeff described CMAA’s membership as growing from approximately 5,000 when he arrived to around 9,000 today. When I asked about his proudest accomplishment, he returned to that broader sense of belonging.
“Creating a bigger tent.”
Transparency was another priority. Members needed to understand where their dues went, what services they supported and how the association operated. Education, Jeff explained, is structured to be revenue neutral: a service for members rather than a profit center.
There is a lesson here for every club leader. Explaining how an organization works helps members understand its value and participate in its future.
Governance Needs Continuous Attention
Our conversation soon reached a subject familiar to anyone working with private members clubs: volunteer governance.
Clubs ask governors to oversee increasingly complex businesses, often within short terms of service. Just as a board member begins to understand the operation, another transition arrives.
Jeff recognized that CMAA could better support managers by becoming more involved in governance education. Its work with the National Club Association has helped provide guidance and resources for club boards.
But governance requires continuing attention.
“If you have unhealthy governance, the professional staff are going to be really in jeopardy there,” he said.
Part of the challenge is perspective. A governor knows the club through personal membership experience. Board service requires a wider view of its people, finances, risks and future.
In our consulting work, we see how much depends on that transition. A successful businessperson still needs an introduction to the responsibilities of governing a club. Clear expectations and thoughtful onboarding give both the board and management a better chance of succeeding.
A More Sophisticated Club Business
Jeff sees clubs becoming more deliberate about maintaining and developing their assets.
Racquets now encompasses tennis, pickleball and padel. Golf extends into simulators and improved practice facilities. Fitness and wellness can help members perform better on the course or court. Dining serves a wider range of family and social occasions.
These changes create opportunities, but they also require capital planning and stronger coordination.
Jeff described boards taking a more businesslike approach: reviewing measures of success, assessing risk and considering strategic opportunities. General managers and department heads must operate with the same discipline.
Clubs are using different combinations of capital dues, other dues and borrowing to fund their needs. The central question is how those resources support the club’s long-term ability to serve its members.
For directors of golf and racquets, that means understanding how their department contributes to the whole club—and working closely with the colleagues who lead its other amenities.
The Resort in Your Hometown
One of Jeff’s most useful descriptions of the modern club was also one of his simplest: “a resort in their hometown.”
The move toward family use began before COVID, he observed, and accelerated during and after it. Members want somewhere comfortable, familiar and socially connected. They want to enjoy time with their families and feel that they belong.
That experience depends heavily on relationships.
When we discussed his successor, Jeff reflected on how personally connected the club profession is. Members and colleagues want to know the person behind the title—their family, interests and life beyond work.
He also highlighted the willingness of CMAA members to share ideas. At conference, professionals display successful initiatives for others to adapt, and those ideas remain available to members online.
Having come from the media and marketing business, I still find that openness striking. It is a valuable resource for the next generation of club leaders.
Where Will the Next Generation of Staff Come From?
Jeff’s concern about the future centered on people.
He pointed to a shrinking pipeline of college graduates as a challenge for clubs and the wider hospitality industry. Clubs may need to recruit more actively from associate degree programs and directly from high school, then provide the training those employees need.
That makes recruitment, development and retention central management responsibilities.
Technology may help with back-office work, but Jeff was clear about the limits: “Ultimately hospitality needs people and clubs are about people.”
Connecting What We Have Built
Perhaps Jeff’s most thought-provoking observation came near the end of our conversation.
After years of investment in facilities and additions, he expects the pace of expansion to become less rapid. The member experience will increasingly depend on how well clubs connect their existing amenities.
Fitness can support better tennis and golf. Dining can support healthier living. Programming can create friendships across departments and generations.
For those of us managing clubs, advising boards or hiring department leaders, that is a useful way to think about the years ahead.
We have spent considerable time asking what our clubs should build next. Now we also need to ask how our people, programs and facilities can work together to make membership more rewarding.
Ed Shanaphy is President of SBW Associates, Inc., the parent company of Beyond The Baselines, now in its 18th year advising and managing private clubs across the United States. His extensive experience in club governance includes serving as President of Blackheath Rugby and Lawn Tennis Club in London, where he helped guide the historic institution through the transition to professional rugby in England in 1995, working alongside the International Rugby Board. He has also served on the boards of Cumberland Lawn Tennis Club in Hampstead, London, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Indian River County, Florida. Before founding SBW Associates, Shanaphy spent 19 years as Chief Operating Officer of Haysbridge (UK) Ltd., a major European media and advertising company with operations in London, Dublin, and Sydney. A founding partner of The Half Bottle of Wine Company, he was also named one of two finalists for Ernst & Young’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year, alongside fashion designer LK Bennett. Shanaphy has served as Chief Operating Officer, General Manager, and senior advisor to numerous private clubs. He currently serves on the board of BTB Heroes Foundation Corp., the charitable organization behind the national BTB Heroes Tour, which raises funds to support veterans and military families through competitive tennis events.
