S P R I N G 2 0 1 9

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

V O L U M E 1 2 , I S S U E 1

College of Hospitality

and Tourism Management

PO Box 2012

Niagara University

New York 14109

Phone: 716-286-8274

Fax: 716-286-8277

E-mail: info@nucmaa.org

Zachary Recckio

President

Emily Lovejoy

Vice President

Casey Iadresin

Secretary

Terry Scouras

Treasurer

Brandon Sears

Co-Faculty Advisor

Rachel Zilka

Co-Faculty Advisor

Timothy Minahan CCM, CCE

Liaison Manager

Florida Externship 1

CPR Certification 3

NU CMAA Speaker Series 4

Leadership Coaching 4

Scholarship Awards Dinner 4

NYS Education Session 5

91st WorldCon 5

CMAA South Florida Externship 2019

by Casey Iadresin

Two of our Junior members, Casey Iadresin and Zachary Farkas were accepted to attend the 2019 CMAA Florida Externship Pro-gram. The General Manager, Matt Lambert and Restaurant Manager, Amanda Sprenger, at the Country Club of Mirasol put together this amaz-ing experience for the students which included time at their own property as well as neighboring clubs. Casey and Zach, as well as 18 other hospi-tality students, were welcomed to South Florida for a week in Palm Beach, Florida. It was an unbelievable experience for Zach and Casey, being able to spend time and network with stu-dents from 5 different universities/hospitality programs. These included the University of Mas-sachusetts Amherst, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, Methodist Univer-sity, & University of South Carolina.

This externship showed the students an inside view into some of South Florida’s most prestigious properties, and gave them the oppor-tunity to meet and network with some of the in-dustry’s best and most respected leaders. They toured a total of 11 exceptional clubs: Admirals Cove Club, Lost Tree Club, The Club at Ibis, St Andrews Country Club, Woodfield Country Club, The Polo Club of Boca Raton, The Break-ers Ocean Club, Bath & Tennis Club, The Loxa-hatchee Club, The Bear's Club, and The Country Club at Mirasol. Over the course of five days, these clubs hosted the students for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as club tours and edu-cation. Each and every club was unique in their own way.

On the final day of the externship, the students were lucky enough to spend a day at The Country Club at Mirasol on the golf course. All of the students had the opportunity to meet and talk with PGA President, Suzy Whaley. It was an incredible honor for everybody. Along with the meet and greet, the hospitality students took to the course to get lessons from Suzy Whaley and some of the other pro staff at Mirasol. Everyone took turns hitting balls on the driving range, hitting wedge shots, and chipping

onto a green. It was a great introduction, for many of the food and beverage students, to the game of golf.

As well as spending time at Mirasol, they had the chance to take in the heritage and golf history of the Lost Tree Club, and The Bear’s Club. The Lost Tree Club is the home of golf’s greatest, Jack Nicklaus. Mr. Nicklaus lives at the club, and we had the privilege of touring the community, in a fleet of golf carts. When the students made their way to the club house, they admired the memorabilia of Mr. Nicklaus’ his-toric career. From golf clubs, to championship trophies, it was a spectacle. Next stop was The Bear’s Club, founded by Jack Nicklaus, The Golden Bear himself. This club is home to many PGA tour professionals and celebrities. The ex-clusivity of the club was amazing, and the stu-dents truly felt honored for the experience of a life time.

It was a remarkable opportunity to net-work, to learn about the private club industry and most importantly, give the students an idea of how much opportunity there is in the area of South Florida.

P A G E 2

Fundraiser Dinner 2019

On Wednesday April 17th, the Niagara Uni-versity CMAA Student Chapter visited Oak Hill Country Club for their bi-annual NU Book Club. This semester’s book club was led by Oak Hill’s General Manager, Chad Ellis. When the students arrived, they had the pleasure of receiving a tour by Director of Clubhouse Operations Cheol Kessler. After the tour of the beautiful club-house, the chapter was served refreshments pre-pared by Oak Hill’s culinary team. The chapter discussed The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph A. Michelli. The discussion started with Mr. Ellis ex-plaining his story and how he got to where he is today. He explained how he was an Executive

Chef for Ritz Carlton and how he transitioned to be a Food & Beverage Executive Assistant Man-ager for Ritz Carlton. He later transitioned to becoming General Manager for the Ritz Carlton Residences and Landmark Club and eventually went on to receive his current role of General Manager at Oak Hill Country Club in 2014. The group discussed the principles carried out by the Ritz Carlton brand and how these principles can be used in the club industry to improve service. The famous Ritz Carlton motto “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen,” sums up the company’s guide to their team. They are known for the level of anticipatory service they give to those who are visiting their properties. The Ritz has intense interview pro-cesses in order to ensure that they are hiring the right people the first time. People who care and believe in the mission of the company. We dis-cussed how front-line employees are crucial for success in the service industry and how im-portant it is to provide them the environment, tools and training they need to succeed. We dis-cussed how clubs can become better at this espe-cially as hiring and employee retention become more and more important. We greatly appreciate Mr. Ellis and his team at Oak Hill Country Club for hosting the Niagara University CMAA Stu-dent Chapter.

The New Gold Standard by Evan Donaldson

2019 New York State CMAA President’s Ball

by Emily Lovejoy & Grace Dittman On Saturday, February 9th, the Niagara Univer-sity CMAA student chapter held our annual fundraiser dinner at The Saturn Club of Buffalo. The chapter collectively decided to hold a Mod-ern Speakeasy themed fundraiser this year. The planning of this event began back in November as we are always determined to exceed the ex-pectations of our attendees. The guests were provided with a password to give at the entrance of the club. The officers, Zach Recckio, Emily Lovejoy, Casey Iadresin and Terry Scouras and advisors, Brandon Sears and Rachel Zilka toured the club to visualize how the event was going to be organized and worked with Mr. Seth to create

a menu, as well as coming up with ideas to in-corporate the theme into the dinner. Members: Anna Cummiskey, Danielle Garcia and Gigi Ortiz volunteered to run the decoration commit-tee and Brian Reilly and Nadia Dante volun-teered to coordinate the uniforms for the event. Grace Dittman managed the donations for both the silent and live auction throughout several months leading up to the dinner. The Niagara University Student Chapter is extremely thank-ful for all of those who donated. Furthermore, because of this year’s theme, the chapter ran the event as a cocktail party with action stations including a banana foster station centered in one of the dining rooms. We had a bar in the Main Lounge that was dedicated to our “specialty

drink,” a Smoked Manhattan. The smell of the cedar chips and the visual of the smoke en-hanced the overall vibe of the lounge. As the night went on, many attendees headed on down to our after party. The after party included a bar, popcorn, cotton candy, music, and bowling. On Friday, February 8th, the student chapter spent the day at the Saturn Club preparing for the dinner by setting up the rooms, creating center-pieces and placing decorations, assembling the buffets and action stations, polishing silverware and glassware. The preparation continued through Saturday to make sure that it was going to be the perfect night. The preparations and

events that took place throughout the process of constructing the dinner benefited our student chapter greatly. Members were educated on how to plan and work large events for their future internships and professional careers. Guests included NU CMAA student chapter member’s families and friends, private club managers, Niagara University students, alumni, faculty and staff and more. This fundraiser dinner assists students in attending conferences for further education and networking opportunities. The NU CMAA student chapter is very grateful for each and every person that attended the event, made a donation, participated in the auctions and to The Saturn Club team that helped us to organize this Modern Speakeasy

By: Emily Lovejoy On Saturday January 19th the

New York State CMAA Chapter hosted its Annual President’s Ball at The Country Club of Rochester. Managers from the area clubs gathered to celebrate Past President, Mary Smith, the General Manager of the Rochester Yacht Club. Mary has given so much of her time to her club as well as the NYS Chapter; serving on the board, assist-ing in the planning of events and educa-tion, and taking time to mentor our own students within the chapter. Also in attend-ance at this event, were New York State Student Scholarship recipients Zachary Recckio and Terry Scouras along with the officers of the Niagara University Student Chapter. The purpose of the NYS Student Scholarship is to help financially support students every year as they continue their education in the hospitality industry. To be

considered for the scholarship students must be in the top 30% of their class, com-plete their freshman year at a school offer-ing hospitality management, and have en-thusiasm for the hospitality industry. Both Zach and Terry demonstrate an amazing passion for the hospitality industry and Niagara University is honored to have these students recognized.

P A G E 3

Another year of 100% CPR/AED certification

by Nadia Dante

On Saturday, April 6th, four of Niagara University’s Club Man-agement Association of America members took part in a CPR/AED certification class through Shock for Life. The four mem-bers that joined were Nadia Dante, Casey Iadresin, Zachary Far-kas, and Kyra Dejulio. It was an educational experience for us to have the opportunity to get engaged and receive a certification that will help us potentially assist others in our club careers. While everyone hopes they don’t have to ever use this, it is im-perative that managers and staff on every property have the knowledge to perform CPR and use an AED. The class instructor, Marybeth Barber, gave each of our members the opportunity to learn how to properly perform CPR, when to perform CPR and how to perform CPR on various age groups as well as pregnant women. The class lasted over three hours and all of the four mem-bers who joined became CPR/AED certified through the class. This certification lasts two years before having to be renewed. The class is considered as a hands-on skills training that prepares people on how to respond to breathing and cardiac emergencies. It also taught the skills and knowledge needed to provide care for victims of sudden cardiac arrest through the safe use of an auto-mated external defibrillator. The defibrillator was a very interest-ing machine that was more hands on and instructional when it came to learning how to operate the equipment. It also provided us with an instruction on to where we would place the pads for the electoral shock on the victim’s body and how to shock the

person. We learned that all AEDs now instruct you on how to use them as soon as you power them on. Miss Barber also pointed out that, at any place we work or frequent, we should seek out where the AED is kept. Ultimately in any dangerous situation you need to make sure you and others are not in harms way and work to-gether as a team to remain calm and divide up responsibilities such as calling 911, assisting the victim, maintaining crowd con-trol, and guiding the emergency vehicles and teams to the situa-tion. The lessons that we were taught in this course are going to benefit us in our future careers by providing us with the knowledge to save someone’s life who needs it.

By: Casey Iadresin On April 10th, 2019 the NYS CMAA Education Session was hosted at Niagara University. The education session was a 6-hour long CMI on Club Governance & Leadership with Tom B. Wallace III, CCM, CCE, ECM and Kurt D. Kuebler, CCM. The KOPPLIN KUEBLER & WALLACE team has over 200 years combined experience in Platinum recognized and Top 100 clubs, including country, golf, yacht and city clubs, and have worked with over 700 clubs across the country and around the world. They take their experience and put it to work for their clients. Together Mr. Wallace and Mr. Kuebler spoke to the group about the growing importance of club governance as well as current trends within the club industry and its de-mographics. The role of coaching and leading healthy club governance practices at each club falls to the General Manager/COO. This person must direct the members that volunteer for boards and committees and give them clear expectations as to what their responsibilities and roles are as it can be easy for them to become focused on their own

personal goals for the club or day to day operations. We also discussed the changing demographics of pri-vate clubs and how that will affect strategic planning for clubs and how their management teams lead. The private club industry has seen the overall average age of member-ship decreasing with focuses on women as the primary member and overall more family focus. They are also see-ing more competition in the golf industry. With people not wanting to dedicate four hours for a round of golf, golf simulators and places like TopGolf are becoming extreme-ly popular. We were thankful to have an incredible turn out. The meeting had thirteen students in attendance in addition to sixteen local club managers. We took time to honor our chapter’s senior class as well during the luncheon portion of the program. These seniors were given the traditional NU CMAA gift of an engraved watch. It was an honor to have Tom B. Wallace III, CCM, CCE, ECM and Kurt D. Kuebler, CCM present at the NYS Education this year, as they are the best of the best of the private

NYS Chapter Education

NU CMAA Speaker Series

P A G E 4

By: Anna Cummiskey

NU CMAA hosted it’s second “NU Speaker Series” of the year on Wednesday April 24th, 2019 The chapter has used this series to use technology to connect with managers from around the country in an effort to expand their knowledge. We hosted two Web Chats; one with Mark Krebs, CCM and Morgan West from The Country Club, and the second one with Joe Krenn, CCM, CCE, ECM from Farmington Country Club. Each seminar pro-vided our chapter with valuable topics that got us thinking about internships and life after college. Mark Krebs, CCM and Morgan West gave insights into maintaining network relations with man-agers, and keeping those connections alive. One key topic we discussed that most of us seniors will be struggling with shortly is creating a new social life transition when you take on a man-agement position. As young managers we will be entering the field with staff our age, or younger and we will have to adjust to keeping our workplace relationships professional. It was fasci-nating to hear industry stories of how that was one of hardest transitions for managers as they look back. Mr. Krebs shared some advice on participating in as many different opportunities as we can while were in school, and only take the ones that will offer you the best learning opportunities. We can honestly say our interns are really looking forward to proving themselves at their internships this summer after all the valuable advice he left us with.

Joe Krenn, CCM, CCE, ECM is the General Manager at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. Mr. Krenn took the time to speak with our chapter and teach a ses-sion on the transition from college to career.

He shared points on things college doesn't prepare you for when you enter the workforce such as teamwork skills, diversity, per-sonal finance, and balancing work demands. It is also important to know that sometimes your career path, life goals, and dream job don’t exactly line up but that’s okay because those things take time to develop and mature. However, once we decide on our goals, we need to focus on how strong our contributions will be and less on “impressive credentials.” Credentials will land the interview; how can you make that club better is what the current management team and members will want to know once you arrive at the interview. When looking for a job know your values and find the right club culture that lines up with that. As the end of the semester winds down the valuable information we pulled away from these inspiring sessions relieved some of the nervous-ness of underclassmen leaving for their first internships and Sen-iors on to their first career. We are grateful for these industry professionals taking the time to speak with us as a chapter and providing such valuable takeaways.

P A G E 5

NU Goes Country in Nashville

by Grace Dittman

This year’s CMAA World Conference and Business Expo was held in Nashville, Tennessee from February 23rd through the 28th. Our student chapter flew down fourteen students to attend the conference. This conference focuses on many different topics of education and allows for students to network with managers from around the country during these educations. The student chapter participated in each of the student dedicated sessions, with our favorite being the Coaching Session we had with Kevin Mac-Donald and Shelley MacDougall the leaders of “Extraordinary Leader”. Kevin and Shelley work with CMAA and managers throughout the world in other industries, developing leaders and success stories. Kevin and Shelley had each person in our group ask a question which they wrote down and responded to. The topics ranged from being our best selves, how to exemplify lead-ership as a young manager, making big moves and adjusting to new areas and cultures, and how to best grow throughout our careers. Kevin and Shelley have an amazing energy that immedi-ately gets you thinking “I’m ready to set new goals and achieve them.”

In addition to the student dedicated educations, our chapter attended some of the management education. These ses-sions featured food and beverage trends, best HR practices, stra-tegic planning for IT programs, communication and marketing strategies, and fitness trends. Each of these sessions are led by industry leaders within CMAA or by leaders within partnered companies of CMAA. Throughout the week there are also “General Business Sessions” in which all the conference at-tendees go to the same session. Our favorite General Business Session was the closing session where we listened to Sarah Robb O’Haggan speak.

Sarah Robb O’Haggan is the author of “Extreme You. Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat.” Sarah grew up in New Zealand, eventually making her way to the United States through her career at Virgin Atlantic. As a young up and comer at Virgin, often times in the same meetings as Richard Branson, Sarah be-lieved she had made it at a young age and was living her best life. Sarah made her way to the US where she was to take the marketing lead on Virgin’s latest business opportunity; Virgin Megastores. Ultimately this business venture failed and Sarah was fired. Sarah proceeded to speak about how angry that failure had made her and how, while it took time, it fueled her desire to be on top again. From Virgin, she moved on to Atari where she found little energy and enthusiasm for video games. She then got the job of her dreams at Nike. She went on from Nike to work as the Director of Marketing for Gatorade and ultimately became the President/COO of Equinox. Her book describes her relation-ships with “Extremers” who she has met along her path and what they’ve taught her. We all left the session with motivation to tackle the next thing and use what she presented in our future internships.

The highlight of this World Conference for the entire chapter was receiving Student Chapter of the Year for the tenth consecutive year. Our chapter has worked hard to maintain this title with the help of our Chapter Advisers, Niagara University Alum, industry professionals, and The College of Hospitality and Tourism at Niagara University. The Student Chapter of the Year Award is based on a series of factors, including the number and variety of educational programs offered, member employment and internships in clubs, membership growth, its relationship with the state chapter of CMAA, and member attendance at events. NU CMAA is honored to be the recipient of this award.

P A G E 6

Niagara University CMAA Student Chapter Placements for Summer ‘19

Name Class Standing

Summer Placement Position Previous Clubs

Gabriella Ortiz Freshman Country Club of Rochester Rotational Intern

Nadia Dante Sophomore Druid Hills Golf Club F&B Intern

Evan Donaldson Sophomore Country Club of Rochester Governance Intern

Country Club of Rochester

Brian Reilly Sophomore Ansley Golf Club F&B Intern The Buffalo Club Baltimore Country Club

Mariah Tidwell Sophomore The Country Club (OH) F&B Intern The Country Club (OH)

Kyra Dejulio Junior The Country Club (MA) F&B Intern

Benjamin DiCarlo Junior Columbia Country Club F & B Supervisor

The Country Club (OH) Rolling Rock Club

Grace Dittman Junior Sleep Hollow Country Club F & B Intern New York Athletic Club

Zachary Farkas Junior Park Country Club Golf Intern Park Country Club

Casey Iadresin Secretary The Club at Las Campanas HR Intern Park Country Club New York Athletic Club

Ashley James Senior* Greystone Golf & Country Club Assistant Catering Manager

Atlanta Athletic Club Buffalo Club

The Country Club (OH)

Anna Cummiskey Senior* Emerald Dunes Golf Club Dining Room Manager

Danielle Garcia Senior* The Hyatt Centric Times Square Manager in Development

The Country Club at Mirasol Westmoor Club

Emily Lovejoy Joe Perdue Scholarship

Recipient

Vice * President

The Country Club (OH) Asst. F & B Manager

Saturn Club New York Athletic Club Baltimore Country Club

Zachary Recckio Joe Perdue and NYS CMAA Scholarship

Recipient

President* The Country Club at Mirasol Manager in Development

Chevy Chase Club New York Athletic Club Desert Mountain Club

Transit Valley Country Club

Terry Scouras Joe Perdue and NYS CMAA Scholarship

Recipient

Treasurer* New York Athletic Club Banquet Manager

New York Athletic Club Columbia Country club

Park Country Club

Note: * Denotes student is a graduating/graduated senior and “Summer Placement” represents student’s final place-ment upon graduation.

President’s Report P A G E 7

The 2018-2019 academic year for the Niagara University CMAA Student Chapter was another wonderful year. As seen in previous newslet-ters, our website, and social media pages, our chapter has had a busy and memorable year. As always, it was a year filled with various networking events, educational opportunities, and professional development. Our year started off with the Great Lakes Regiona l Conference in Cleveland followed by the National Student Education Conference in Washington, DC. Our final conference trip was to the World Confer-ence on Club Management in San Francisco, where the student chapter was once again awarded the prestigious Student Chapter of the Year award, for the ninth year in a row! This award is given to the Student Chapter that shows the most success in a variety of categories, including; membership growth, education, networking, communications, community service, participation, and internship placeme nts. An incredible amount of hard work and dedication is put into our student chapter each year. This award is a testament to all tha t we do to-gether. With this being said, I would like to review the year, and the various accomplishments the student chapter has achieved:

Alongside the New York State Chapter, we participated in the following education events:

- “Club Governance and Leadership” by Tom Wallace, CCM, CCE and Kurt Kuebler. Niagara University. April. 10, 2019. We toured the following clubs:

We continued to work concessions at all of the Niagara University men’s basketball events, which allowed us to fund our educational opportunities.

We hosted our “Cat’s Pajamas Speakeasy” fundraiser dinner at The Saturn Club, which was a major success. Every member of NU CMAA has been certified in CPR/AED and trained in TIPS for the responsible sale and service of alcohol. The internship opportunities and direct placements within CMAA provide us with superlative education and learning experiences within the club industry.

Without the assistance and support from the NYS CMAA Chapter and friends of the Niagara University Student Chapter, these opportunities would not be possible.

On behalf of the entire student chapter, I would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their generous contributions to our success throughout the year. This past year has been filled with incredible opportunities for our student members. We will continue to uphold our standards of professionalism and club development as well as maintain our goal; To Continue being the best student chapter in CMAA. We strive for 100% participation, 100% placement and require 100% commitment throughout the year. It has been a true honor serving as President of the NU CMAA Student Chapter, I will cherish all of the memories and wonderful experiences I have been privileged to share these past four years. Without the constant encouragement that our chapter receives, we wouldn’t be where we are today. Thank you all for your endless guidance and support! Respectfully, Zachary Recckio N.U. CMAA President

16 Members returned to NU after successfully com-

pleting an internship in Summer 2019

7 New members joined our chapter over the course of

the academic year.

We supported the Genesee Valley Club at the annual

Clam Bake in September 2019.

14 Members attended the Great Lakes Regional Confer-

ence in Cleveland, OH in October 2019.

16 Members attended the National Student Education

Conference in Chicago, Ill. in November 2018.

18 Members attended the CMAA World Conference and

Business Expo in Nashville, TN March 2019.

We donated fuzzy socks to the Christmas Sock Drive

and volunteered our time at the Country Club of Buffa-lo’s Halloween Fest, the Park Country Club’s Halloween

Party

3 Members received the prestigious Joe Perdue

Scholarship, 2 Members received the New York State

CMAA Student Scholarship.

We continue to update our student chapter Facebook,

Twitter, and Instagram social media outlets. We also

update our website at www.nucmaa.org. Visit us online and add us on social media to learn about the upcom-

ing events for our chapter.

Admiral’s Cove

Lost Tree Club The Club at Ibis

St. Andrews Country Club

Woodfield Country Club

Polo Club at Boca Raton

Bath & Tennis Club The Loxahatchee Club

The Bear’s Club

The Country Club at Mirasol

Park Country Club The Saturn Club

The Buffalo Club

Genesee Valley Club

Country Club of Rochester Rochester Yacht Club

Oak Hill Country Club

Zachary Recckio N.U. CMAA President

Dr. Kurt Stahura, Dean of the College of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Niagara University

Mr. Brandon Sears & Ms. Rachel Zilka Student Chapter Faculty Advisors

Mr. Timothy Minahan, CCM, CCE, Country Club of Buffalo, Senior Chapter Liaison Manager

All the managers and their respective clubs in the New York State Chapter of CMA

Those clubs and managers across the nation that have provided us employment after graduation, summer intern-ships, part-time employment, and their ongoing support

Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management’s Faculty and Staff

The Alumni of the Niagara University CMAA Student Chapter

The Niagara University Athletics Department The Club Foundation of CMAA Kyle Jennings, CMAA Manager of Student Development All of our parents and family members