Surviving and Thriving

The Stoics believe life is good but hard. Or, as Gilda Radner of Saturday Night Live fame used to say, “If it’s not one thing; it’s another.”

This year alone we experienced a 100-mile-per-hour wind that took down a massive tree we had planted 44 years ago, along with a fire that resulted in six-figure damages. During the 2008/9 recession, our budding club lost some key employees and nearly half our membership. The recent pandemic then resulted in the loss of more key employees and nearly half our revenue.

I could go on and on about how hard life is but the reality is, throughout this arduous process, we have been building, growing in size, and attracting outstanding new members. In short, we are both surviving and thriving. Two recent examples highlighted this notion for me:

We recently announced the launch of an ambitious new food and beverage program which was planned, designed, and will be executed by Dustin and Chef Tyler Crawford. For ten years, Chef Maria Cooper and I did our best; now a new generation with even grander ambitions is taking charge.

For nearly two decades we strived to make music an integral part of our community. I designed and built the Club’s Grand Room as a French Salon to host acoustic performances. But no matter how hard we tried, we were unable to attract enough members to make the numbers work.

Then, during her initial club interview, I shared my dilemma with new member Glenda Luck who told me she was passionate about music. Fast forward three months to last Thursday night when we hosted classical guitar Maestro Alfredo Muro for an amazing sold-out acoustic concert, thereby restoring my faith in our vision. Multiple members left with tears of joy in their eyes. Paraphrasing Edison’s quote, true success is 90% surviving and 10% thriving. But in the long run, a 10% cumulative growth adds up to huge progress.

We have five more concerts planned for this music series and; other members like Steve Borne are working on their own new music series. Please consider making a commitment to support music here at City Club.

— Sina.