A Year End Progress Report
Utopia is not real, but an ideal we strive toward. Utopia is "an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.” Since City Club aspires to build an ideal community, a Securus Locus if you will, year-end is a good time to slow down and ask ourselves “How are we doing? Are we on track? Are we growing in the right direction? Are we willing to re-commit, or is it time to opt-out?
Personally, I am pleased with where we are headed. We already have so many wonderful offerings such as Steve Smith’s weekly Member Monday deep-dive discussions into so many diverse topics, and Kevin Townley's monthly sessions on topics such as Masonry and Alchemy. I get so much pleasure watching our many young entrepreneurs start and grow families and businesses, and, instead of getting a Christmas card in the mail, Mo Siegel personally handing me the most beautiful book, printed with over 100 color plates of Jesus that he has been working on for over ten years. Such an amazingly diverse community!
Looking back, the 40 years it has taken to build the ideal Highland community is like the biblical story of the Jews striving to find the Promise Land. They say a man can live a month without food, a week without water, but not a day without hope. So now that we are “there”, what do we hope to get from belonging to the Highland City Club community?
Last year was a tipping point in Highland’s history on many fronts:
Earn before you spend, and pay as you go are solid conservative business strategies, but it took me so long to build City Club, in the past few years many members’ main concern was no longer whether we are going to make it or not, as much as my succession plans!
This was Dustin’s first full year as part of the growing City Club management and operations team. I take particular joy in transitioning power and responsibility to the next generation. From our brand strategy to our amazing new operating platform, Dustin and his team did a fantastic job migrating our members online, at times kicking and screaming. But we did it, and our community is now on the cutting edge of technology with many plans for continued improvement.
For the longest time, the insider joke was “City Club finally made it; as a geriatric ward.” Well, this year we finally have more young business members than social members, and financially they contribute 5X to the growth and maintenance of our community. This transition is nothing short of a miracle.
Our young, diverse and dedicated new management team reflects the makeup of our new membership. With Dustin @ 26 in charge of operations; Tyler @ 28 stepping into Maria’s shoes in the kitchen; Catherine @ 30 acting as our new front of the house manager (see bio below); Victor @ 32 managing all our facilities; Ian @ 26 in charge of our weekly Newsletter and its graphics; Sam who is a Forbes 30-under-30 in charge of coding and programming. Our new-young team is on it and will lead us for decades to come.
While many members often compliment us on City Club’s openness to ideas, a small group of members often accuse me of acting dictatorially when it comes to food, art and operation. In response, I point out that our team is so efficient, allowing us to make decisions so quickly, it only appears I am the one making these decisions. Last week we had a holiday party for 80. The day before we got a panic call saying “we have 118 RSVPS! What should we do?” Within hours staff responded by saying “No problem. We will handle it.” That’s teamwork, and this is a true democratic community.
After years of research and reflection, we are finally launching a third level of membership called Changemakers. This new membership category strives to expand the reach of the Highland | City Club community beyond the Denver Metro area.
In less than half the ~15 years it has taken us to build City Club's membership to ~300+, WeWork was born, grew to ~600,000 members, and after losing billions of dollars a year, imploded. The distinguishing factor between our solid community with its deep roots, and others claiming to build community is a set of rules, policies and procedures that bond and guide us. We believe while an ideal community should strive for diversity in gender, age, religion, economics, politics, and ideas, it should also have clear rules that each and every member abides by. Since our inception, City Club’s charter has been our guiding document. While our principles, including our Vision Statement dates back to our inception, our operating rules continue to evolve to better reflect our growth.
This holiday season, please take the time to read our Charter and let us know if you have any questions or comments. Many of you signed up years ago based on my vision and operating style. Today we have members whose grandchildren are older than our new operations team. If today’s club with all the rule changes and price increases outlined in the charter is not the community you signed up for, please trust that we will respect any change of heart and will remain forever thankful for your moral and financial support to date.
Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous new year.
— Sina.