When my kids started dating, I told them, if after the first date you are still interested, ask, “…… and how are you crazy?”
City Club is a Securus Locus for all of us to get in touch with, explore, and share with each other our success despite our physical, mental and emotional handicaps; a safe place to drop our Persona and share our true Selves, handicaps and all.
Last week I was in a four-day seminar in the Vail Four Seasons hotel and had a chance to mingle with some interesting people. Twice when I introduced myself as the founder of Highland City Club in Boulder, the immediate reaction was “I hear you guys have the best lunches in town.”
It has taken us 14 years to bring our food quality to this level, so now we are in the midst of planning and design to quadruple the size of our kitchen to be able to do more, like a simple/healthy continental breakfast, and planned dinners. Our goal is to go from best lunches in Boulder, to the best dining experience anywhere. Yes, this is a tall order, but why not shoot high?
Since its inception in 2005, City Club has been a work in progress. In the past fourteen years, we have been in a constant state or renovation, remodel and addition of various spaces like our work share space on the third floor, the entry bridge, garden upgrade, and our current plans to quadruple the size of our kitchen.
To help pay for this growth and to bring us closer to operational breakeven, starting May 1st, we will increase our lunch prices by $1 from $15 to $16, which is still a fraction of the actual cost of the meal we serve; and increase the cost of our Business Membership to $400/m for new members, while increasing the cost of all current Business Members to $375/m.
We love watching our community change and grow, and strive to make City Club act like a hub of a wheel, with its many spokes reaching out to the larger community. Like a flywheel, the longer we are at it, the faster we gain momentum, and are able to do more good with less effort.
Using the strength in our numbers, in the past few months we have been reaching out to other cool Boulder institutions our members already like and support, asking if they want to partner up with us by offering a discount to our members. Personally, I love our relationship with Bulldog Yoga, which is located just two blocks from Highland, allowing me and other members to attend a mellow 6:15 am class before starting work, or a more rigorous class on the weekends.
Henry Ford once said, “You can always distinguish the leaders by the arrows in their backs.”
Leadership is a thankless and frustrating job, but many of us strive to do it, because it is satisfying to bring a diverse group of people together to accomplish a big task. In the same light, trying to manage City Club is like trying to herd 230 smart and independent cats with diverse interests and opinions. So why do we do it? Because the feedback we get from our members makes it all worthwhile.
Though it is cold outside and we seem to be in the dead of winter, in fact, we are closer to Spring than Fall, the ground is starting to breathe and the birds are starting to sing. In short, once again we are about to awaken from our hibernation and feel love in the air, and realize pursuit of happiness, instead of mere survival as our primary goal. In the midst of all this, we are making great progress in our garden project and will be ready to celebrate its opening by Spring.
If you stand in line long enough, eventually it's your turn.
– Woody Allen.
Forty years since the renovation of Highland, and nearly fourteen years since we started City Club, it sure looks like our turn has come.
Maybe it was the opening of the third floor shared workspace, or the gold leaf sign at the entry, but it appears we have finally been discovered, as evidence by the fact that we are attracting a lot of young and smart business members, and are blessed to have unbelievably experienced social members like Joe de Raismes who is featured below, Bud Wonsiewicz who is doing the science talks next week, and Scott Garen who uses his 30+ years of experience in Hollywwod to pick movies we've rarely heard of, let alone seen, and clearly explains why we should.
As a community, Chef Maria’s delicious food nurtures our Reptilian brain; our connection with each other and the sense of community it creates feeds our Mammalian brian; and our diverse and interesting topics of discussion satisfies our Neocortex.
A year ago we started a new section in this Newsletter titled “What we are reading and talking about.” Steve Smith’s Monday Member lunches; Kevin Townley’s Western Mysticism topics; Bud Wonsiewicz Poetry reading and science talks, always provide something for us to learn, and an opposing opinion to take in and digest.
This year started with a Bang! and City Club may no longer be the best-kept secret in Boulder, as evidence by the fact that so far we have signed up two tenants, seven business and two social members. In short, our community is growing and the synergy is building, allowing us to hire more employees to serve you, and more programs to attend.
Read MoreHighland City Club’s greatest asset is our members. We are fortunate to have founding members like Steve Smith, Kevin Townley and others who help grow our community by sharing their knowledge and wisdom with us.
Although Bud Wonsiewicz is a relatively new member, he is passionate about whatever he does, including his new City Club community. A scientist to his core, and a poet at heart, Bud has agreed to lead not one, but two programs at City Club. Please see an abbreviated version of Bud’s impressive bio below.
Many of our members tell us Highland’s award-wining garden is one of their favorite features of City Club. We are already halfway through one of our ten goals for this year, which is to build a 20-seat dining area outside.
This area is designed to have a concrete floor, electricity, crazy fast internet, light and shading so our members can work outside during the day, have lunch in shade during summer, and participate in our themed dinners, which is another one of our ten goals for the year.
In this season of rest, reflection and renewal, we want to take the time to count our blessings, and to thank you, our members, for helping us create a safe and supportive community to belong to.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year ahead.
For the longest time, the main question I faced was whether I thought City Club was going to make it, and I always answered: "I don’t know, but I am trying my hardest."
Read MoreAlthough we are proud of all we have been able to accomplish towards our goal of creating Highland City Club, we see our progress to date akin to having built a strong foundation, waiting for a great architect; or a large canvas, waiting for a great painter. In short, we believe the best is still ahead of us. The following is a partial list of our plans and projects, large and small, for the near and long-term future.
Building a country, starting a religion or forming a community is akin to drawing a circle. As soon as the circle is drawn, there are the insiders and outsiders. The Jews’ Ten Commandments, the American Constitution and the Communist Manifesto are a few examples.
The circumference of the circle, the line that separates the insiders from the outsides are the rules the community adopts and the code of conduct for self management. Similarly, the glue that bonds Highland City Club members together is our Vision, Mission and Charter.
Year End Update
Endings are sacred; at City Club we pay special attention to them.
As we approach the end of the calendar year and prepare to go into winter, we try to do two things well:
In the five years Carlos has been a member of Chef Maria's kitchen team, he has never missed a day of work for any reason! That’s an incredible record till you learn that on average Carlos puts in 58 hours a week to prep, wash dishes and spot clean the kitchen from top to bottom every Saturday. In addition, Carlos takes on outside maintenance jobs, and as an X-Rodeo Star in Mexico, he tends to seven horses in his ranch in Lyons, delivers calves and raises hogs. In short, Carlos is the poster child of the hard-working immigrants who have made our country the envy of the world.
Read MoreI give thanks for living in a country with a constitution that allows transfer of power every two years without a shot fired and/or tanks rolling down the streets.
I am thankful to be in a loving relationship for over 40 years, and have the wisdom and commitment to survive its many ups and downs.
Bill and Pam Stewart joined City Club in April 2006, nearly a year after we opened, when we were more of a club in concept than in reality. While Pam was more outgoing, energetic and excited about the club, it was Bill who I bonded with and brainstormed about our vision for an ideal community.
One day I told Bill about an item on my bucket list which was to visit the Bohemian Club’s summer camp in the redwood forest north of San Francisco, which many believe it is harder to get into than Fort Knox. After listening intently, Bill casually stated “I am a member and will be glad to get you an invite for next summer.” While being a part of this all-American experiment was a lifetime achievement, the real highlight was spending ten days with Bill and the chance to get to know him, his lightness of spirit and his joy for life.
There is a lot of talk about how our country is divided, on the wrong track, and at the edge of civil war. From pipe bombs in the mail to mass shootings in schools and synagogs, from talk of impeaching the president to impeaching a sitting Supreme Court justice, at times it sure seems like the fabric of our society and democratic system is being torn apart.
The Founding Fathers understood the human nature and designed our system not for an ideal enlightened leader, but to withstand stressful times like we live in, so as long as we continue to exercise our right to vote, all’s well with our system.
