My good friend and business mentor Jim Collins once told me “it takes twenty years of hard work to have an overnight success.”
We started the process of converting Highland office to Highland City Club in 2005, and it took us over a decade to pass the 100 member mark. This June we added 16 new business members, four new social members and signed four office leases, so for the first time ever, we have more Business than Social members; more younger vs. older members.
Read MoreOn this 4th of July it is important to remember America was born as a result of a revolution, and the need for revolutions is engrained in every red blooded American. As Thomas Jefferson said, the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Read MoreWe are trilled to be in the final stages of converting our operating platform to Optix, and need your help to complete this project. Please go to the IOS or Google Play store on your phone and download the "Highland | City Club" app. This app will allow you to manage all aspects of your club experience and participate in community forums, while allowing us to centralize your monthly billing. Access to this app is by invitation only and is exclusively available to Highland City Club members.
It's been a cool wet Spring, but our gardens loved it and our new Kentucky Bluegrass feels right at home. Now that summer is here, we are ready to party hardy, so plan to join us for the following events.
Steve Smith is planning to take some time off this summer to recharge his intellectual batteries, so plan to attend his lunch on Monday to "reclaim your attention.” Steve plans to do one more lunch on the 24th before he closes shop for July and part of August.
Read MoreOnce again we are here to prove, "the only constant is change." A year ago we converted our clunky manual operating system to a state of art web-based operating system. We are now taking a giant leap forward by adopting a mobile-based operating system that allows a much better experience for our growing membership. To get a feel for how far we have come, please go to the IOS or Google Play store on your phone and download the "Highland | City Club" app. This app will allow you to manage many aspects of your club experience such as electronic entry door access, check-in, book a conference room, schedule meetings, participate in community forums, access full membership directory and much more as a seamlessly integrated experience on your phone. Access to this app is by invitation only and is exclusively available to Highland City Club members only.
Read MoreWe are fortunate to live in America, and privileged to participate in its politics. To maintain the health and vitality of our country and Highland community, we often invite our current and aspiring political representatives to visit and share their vision, goals and progress with us.
On Thursday June 20th we are hosting a meet-and-greet event for Democratic US Senate Candidate Mike Johnson from 5:30 to 7 pm. Mike did a great job running for Governor of Colorado, but lost to Jared Polis who did an even better job.
Read MoreIn case you have not noticed it, we are going through a major growth phase and radical transition, and as a result we are dealing with a lot of chaos. From trying to find good employees to support our growth to the premature activation of our new parking system; from transitioning our operating platform to installing an electronic entry door system, we are totally reinventing ourselves and striving for perfection. Meanwhile confusion reins and though stressed, we love it, because we know this is a lot of pain and suffering for a great cause.
Read MoreCity Club is growing and we are doing our best to keep up.
We recently completed a major garden renovation to allow 70+ members to simultaneously work and dine outside. Sometime this year we plan to expand our kitchen to keep up with demand.
Last year we adopted a state of the art management software program which is already outdated! Since Optix which is a more beautiful and sophisticated solution has come to market which is capable of running all the processes we need, from our complicated monthly billing and member check-in, to features like user managed conference room bookings and membership directory where you can chat with any member or learn more about what they are doing and what is happening in our City Club community.
Read MoreOur garden project is complete and we plan to celebrate on Friday June 21st, so please mark your calendar to join us for a special event including dinner, cocktails on the lawn, music in the amphitheater and the unveiling of the bronze plaque to dedicate our new symbolic temple.
Read MoreProgress is often the result of taking hundreds of small steps, vs. a giant leap forward. Here are three steps we are taking towards our goal of creating an ideal community.
Our garden project is almost complete, the Kentucky Bluegrass is settled in and looks like it has been here forever. Take a look at the picture below. It is hard to believe none of this infrastructure was here last Fall. We now have 72 seats outside along three fountains, with access to crazy fast internet, electric and phone chargers, to make working in the gardens feel like a picnic.
Read MoreWhen I saw the topic of last Member Monday lunch, I figured I better show up just in case the discussion gets heated and I need to remind folks City Club is a Securus Locus.
Over a 90 minute discussion, nineteen smart adults with diverse ages and backgrounds came to a general consensus that, in a way, each of us -- of whatever race, ethnicity, nationality, creed, culture, religion, economic standing or belief system -- can harbor some element of racism, but the real question becomes what, exactly, does that term even mean?…
Read MoreSpring is finally here and it sure looks like we are firing on all cylinders.
After four months of outdoor construction during the harsh Colorado winter, this week the sod truck from Berthoud finally showed up with beautiful winter Kentucky Bluegrass, and within hours we had a green lawn that is the envy of any golf course.
Last week I had the good fortune to participate in two great discussions at City Club worth reporting on.
Monday night’s dinner guests included five highly educated self-described conservatives, and five liberals. With three of the total, including myself being immigrants, we were tasked in advance to read up on immigration, and show up to discuss a possible compromise solution. To the amazement of all, at the end of a great dinner, we unanimously agreed the ~11M undocumented resident aliens in this country should get residency, with an eventual path to citizenship; and at the same time we should secure our borders, mostly airports, to promote legal, and prevent illegal immigration.
Our third floor co-working space provides our Business Members with over 50 “seats.” Based on popular demand, we have created 12 “dedicated desks” throughout the building for members who want a permanent assigned desk. Next time you are in, take a look at the second floor north suite to see our latest addition.
We started our garden landscape project on December 13th, and hope to have it completed by May 4th for the Kentucky Derby event. This turned out to be a massive project, but by the time we are done, we will have upgraded our 40-year old garden infrastructure and will have 68 outdoor seats with crazy-fast WiFi, many electric plugs and phone chargers, lighting, and hopefully a permanent outdoor kitchen.
Many of my friends and City Club members tell me they are sick of politics, and have had it with the extreme partisanship that has divided our country more than anytime in our history, other than the Civil War.
Well, I love politics because I know first hand the opposite of too much politics is not enough politics, and that’s when one gets a knock on the door in the middle of the night and is never heard of again; or the leader of the opposition party is shot dead in daylight in front of the Kremlin and that’s that!
When was the last time you watched Peter Sellers play Chauncey the Gardener?
Highland City Club is blessed to have one of the largest and most unique award winning gardens in Boulder, if not Colorado. We feel fortunate to have had Constance Peck design and build our gardens starting 40 years ago, and for Will Kohler to spend over two decades building our garden infrastructure. But going forward, we need a gardening team more than a gardener, since there is so much to do, and the normal wear and tear of hundreds of people a month touring, working and eating in the gardens needs a whole new level of care we have not been accustomed to.
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.
