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Rebekah Pioch
9/28/2017

Ferris State University

Student Number:12272108

Hospitality Management

Internship 292-Summer 2017

Catawba Island Club

Port Clinton, Ohio

Number of Guest Rooms: 35
Number of Seats: 210+

Michael Schenk-Clubhouse Operations Manager

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Table of Contents:

Description of the Property…………………………...…3

Organization, Management Structure and Work

Environment………………………………………….....3

Catawba Island Club Organizational Managers Chart….4

Marketing Management……………………………...…5

Human Resource Management…………………………6

Operations and Administration……………………..…..8

Financial Management………………………………….9

Strategic Planning………………………………...……10

Interviews with Managers………………….………10-12

Personal Assessment……………………………….12-13
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Description of the Property

The Catawba Island Club, also known as CIC, located in Port Clinton, Ohio right on the edge

of Lake Erie. Their members come from areas such as Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit and a few

other cities. CIC currently has only 35 various size hotel rooms, however, only members and

their guests are allowed to stay at the hotel. The club has four main dining rooms, which can

hold roughly 210 people, not including the outside patio or bar. All condos associated with

club membership are privately owned, and members can also buy one of 350 boat slips

available or golf the 18-hole golf course. Although CIC is open year round, many of its

amenities are only available during the summer season. Seasonal areas include, the hotel,

pool, dock shop, and catering services, whereas the meeting rooms, Main Dining Room and

Cove bar are used year-round.

Organization, Management Structure and Work Environment

The owners of the property include Mr. Jim Stouffer Jr. and Mrs. Drew, each owning 50% of

the company. Their father was the original owner, but when he passed away he left it to his

son and daughter. The Catawba Island Club has no affiliations with any other companies and

is not a chain. It is an independently owned corporation with a well thought out management

system.
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Mr. Jim Stouffer&

Mrs.Drew-Owners

Michael
Schenk-
Clubhouse
Operations
Rory Fowler-
Food & JoAnn- Front Jamie-
Beverage Desk Security

Matthew Marshall Mike

Stouffer Drew Hanthorn Kathy, Leah,
Angie, Millie
Housekeeping
The Catawba Island Club Managers Organizational Chart

Communication at CIC is informal and friendly. Even though everyone is approachable, and

employees can speak to anyone, there was still a feeling of respect and professionalism

present. In a previous catering job, communication was also very informal, however the staff

was very small and extensive communication wasn’t necessary to keep the company running

smoothly. I think the work environment was very pleasant to work in, and I was comfortable

asking lots of questions. The members were also friendly, with a few exceptions, they were

satisfied with the services provided at the club. Many members and their families have been

there for 50+ years, which demonstrates that it is a welcoming/family friendly atmosphere.

CIC management is open to listening to employee suggestions for improvement to services

so that they can make the member experience even more special. I personally didn’t see any

major problems with the company. The owners/management have all been with CIC for so
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long that they know what works and what doesn’t, and they still try new things to continue

improving.

Marketing Management

The guest profile at the Catawba Island Club includes members in their 40’s to upper 50’s,

families, and extended families. The target market is pre-retirement people, those who are

still working but are close to retirement. Most marketing is done in the northern Ohio region

by word of mouth, there is no real active reach outs. Some of the things that our members

like about the property is that it is very family oriented, and for many it is their family’s

traditional summer home. CIC has wholesome and fun entertainment and amenities for

members to enjoy including, a pool, golf course, boating, pickle ball, and restaurant, with

beaches nearby. However, most of the amenities are weather dependent thus making it a

summer seasonal location. Improvement in member satisfaction might be reached with

better staff training of summer employees. Working with each employee and placing them in

the position for which they are best suited to succeed.

Although there may be other country clubs that are competing for the same members, there

aren’t any locally that compete with CIC. They stand out due to their location and goals set

by the hands on attitude of the owners. One of the weakness of CIC is that its location is

highly seasonal, boating and water activities can only be done during the summer months.

Second, some members feel the club has gotten too large. For example, during holiday

weekends it is hard to get a reservation and service quality suffers due to the amount of

people and busyness of the dining rooms and patio. A few strengths would include easy boat

access to Lake Erie, well-groomed golf facilities, and the easy first name basis that the owner
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and staff have with members. Some feel the club is large but compared to some country clubs

in Florida, CIC is much more personal and friendly.

CIC marketing strategies are different than many companies. Being a private club, there isn’t

much public advertising, most is word of mouth. Many members join due to generations of

families being members. At CIC once a member’s children reach a certain age, they must pay

for a membership themselves, or limit their number of visits per year. Social media like

Facebook and Instagram are used as a marketing tool and some special events are highlighted

in the newspaper, but most marketing is done by word of mouth.

Pricing for CIC amenities varies. Hotel rooms have seasonal rates with summer being the

most expensive due to high demand for wedding guests and member visitors. Restaurant

prices are pretty similar year round with the exception of local seafood as it is more plentiful

in the summer.

Marketing has been most successful through satisfied members, and communication to

members by mail/email. This has worked best so far because CIC caters to an older

generation that is not on social media. Their target audience is better reached by sending out

newsletters.

Human Resource Management

With the Catawba Island Club being a seasonal club, the number of employees hired during the

summer months increases dramatically. They have 125 year round employees, and 125 part

time/seasonal employees. Every division of the club has its own supervisors and managers, for

example, the marina has 1 manager and 4 supervisors, but the club has 7 managers and 10

supervisors.
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Everyone who is hired goes through a similar process in order to be placed in the position that fits

them best. For my interview and hiring process, I had two separate interviews, a personality test, and

a facilities tour. During the interview it was mentioned that I would be rotating through different areas

such as front desk, serving, and kids activities, to help me understand the different areas of the club.

The managers at CIC are a diverse group of people from all different backgrounds and different levels

of college education.

All seasonal employees at CIC are paid hourly, with rates depending on the employee’s education

level and position. For example, waitresses start at $4.75 + tips, but those in the golf shop start at

minimum wage and work their way up. Benefits offered to full time employees include: Life

Insurance, Short Term Disability, Critical Illness Insurance, Vacation and Sick Days. CIC shares the

cost of Medical, Vision and Dental insurance with its employees. CIC employees are responsible for

their own 401K, Long Term Disability, and Voluntary Life Insurance. The summer seasonal

employees have a high turnover rate as most are college students. CIC uses internship and job fairs to

recruit its summer help. One way they encourage summer seasonal help to return is by including an

automatic 20% gratuity on all guest meal chits. The waitress receives 13.75% with the rest going to

the bussing staff. Any additional tips above the 20% is all given to the waitress. Due to the friendly

atmosphere, many members request certain waitstaff for their table.

Many of the summer staff felt they were scheduled for too many hours and complained, but that is the

nature of the industry, especially in a seasonal business. Full time employees are on a first name

basis with CIC members, however, guest services would be benefitted by helping seasonal employees

get to know members as well. It would help complete that welcome home feeling.
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Operations and Administration

The daily hotel operations include, taking reservations, check in/out, and room assignments.

All reservations are handled by the front desk. The ladies manually put all reservations in the

reservation book and then later enter them in the computer. This helps keep things running in

case of power failures or computer issues. The front desk ladies that work during the day also

handle all special room requests and pre-assigned rooms. Because CIC is a private club, any

guests at the hotel have an account set up with a number, they use that number while on the

property to cover all costs and pay one time when checking out. The front desk also makes

sure guests are satisfied and take care of any complaints regarding the hotel. All accounts are

handled by the accounting department who are all CIC employees. No outside accountants

are used. Maintenance crews are split up by areas of the club and everything is very well

maintained. Marshall Drew is the housekeeping manager. He makes sure housekeeping is

scheduled when needed and that all rooms are at cleaned to CIC standards. CIC also has a

separate security staff to patrol the grounds, and provide shuttle services after weddings and

for employees to their cars. Any equipment needed at CIC is purchased rather than rented.

CIC does not have a “green” energy program, but does recycle as much as possible and

composts food waste from the restaurant.

They use a Canadian software program called JONAS. The software benefits are that it

shows real time data, and is an easy program for seasonal employees to learn and use. It does

have to be manually updated with any new products added. Different managers are able to

access the system and change things like menu items and dock shop additions. Managers use

reports every evening to calculate sales for the day and understand how much of each item is
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sold. Managers and waitstaff can figure out what their check average was and how many tips

they made that night.

Financial Management

Due to CIC being privately owned, they were not open to sharing their annual sales figures.

The average occupancy for rooms is 2-3 depending on the room and varies seasonally. Rates

for rooms also vary depending on the season with summers having higher rates than the

winter. The number of guests served per day depends on the day of the week. For example,

during the Fourth of July fireworks evening, 2,000 people were served property wide. There

was an event in the tent, and all inside and outside bars and dining rooms were open. On an

average weekend, however, they might serve a couple of hundred on Friday and Saturday.

The major expense categories are as follows: Cost of Goods sold 17%, Departmental Labor

26.2%, other Departmental Costs 13.4%. Income after expenses totals 43.5%. There are also

additional costs/expenses such as, administrative, repair/maintenance, property taxes, utilities

and insurance, and miscellaneous. Combined these equal 27%.

The budget is determined by the board made up of the following people: Mr. May

(CFO/Head of Accounting), Mr. Schenk (Clubhouse Operations Manager), Mr. Madison

(Marina Manager), Mr. Stouffer (Owner), and Mr. Wildmen (Harbor Master, Cad design

drawer). To control the major expenses that happen throughout CIC, they will have

meetings/conversations about allocating funds. The review submitted requests and

collaborate between one another to make the logical decision for the company. The estimated

market value of the company was not released because this is a private club and that is

confidential information.
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Strategic Planning

The long-term goal of the company is to grow by bringing in new members and younger

clientele. The short term goal is to start and complete little projects to make the building and

the atmosphere more up to date. They will continue to change as the years go on, and slowly

continue to update the facilities. Also, in the next few years they will be hiring new

management as the current management retires. Some trends that the company sees changing

is how are the members spending their free time and how are they spending their money.

They will observe these things about the members and change the activities they have

planned or change the menu, to continue to keep up with the new growing trends.

They plan to adapt by also, actively researching their average membership and use a program

to understand who their prospective members are (children of current members and new

members). Once a member’s son or daughter become a certain age they either have to have

their own membership or visits per year are restricted. This should help make CIC aware of

possible reductions in membership, and they can market accordingly.

Interviews with Managers

Matthew Stouffer- Assistant Operations Manager-July 27th, 2017

Matthew graduated from the College of Wooster, in Wooster, Ohio. He has a degree in religious

studies, but at the age of 14 he started working at CIC in south marina, the pantry and at the fuel

dock. During college he also worked at the developmental office at Wooster college, working

with current students and recent graduates, guiding them in their college careers. But he always

felt at home working for CIC so he returned there after college and became the Assistant

Operations Manager. He said that he would not change any of his past experiences, everything
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he has learned throughout the years has brought him to this point in his life and it couldn’t be

better. If he wasn’t working at CIC he would like to be working in college admissions, but he

enjoys what he does at CIC.

Matthew enjoys the flexibility of his work and that he is able to converse with members and get

to know them on a personal basis. Something that he least enjoys is that the staff is the same

small crew and they don’t have many backups in case of someone calling in sick. A challenging

part of this job, that he mentioned is that they have an over staffing issue during the off season,

and they end up having less guests and more staff. A trend that will have an impact on the

business in 2-5 years will be the financial markets, this may cause people to discontinue their

membership. He feels they may need to bring new people in and create a larger membership.

Some of the most critical challenges is finding and hiring a good staff that will understand the

importance of providing perfect customer service. Matthew’s advice for anyone whose future is

in the hospitality industry is to stay humble, you won’t always be the best at what you do, but

you can always get better.

Marshall Drew- Assistant Food and Beverage Manager & Housekeeping Manager-July

27th, 2017

Marshall graduated from Purdue University as a Hospitality major. After Purdue he started

working at Aramark in the sports and entertainment division, in Chicago. He was the concessions

manager for 2 different arenas, Allstate Arena and Solider Field. He did not care for that job very

much, so he returned to work at CIC. His mother is also a part owner, so he too worked there

when he was in his teens. His current position is the food and beverage manager and the

housekeeping manager. If there was anything he could change, he said he would have liked to
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work at a few different companies before returning to CIC, so he could have had more and

different experiences.

What he enjoys the most is that every day he has a different job/responsibility, and his least

favorite thing is that during the off season it is really slow and CIC must rely on holidays. But

during the slow season it is a lot easier to connect with members because there is a smaller

crowd. The hardest part about this job for him is seasonal-staff training, losing staff (interns &

summer help), and dealing with the high demands of the employees.

He wants to make sure CIC keeps up with new food and beverage trends. To do that they go to

food and beverage shows such as the Gordon Food Show in Grand Rapids, and they attend hotel

expos and beer and wine shows.

The most critical challenge for this company according to Marshall is bringing in new members

and keeping them for several years, and then of course all the older members passing away.

Marshall gives a great piece of advice for anyone going into the hospitality industry, be ready to

work long hard hours, and make sure you find a company with people you enjoy working with.

Personal Assessment

Over the course of the past 3 months, I have learned that time management is key,

because it can mean the difference between an extra tip and no extra tip. So, I took the first few

weeks of my internship to get to know my surroundings and figure out the most efficient way to

retrieve things. My career goals have altered slightly since the beginning of the summer. I

originally wanted to work at a hotel, but my perspective has changed, I want to explore more

country clubs and more yacht clubs. I like the culture and style of this company and I want to

find a company that I fit best into and feel at home in. The ability to be very personable with
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someone is one of my newly acquired skills and I was complimented on it several times this

summer. Hard work, and commitment was reinforced for me, during this internship and these

things helped me realize that hard work and commitment pay off in the end. I was also one of

the first to step up to get the job done, because it’s always a learning experience, whether you

know what you’re doing or not. I have specifically learned how to interact and how to

accommodate with the upper-class members and their families. I think this will help me in a

managerial position someday. The interpersonal skills I have acquired have helped me to relate

to guests, making them feel welcomed and comfortable, and other employees, working together

to resolve issues and provide service. I think this internship was an amazing experience and I

would recommend it to anyone who is hard working and ready to learn about the positive and

negative sides of this industry. But you only get out what you put in. You need to ask a lot of

questions or ask to be moved to different departments and scheduled for different events, in order

to see the whole company and learn about its’ services. It is definitely what you make of it, and I

took so much away from not only this company but from the employees as well. The only

suggestions I would make to the company, would be for them to be more proactive about moving

the interns to different areas of the company as promised when hired. I experienced more than

other interns because I was proactive and got put in different positions, but I have also seen the

outcome of someone not saying anything and not gaining as much experience. I could not have

asked for a better experience. I will use these great industry experiences to improve my abilities

as I move forward in my career. I am very thankful I was able to do my first internship with the

Catawba Island Club and their great staff.