Sea Pines Mens Club |
SPMC Leadership Team/Officers
MEMBERS DIRECTORY PROVIDES CONTACT INFO
|
President |
John Beal |
| Vice President | Jim Cherry |
| Treasurer | John Farrenkopf |
| Membership Secretary | Mark Balinski |
| Technical Administrator | Dick Clark |
| Event Planning Chair(s) | Dave Driesbach |
| Pat Murphy |
Beginnings
In late 1999 Paul Grier and John Fraser, President of Community Services Associates (CSA), met to discuss how to utilize the new Sea Pines Community Center. Grier had been an officer in a Men's Club in New Jersey (Wyckoff) and the Sea Pines Women's Club had already been established (by Joanne Santos and Jacqueline Carbiener) so he contacted them for pointers on setting up the men's club.
The first planning and organization meeting was held March 8, 2000 with Tom Hall, Dan Olenchuck, Russ Lamperman, Joe Eagers, and Paul Grier. On March 21st a kick off for membership was held, and in the following weeks 40 new members signed up.
The first social was a wine tasting at the Community Center arranged by Frank Cascio. After six months of working with CSA and the cable company, service for the Big Screen TV was available at the Community Center and a Super Bowl Party was held in January 2001.
During the pandemic the club ceased collecting dues. The amount of activity had understandably dwindled considerably. Until this time the club functioned as it had, but new member numbers declined and several activities became inactive due to lack of participation. In 2022 the current President, who had served for 10 years (no new takers for the position) moved away from Sea Pines and Hilton Head.
Before leaving he worked to recruit new leaders to continue the club (the previous leaders had gradually reduced their participation, except the Treasurer who continued). The group who agreed to help keep the club running elected one of their own as the new President (John Beal).
He immediately committed to invigorate the club with new members, activities, and events. His first effort, with only about a month to make it happen, was to hold the annual Christmas Party. It was a huge success, sold out with over 100 attending, and with 11 new members signing up.
His next main focus was to do the same with the club website. He believed it was especially important (1) to provide a ready source to inform members of activities and events, (2) to protect their privacy by keeping the member directory and contact info away from casual browsing, and (3) to promote the club to potentially new members. The new site also includes the ability to pay online (dues and events), a more appealing look with a similar email template, and an enhanced event registration (even just yes or no attendance). And, two new activities (beach bike ride and golf) have already been added to the club venue.