NewClub Team Handbook

Our vital core values for our staff. It is these values we use to evaluate those who work with us, who understand our vision of the golf industry, and how we will work together to achieve our goals.

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• We are courageous and bold.

• We are curious and inventive.

• We are committed to winning as a team.

• We are concise, focused, and accountable.

• We are compassionate, caring, and kind.

We have five core values that define who we are as a members’ club, guiding how we act toward one another and what we mean when we say the quality of character is most important.

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Community

We are a friendly, generous, and humble society connected by our love for the game of golf. 

Integrity

We are honest and trustworthy, unconditionally treating others well, both on and off the golf course.

Reverence

We share a deep respect and gratitude for golf, its participants, and all those who contribute to its enjoyment.

Inclusivity

We cherish the perspectives and experiences of others from diverse backgrounds, living by the principle that we have far more that connects us than divides us.

Mindfulness

We believe golf is a metaphor for life, striving to learn and improve through its journey and those we share it with.

NewClub Golf Society was officially founded and incorporated in 2017.

Before that, our history started with our co-founder Matt Considine and his unique journey to-and-from-and-back to the game of golf.

Matt grew up in Akron, Ohio, playing a combination his home course, Portage Country Club, a classic Langford and Moreau, the courses at Firestone Country Club, a long-time professional golf staple, and Akron’s municipal golf course, J.E. Good Park. His talent kept him in competitive golf through childhood and led to a collegiate golf career at his hometown, the University of Akron. But, as happens to many, Matt soured on golf when it became so much about score and individual outcome. Instead of completing his college years as a golfer, he journeyed to Ireland (his family’s ancestral country) to study abroad. Golf would find him anyway.

His Irish friends convinced him to join the golf society despite Matt leaving his clubs stateside, but the experience would change him forever. The eye-opening way golf societies in Ireland (and the rest of the United Kingdom) approached golf, through camaraderie, match play, and a multitude of welcoming clubs and courses, Matt knew golfers in the United States needed the model. Golfers needed a way to connect their happiness with the game far beyond a scorecard and pencil.

In 2015, Matt returned to the U.K., this time to the home of Golf in Scotland. He took in his experience fully through a new lens and solidified his belief in society golf. Sure, it was about the quality of the golf courses, but it was also about the healthy golfing lives of everyone in their local communities.

“We met teachers, bankers, architects, and grocers. Police officers, accountants, and a fisherman. I was fascinated with how much of their town was represented. In addition to honorary members such as Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones, and Sandy Herd, The New Golf Club of St. Andrews has been a place for hundreds of years where citizens of the town, any resident in good standing with a passion for the game can call their golfing home.”

It was these experiences that sparked the idea of NewClub, leading to the founding of the company and our first Chapter in 2018.

Read more about Matt's story

Our entire team works remotely from wherever we’re most comfortable and productive. Some of us work in our living rooms, home offices, or coffee shops. We utilize the Google Suite and Gmail, so much of our shared information and corporate functions occur with Google’s tools.

We don’t really ever see a need for an office space. For our company, it’s just too costly and impractical with team members all over the country.

Some of our communication tools

To meet and collaborate with video calls, we use Google Meet.

Without video, we use Slack chat.

When chat doesn’t cut it, miscommunications occur, and video isn’t possible, we try our best to call each other on our mobiles. We text each other sometimes too.

Ultimately, we use whatever means of communication is most efficient but also most clear. We know that miscommunication happens, so it’s important we keep ourselves accountable and responsible for switching up the communication method as soon as necessary.

Independent work style

We really don’t have rigid work structures and only have meetings when necessary. The best type of employee knows what they have to accomplish and can work as independently as possible.

You can read all the studies you want about the merits of taking time off from work, but it’s downright common sense. What we want to do is create a work culture where we all have a healthy balance of working and not working.

But we know that as the days start going by, it’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling like we can’t take time off because of something super important coming up. Well, that thing might be important, but it’s not more so than your health and well-being (mental and physical).

There’s a lot of glamorizing working at or founding a startup, but the reality is that it’s really hard work. We all need to keep our passion and dedication to our goals to keep going.

Here are the time off principles that we adhere to:

• You are required to take a minimum of 10 business days off during every calendar year.

• This is paid time off.

• Time off means time off. Don’t look at work, don’t respond to messages (you’ll still get them). Turn off notifications, delete email and Slack off your phone if needed. You can get them back when you return.

• Everyone, even the founders, is required to take this time off regardless of years worked.

Here are some guidelines to accompany these principles:

• You don’t have to take all 10 days at once, but it sure is nice when you do.

• If you ever feel like you can’t take time off or can’t adhere to the policy, there’s something wrong so don’t be afraid to talk to HR.

• Sick days or mental health days do not count toward mandatory time off. Take time to get better. If you try to work while you’re sick, you’ll just delay your recovery and impress no one.

• Medical/maternity/paternity leave is a different policy.

There’s no requirement that you’ve ever played golf to work for NewClub — but it helps our success tremendously. Once you are an employee, you’re going to be required to play.

We are doing this for two main reasons: 1) we love to play golf and 2) we want to make sure we’re always connected to what we provide our members.

What does “play” golf mean?

• Play golf at any course anywhere in the world or at an indoor golf facility like Five Iron Golf or Top Golf.

• Go to any driving range, 9-hole course, par 3 courses, or course of any length.

• Putt-putt and putting courses are okay to start, but you will have to play full-swing golf too.

• Disc golf or foot golf doesn’t count (that’s not our game).

A few additional guidelines:

• It’s best to play with members of NewClub. We’re a community after all.

• You don’t have to play every week, but Linksoul’s “mandatory golf Friday” is an amazing idea.

• You do not have to be “good” at golf, ever. Just enjoy it.

• July is pace of play awareness month, and friends never let friends play slow.Item description

Item descriptionIn general, we have a back-end platform that handles our business operations and a front-end collection of technologies for our members.

Every employee of NewClub must be familiar with these technologies.

Back-End Tools & Technologies

• Postgres SQL

• NodeJS

• AWS

• Firebase

• The NewClub HQ portal

Front-End Tools & Technologies

• React Native for Android and iOS

• Unknown Golf

• Squarespace

• Typeform

• Zapier

• Streak

• Salesmate

• ActiveCampaign

• Mailchimp

• Mandrill

• Google Suite

• Notion

• LastPass

HR Tools

• Gusto

When we think about our platforms, our first priority when building our operational platform is to automate any manual process that can be.

Additionally, we think about scale but not in the same way as many other startups. Scale to us is in the thousands or tens of thousands, not millions.

It was Matt and Mark’s past work experiences that shaped the way NewClub was founded, how we look at the world, and what impact we intend to have. Within the context of this handbook, we wanted to share some critical aspects of how NewClub was envisioned as a startup.

Bootstrapping & Funding

When we founded NewClub in 2017, we intended to be a bootstrapped business as long as we could. Largely, we succeeded in every way we wanted to.

As we grow, we may take on additional funding depending on how it fits with our goals and which investors are interested. We share that because it’s important to be transparent about our intentions, while still keeping the mindset of a lean and financially independent business.

With our first employee hired in 2022, we still have plenty of room to grow. But we want to immediately establish levels at the company in order for employees to know where they stand in their career paths and understand their salaries and levels.

• Contributors // Level 1 salary

• Managers // Level 2 salary

• Directors // Level 3 salary

• Executives // Level 4 salary

We are under the mindset that specific titles for roles here are far less important than knowing where you stand in your career development, so specific titles can be decided on a role-specific basis with you and your direct manager.

It’s important that you as an employee aren’t expected to take any career path; there is no expectation or requirement to move any level in any form at any particular schedule. Instead, we wanted these levels to be published so everyone at NewClub knows where they stand in their career.

Parental Leave

We take the approach that having a child is one of the most important life events there is. More important than any job-related event and certainly more important than the daily obsessions of a golf nut.

As a new parent (any gender), we expect you to take no less than 12 weeks off (paid). Eventually, we plan to expand the number of weeks required to take off for a new child.

Family and Medical Leave

We will strictly follow Federal and State FMLA laws in Illinois, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio and any other future state where we have employees.

https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/benefits-leave/fmla

Here are the holidays and days of observance we recognize as non-work days:

• December 31-January 1 // New Year’s Eve & Day

• January // Martin Luther King Day

• May // Memorial Day

• June // Juneteenth

• July 4 // Independence Day

• November // Thanksgiving Day & Following Friday

• December 24-25 // Christmas Eve & Day

• September // Labor Day

• Any election days

NewClub Golf Society was incorporated in 2017 as The New Club LLC and is a limited-liability corporation. We are incorporated in the state of Ohio, so our contracts will name Ohio as the state where we follow corporate laws.

NewClub is a remote company but headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Our corporate mailing address:

1055 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. Suite F. #294
Chicago, IL 60660

(This is a mailing address only, not an in-person office.)