Yacht club, among sea of challenges, boosts membership tally

Going on 60 years, the Bird Key Yacht Club, like many other membership-based leisure businesses lately, was on the struggle boat to recapture its glory days.

Yet instead of retrenching, the club invested in multiple upgrades big and small in order to “take it into the next century,” General Manager Scott Brynski says. In the process, club leaders learned two key lessons in building and maintaining a membership base in a fickle environment: Don’t skimp on details, and employee retention, particularly in hospitality, must be paramount to uphold high customer service standards.