The Country Club
of the Crystal Coast
...where friends connect
By Tom Tempel
Molly West Marketing took a good look at all aspects of the Country Club of
the Crystal Coast last fall, held a focus group with members from every cat
egory of membership and developed a marketing road map to guide us. One
suggestion that has already been adopted by the Board is the focus statement
.. where friends connect’.’ Its what we’re all about. In golf and tennis, the sweet
spot of the club or racquet connects with the ball for good shots. Friends play
ing golf or tennis, relaxing in the member lounge after a game, enjoying a meal
or attending social events connect with each other in friendship. That statement
says it all. Thanks, Molly.
I would like to highlight the activities of some of the committees that are es
sential to success of the club. Committees are composed of members who are
good stewards of club operation, and they provide member-oriented backup to
General Manager Chip Chamberlin and departnient managers for successful
club function. Committee members’ time and talents are much appreciated.
We have eleven very important club committees. I’ll focus on the Social Com
mittee—recent and past activities. JoAnn Shallcross is Social Committee chair
man. Special thanks to her. Committee members are Moni Bottlinger, Debbie
Laughinghouse, Linda Payne, Gini Stambaugh, Kathy Blowers and Kay Henley.
Thanks to them as well. Chip Chamberlin, Event Planner Barbara Costanza,
Dining Room Manager Aubrey Ipock, Executive Chef Scot Stiehl, Vice Presi
dent Bill Knecht and I attend meetings as indicated.
At a recent meeting, JoAnn led her committee through a review of all the
social activities of 2013, and they mapped out social activities for each month
of 2014. All the social events are in addition to the usual fare of birthday night,
burger night, steak night and seafood night, each with live music. Add to that
the quarterly wine and tapas events with Chef Scott Stiehl; Sunday brunches;
and at least two dinner theaters per year, directed and produced by member
Bud Pitzer. A very cool feature of our dining room is if you are attending a din
ner where a lot of good food is served and you desire a smaller meal or salad,
you can order off the lunch menu at any time.
Next month I’ll report on another committee’s activities. This month I es
pecially want to thank the Social Committee for their enthusiasm, teamwork,
belief in the club and hard work.
The social season kicked off with the annual Valentine dinner dance on Feb
ruary 14 and the Academy Award dinner on March 1, followed some years by
a St. Patrick’s Day party in March, Easter brunch and Easter egg hunt and ice
cream for the kids on April 20, pool party and cookout on May 25 and events •
to be announced in June.
The remainder of the year will be reported in later articles There are also
many social events associated with golf, tennis and swimming programs for
members. If you would like more information about the CCCC, contact Chip at
725-1034, ext. 12, or Tom at 725-3013.
Anita Adler
Eleanor Bisbee
For many years, Microsoft’s Windows
XP has been touted as the best operating
system, and there are stiU huge numbers
of users out there who are refusing to
move forward to more modern operating
systems. This is especially true for many
business owners, since upgrading means a
big investment and retraining employees to new system requirements—and the
risk of mistakes along the way that could be very costly.
I also resisted the move from XP to Vista. I simply hated everything about
Vista, which seemed alien in comparison to my beloved XP. But then along
came Windows 7, and about a year after its official launch and after extensive
testing, I made the leap. It did take some time to get used to the many differ
ences and the system didn’t feel anywhere close to my old software.
After several months with my Windows 7 Home Edition software, I started
writing for The Shoreline and needed to find a way to work well between my up
graded system and the Windows XP system still in use at The Shoreline. I called
Microsoft and asked them how I could make their software work for my current
needs; that’s when I learned a very important lesson.
Microsoft suggested that I upgrade to Windows 7 Pro, which has many of the
system tools that are currently used in Windows XP. They even offered me a
big discount to upgrade, due to my volunteer status for our town and the fact I
wasn’t using it for business profit. With this upgrade my problems were solved.
The Pro version was the answer I was seeking, and once I got over a small learn
ing curve, I began to feel like I was back using my old trusted and beloved XP,
only better.
There are actually several Windows 7 packages available for purchase: Starter,
Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. Home Ba
sic or Premium will work well for most home users, but business owners should
consider Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate or Enterprise, as they were designed with the
business owner in mind.
According to Microsoft’s website, “all editions [of Windows 7] will receive
Mainstream Support (new features and bug fixes) until January 2015 and Ex
tended Support (security updates) until January 2020.” This means that if you
decide to invest in this newer and more secure operating system, you will be
facing the same dilemma in the very near future—an operating system whose
time is expiring again.
With your investment in mind, should you buy Windows 8.1 or 8.1 Pro? The
jury is still out and current reviews aren’t as favorable as they were for Windows
7, especially for business owners. I’d highly recommend you do some research
first. Read what PC World readers have been saying or, better yet, hire an IT
expert to make sure you are making a move that you won’t later regret.
Since I am not a fan of Microsoft’s newest Windows 8 software (which seems
like its total purpose was for social media, movies, telephones and small tablets)
and I’m feeling like I did when Vista came out, I think I’ll stay with Windows 7
Pro for the foreseeable future and hope that they listen to their customers again
and release Windows 9 in a more business-friendly environment.
One more Windows XP caution from the Microsoft website: “After April 8,
2014, technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available, including
automatic updates that help protect your PC. Microsoft will also stop providing
Microsoft Security Essentials for download on Windows XP on this date. (If you
already have Microsoft Security Essentials installed, you will continue to receive
anti-malware signature updates for a limited time, but this does not mean that
your PC will be secure because Microsoft will no longer be providing security
updates to protect your PC.) If you continue to use Windows XP after support
ends, your computer will still work but it might become rnore vulnerable to
security risks and viruses.”
CDRHER
By Dan Law
6 The Shoreline I March 2014