BC Golf Senior Contributor Brad Ziemer recently spoke with Michelle Collens who has sat on the British Columbia Golf's board since 21XX, the last XX as President...
Q: You’re now deep into the back nine of your British Columbia Golf presidency. When you reflect on the past three years, what comes to mind?
A: I am really proud of the self-reflection we have done as an organization in the last three years or so. COVID has been a challenge we didn’t anticipate, but it has encouraged us to have better communication with our membership and to really take a pause to reflect on what we need to do. COVID has allowed us to become more focused on what we can control and what we are responsible for. . .It gave our staff more time to showcase what other opportunities BC Golf could be leading or doing beyond what we know we are really good at.
Q: How has British Columbia Golf progressed with regard to gender equality over your tenure and where should it be going with its new strategic plan?
A: I would say that rather than just speaking amongst ourselves we have reached out to membership to understand what they are doing in that space. It is only in the last three years when COVID allowed it that we actually went out to membership to explore. My first year we went to Victoria and did kind of a listening session instead of having meetings online or sitting in our offices and not understanding what is happening in the field. This past year we went to Cranbrook to hear what it’s like in that region. That is where we spent a lot of time for the board to learn more and I think that can help the systemic change that we needed.
Also, some of the females joining the BC Golf board were not traditional golfers. It was a blend with those who do know the rules of the game and understand the traditions and how we need to operate. Wilda (Schaub) is amazing because she understands the history, going back to before the amalgamation of the women’s and men’s associations, and I think it is important that we still have a voice that connects to the past. But we have new voices like myself and Shauna (Wilton) who can say, ‘well, this is what I hear.’ I am more of that public player, while Shauna had joined Richmond Country Club and has experienced what it’s like for a female joining a club. They are very different experiences, someone who joined the game through a public course and someone who joined it at a traditional private course.
"... They are very different experiences, someone who joined the game through a public course and someone who joined it at a traditional private course."