DE&I – Diving into Deep and Difficult Waters

It’s been two years since an indelible racial slur (the n-word) was scrawled at the bottom of our club’s recently renovated and impressive 6,348-square-foot pool.

The mother of a six-year-old black child sat poolside and saw the troublesome inscription. She then wrote a poignant letter to our club’s leadership, sharing from a painful place, “the n-word is not just a word, it is an attack in any kind of usage, and especially at (our) majority white country club.”?

She wrote, not just as a mother of a Black son but also as a white person acknowledging racism is not a Black person’s problem to fix, though they carry the pain and damage this problem creates; it is a problem for white people to address. She expressed her belief that the most dangerous conversations about racism are the ones that are not had.

What was our club – Quechee Club in Hartford, VT, set in a lush valley with two championship golf courses, a robust racquet sports programs, flourishing kids’ summer camps, a newly renovated aquatics complex, pristine lakefront activities, a variety of hiking and biking trails, and a quaint ski hill with beautiful surroundings – to do?

This one racial incident in July 2020 spurred our general manager, Brian Kelley, PGA, CCM and the board of trustees to support the creation of Quechee Club 's Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Council. The work we have tackled for the last two years now spans other inequities and exclusions in our country and our club community’s culture.?

No one is immune to these issues, including our state. Vermont, though the second whitest state, is getting more and more diverse, with children of color as the fastest growing group (Census 2020). Vermont also has a significant hospitality sector, and our club and diverse staff serve a broad and increasingly diverse collection of members and families from across and outside of Vermont. So, our DEI efforts are a natural extension of the hospitality services sector.

We have chosen to better understand and recognize what the problems, aspirations, and challenges are within our community. We set out to chart a new course (with no blueprint available for organizing a DE&I effort in the club industry) and, at the core, realize our DEI work is about belonging. We will create a more vibrant club community by fostering a sense of belonging among our members and staff.

Among the lessons learned and actions to consider when starting DE&I efforts:

1. Get leadership on board: From your GM and senior leadership team to the trustees and influencers at your club.
2. Be willing to have courageous conversations by staying engaged, experiencing discomfort, speaking your truth even if it means sharing your vulnerabilities, and expecting and accepting non-closure.
3. Gather and embrace differences and diversity: Seek out members, educators, professionals and resources in the DE&I space as well as those with “lived, personal experiences” to help guide you. Invite members of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds, people with disabilities and members of the LBGTQ community, among others, to the table.
4. ?Create and adhere to a mission: Our DE&I Mission Statement states that all who live, work, recreate and/or visit will adhere to our standards of conduct and respect for all people and for the native land on which our campus sits.
5. Acknowledge and celebrate history: Club member Earl Hatley, also a member of the?Abenaki?Nation of Missisquoi and an Indigenous activist, encouraged us to adopt a land acknowledgment recognizing our club uses land originally belonging to the Abenaki tribe. In addition, we are sowing an “Abenaki Garden” on club property with a traditional Three Sisters Garden, a Food Forest Garden and fire pit. These efforts will provide an educational and volunteer component with local schools. Annually, around the Fourth of July, our club hosts a Frederick Douglass reading to celebrate this American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman.
6. Develop your blueprint: More than 20 member volunteers have formed our DE&I Council, which includes three sub-committees – Policy & Culture, Education & Awareness and Community Engagement.
7. Understand it’s a journey: A member of our club and council, Arlene Brock, has the lived experience from which we draw inspiration and guidance. She earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Human Rights at Harvard Law School and has an unquenchable drive for justice, restoration, and human growth. Arlene reminds us of the challenges and difficulties of DEI work and that injustice has been part of our history for hundreds of years and it will not be righted overnight.

Our club’s efforts have empowered, educated and inspired many members. Yes, there are a few outliers and there always will be, but we have effectuated awareness, change and proactive efforts in a short but arduous time.

The work is difficult but necessary and, I might add, the most meaningful and rewarding of my life.

Lynn Luczkowski is chair of the Quechee Club’s DE&I Council, a trustee of the Quechee Club, and owner of L2 Communications, a public relations and marketing agency in Quechee, Vt.