BJCC Golf Club management Fiasco: challenges members to leave! Would Guan Eng Intervene?

Golfers pleads Guan Eng to intervene Bukit Jambul Country Club fiasco

Following the dispute over the Bukit Jambul Country Club management decision to require golfers to use payable electric buggies on its 18-hole golf course, the members staged a demonstration and pleaded Penang CM, Lim Guan Eng to intervene and resolve the issue.



According to one of the golfers, Adrian Ho, he hoped that something can be done to resolve this as they are ready to compromise with the management, if they are going to charge for a walking fees.

Ho also said that the management set off the water sprinklers at the green today to prevent them from walking.

He also stressed that they are mulling take legal action against the management if the issue remained unsolved.

Many aggrieved members feel that such requirement to pay for electric buggies are unfair as they are already paying a regular fees to the club.

Bayan Baru parliament coordinator, Por Joo Tee said that the issue started from a notice saying that the golfers privileges of walking has been cancelled.

Por also added that during professional golf tournaments the golfers would walk to the selective holes instead of using buggy.

Komunitikini earlier tried to reach Bukit Jambul Country Club management for a response but the Chief Operating Officer, Johnny Khoo said that response can only be given once the management company CEO, Dato’ Eiro Sakamoto arrives from Kuala Lumpur later today.

Bukit Jambul Country Club is a subsidiary of Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and is currently managed by Taiyo Resort (KL) Berhad.

Source: Komunitikini

Police Report_BJCC
  Thugs or Guards from Metro Security?


Management and members take swings at each other over buggy rule
  By TAN SIN CHOW sctan@thestar.com.my,  Friday 10 Feb 2012

GEORGE TOWN: The “clash” between disgruntled members and the management of Bukit Jambul Country Club has escalated with both parties lodging police reports against each other.

It all started when some 100 members voiced their displeasure over the compulsory buggy-use rule at the golf club, effective Feb 1.

A 59-year-old member lodged a police report on Feb 3, alleging that the club's security guards had verbally abused him and several others at the golf course on that day.

He also claimed that the guards had prevented them from walking on the course and verbally abused them.

On Feb 2, more than 100 disgruntled golfers protested at the club over the new ruling that made it compulsory to use a buggy.

The golfers said the ruling was not suitable due to the way the course was built. It was designed for golfers to walk around the course and was not intended to be a buggy course.

They also complained about the increase in the buggy rental rates from RM22 to RM37 for the first nine holes.

Japanese firm Taiyo Resort (KL) Bhd took over the club's management in 2010 and signed a leasing agreement with PDC and Island Golf Properties Bhd.

Yesterday, Club managing director Datuk Eiro Sakamoto said they lodged a report with the Sungai Nibong police station yesterday to deny the allegations.

“The club had carried out its own investigations and found the allegations to be untrue,” he said at a press conference.

“The 50-odd disgruntled club members had violated club rules by teeing-off without registering. They also did not use the buggies as required.”

Eiro said there was no such right as walking on the course, adding that the security guards had approached them in a polite manner but were instead insulted.

“We are legally allowed to implement the buggy-use rule in accordance with club rules. An overwhelming majority of the 2,800 club members are happy with the rule.”

He added that a complaint had since been lodged with the club's disciplinary committee.

“I wish to stress that this is a proprietary club, not a member's club,” he said, adding that displeased members “have the freedom to leave”.



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BJCC Golf and Country Club News

Aspiring nations gain more from Internet

By JO TIMBUONG
bytz@thestar.com.my

 

Manuel: "Malaysia derives a lot of income from exporting equipment that 

allows people to connect to and use the Internet." 

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Aspiring countries like Malaysia are gaining more from the Internet than developed nations.

The Web helps these countries improve gross domestic product (GDP), better their small and medium enterprises, and boost the creation of new jobs.

Going online helped Malaysian industries contribute 4.1% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, making Malaysia one of the 30 fastest growing countries in the world.

Some of the other aspiring countries are Argentina, Hungary, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam.

They were part of an online study - titled Online and Upcoming: The Internet's Impact on Aspiring Countries - by researchers McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey defines aspiring countries as those that are developing but are at the cusp of becoming a developed nation.



The study found that the Internet contributed US$9.75bil (RM29.7bil) out of a total GDP of US$238bil (RM723bil) for the aspiring countries in 2010. This is far more than what was contributed in the United States and China.

Nimal Manuel, principal at McKinsey, said a big chunk of the GDP contribution in Malaysia came from the IT industry.

"Malaysia derives a lot of income from exporting equipment that allows people to connect to and use the Internet," he said.

"The country will also see significant growth in the value that domestic activity on the Internet delivers to the nation."

Manuel was giving a briefing on the economic impact of the Internet on Malaysia.

Booster

Besides contributing positively to the country's economy, the Internet also helped its small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to make gains.

Manuel said the SMEs in Malaysia and the other aspiring countries that took their businesses online gained over 6% more in revenue than those with only brick-and-mortar stores.

"Thanks to the Internet, these businesses were able to reach new customers in different geographic locations. They also enjoyed a 10% increase in productivity (after embracing technology)," he said.

According to him, this increase in productivity (due to better efficiencies) does not mean decreased job opportunities in the aspiring countries.

"Our study found that for every job lost, 3.2 new jobs were created because of the Internet. And in comparison, for every job lost in developed countries, only 1.6 new ones were created," he said.

These aspiring countries must not rest on their laurels; they should be making an effort to improve their Internet ecosystems.

Manuel said they need to ensure a high quality and secure infrastructure to better capture the value of the Internet.

The governments need secure servers, in addition to basic infrastructure, such as electricity supply, as well as quality fixed and mobile Internet services, he said.

In response to the recommendations, Datuk Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, chairman of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), said the Government is championing the quality of Internet services in Malaysia.

"This is an entry-point project under the Economic Transformation Plan, and that shows how serious the Government is on broadband services and issues," he added.

MCMC is the communications and multimedia industry regulator.

Think before you "Like" on Facebook

Corporations are engaging in a social media arms race

 
By Chris Taylor Annie Scranton has a little problem.

The founder and president of New York City's Pace Public Relations is a successful and sober-minded individual, but when it comes to this one thing, she has a definite compulsion. It's the "Like" button on Facebook -- she just can't stop clicking it.

"I'm totally obsessed with it," says the 31 year old. "Just like a lot of people I know. My friends and I call it 'Like-Bombing', where you go online and like everything."

So it's a good thing for serial "Likers" like Scranton that there are more and more rewards for consumers who click that button.

Hotel chain Marriott, for instance, is currently offering prizes totaling 10 million reward points for those who Like its Facebook pages, including two grand prizes of a million points each.

Think of it as a social-media arms race among corporations, to see which can amass the greatest number of online followers.

"It's become a real competition between companies to grow the size of that number, and to have more fans than your rivals," says Matt Simpson, marketing director for Phoenix-based Bulbstorm, which develops social-media apps for companies such as NBC and World Wrestling Entertainment.

"Over the last year, we've been seeing more and more of it, and it's been driven largely by promotional applications like sweepstakes."



PROMOTIONS AND LIST BUILDING

If you "Liked" Toys 'R Us before Thanksgiving, for instance, you got a shot at a limo ride, a $1,000 shopping spree, and exclusive store access before its doors opened for Black Friday sales.

Travel site Expedia, meanwhile, hosted a 'FriendTrips' sweepstakes for those who Liked its Facebook page, offering voyages to one of 13 different destinations.

As a result, in the third quarter of this year, an average of 100 million "Like" buttons were being clicked on Facebook every day. That's double the amount of liking going on, compared with the same period last year.

Corporations are doing this for a reason, of course. They're building marketing lists, they're aiming to boost sales, and they're planting themselves in users' news feeds.

When Coca-Cola has more than 36 million Likes, and Disney has more than 29 million, they've assembled a ready-made audience that can be tapped at any time.

And here's a little secret: While companies are certainly happy to have you as a fan, what they're really interested in isn't you; it's your friends.

Because if you officially Like Starbucks, your friends see that you've liked Starbucks, and they become more likely to spend there as well.

"Friends of fans represent a much larger set of consumers than the brand's own fans," says Elisabeth Diana, Facebook's manager of corporate communications. "In fact they're 81 times the size of the actual fan base, so Likes are a way to reach those people as well."

The promotional pushes seem to be paying off.

Expedia's FriendTrips campaign, for instance, garnered 900,000 new Likes for the company. And while Marriott's contest is ongoing until the end of the year, its new Marriott Rewards Facebook page has already gone from zero to more than 170,000 Likes.

"We've surpassed all other hotel rewards programs in under three weeks," says Michelle Lapierre, Marriott's senior director of customer relationship marketing, taking a slap at rivals Hilton, Starwood and Hyatt.

LIKING, PHASE TWO

Of course, once you have an army of online followers, that's not the end of the marketing road. Then there's the question of what to do with them all.

That's why companies are now proceeding to Phase Two of the Like operation: Figuring out how to engage and entertain consumers on an ongoing basis, with a flurry of polls and quizzes and games.

"Collecting Likes by giving away prizes is a great way to build a fan base, but it's not the be-all and end-all of Facebook marketing," says Bulbstorm's Simpson, who himself won a 10-day trip to Hawaii from just such an online promotion.

"Savvy brands are starting to focus on things with more entertainment value, to keep you around longer than the seven seconds it takes to fill out a form."

Beware, though, that Liking something publicly makes companies keenly interested in who you are and where you're surfing.

Not only that, but Facebook is rolling out so-called 'Sponsored Stories' of such activity. In other words, if you officially like Target's Facebook page, your friend Jim might get a Sponsored Story in his news feed announcing that thrilling development.

So if you're uncomfortable with your personal business being public, then maybe Like-Bombing isn't your best online strategy.

"Facebook 'Like' buttons are increasing in prevalence across the Web, raising serious privacy concerns for those who value the privacy of their online reading habits," says Rainey Reitman, activism director for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"This collection of information about one's Web browsing habits may violate many users' expectations of privacy. Our reading habits can be incredibly sensitive, and Facebook has a long history of playing fast and loose with user privacy."

Facebook reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in November, agreeing to get users' permission before altering privacy settings and submitting to independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

As for Pace's Annie Scranton, though, she has no plans to rein in her Like campaign - especially since it's brought her a number of new business prospects. So if you get Liked by her, don't be all that surprised.

"My business is inextricably linked to social media, so if I wasn't constantly Liking things, my clients wouldn't be happy," she says. "Even when I'm working, I'm on Facebook all day long. You can never do enough Liking."

(Editing by Jilian Mincer and Linda Stern)
(The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)