August 2026 Leadership Blog
During a recent lunch, I was asked a question that caused me to sit back in my chair and think.
The question came from Bianca Pisa, the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at the University of Texas Golf Club. Bianca is a talented young professional who recently joined the Club Management Association of America, and I have had the privilege of beginning what I hope will become a meaningful mentorship relationship with her.
As we talked about leadership, hospitality, and the opportunities ahead of her, Bianca asked me, “What is the biggest challenge in your job?”
It was an excellent question. In fact, it was the kind of question that reminds us why mentorship is never a one-way relationship. Sometimes the person we are mentoring asks the very question we need to ask ourselves. The answer depends upon which hat I am wearing.
When I Am Wearing My General Manager Hat
As General Manager of The Austin Club, my greatest challenge is member engagement.
It is finding meaningful ways to help our members become more involved, more connected, and more passionate about their Club. It is encouraging them to join a committee or council, support a social event, invite a prospective member, attend a cultural program, or simply come downtown and enjoy dinner with people they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to know.
A club can create beautiful events, serve wonderful meals, and offer an extraordinary setting, but the true strength of any private club will always be found in the relationships among its members. The Austin Club becomes stronger every time a member walks through our doors, extends a hand, begins a conversation, or chooses to become part of something.
Engagement cannot be measured only by attendance numbers or dining revenue. It is measured by whether our members feel that they belong, whether they understand that their presence matters, and whether they recognize that this is not merely the Club they belong to—it is their Club.
That sense of ownership is what transforms membership into community.
When I Am Wearing My Stewardship Hat
When I am wearing my hat as a steward of the Millett Opera House Foundation, the answer becomes more complex.
Yes, preserving and protecting a 148-year-old historic building is an enormous challenge. Historic structures require constant attention, thoughtful planning, specialized expertise, and significant financial resources. Every roof, window, wall, staircase, and architectural detail carries both a responsibility and a story. Yet the physical preservation of the historic Millett Opera House is not our greatest challenge.
Our greatest challenge is helping people think generationally.
It is helping our members look beyond the needs of today and imagine what this remarkable place can mean fifty or one hundred years from now. It is inviting them to fall in love with the history of the Millett Opera House and to understand that we have inherited far more than a building. We have inherited a responsibility that began with Captain Charles Millett and has been carried forward by every generation that refused to allow this place—and everything it represents—to disappear.
Captain Millett could not have known the names of the people who would gather beneath this roof nearly a century and a half later. He could not have imagined The Austin Club, our scholarship program, our cultural initiatives, or the leaders who would one day walk these halls. He simply had a vision for what this place could become and the courage to build something that would outlive him.
Now that responsibility belongs to us.
Thinking Beyond Our Own Generation
Generational thinking asks us to consider a different set of questions.
What will we leave behind?
Will the next generation inherit a building that has merely survived, or an institution that is financially secure, culturally significant, and prepared to serve Austin for another century? Will our children and grandchildren know that we understood the importance of the moment entrusted to us?
What will we place in his hands?
That is no longer an abstract question. I think about Leonard Alden Smith—known to his family as Leo—who we just welcomed into this world and who represents the fifth generation of the Smith family connected to The Austin Club.
One day, when Leo is old enough to walk through these doors and understand the generations of his family that came before him, I want him to inherit more than stories about what the Millett Opera House once was. I want him to inherit a historic home that has been preserved, an institution that is financially secure and culturally alive, and the opportunity to carry that legacy forward as a fifth-generation leader.
He represents the next generation that will either benefit from the decisions we make today or inherit the consequences of the opportunities we allowed to pass. Our responsibility is not simply to preserve what previous generations gave us. It is to strengthen it, expand its purpose, and pass it forward with even greater promise.
Two Hats, One Challenge
The more I reflected on Bianca’s question, the more I realized that these two challenges are not as different as they initially appear.
Whether I am serving as General Manager of The Austin Club or as a steward of the Millett Opera House Foundation, the challenge is fundamentally the same: helping people understand that they are part of something larger than themselves.
- Member engagement is about belonging in the present. Stewardship is about accepting responsibility for the future.
- One invites us to take our seat at the table today. The other asks us to make certain that the table will still be here for generations yet to come.
This is why our Six Pillars matter. They provide a vision for preserving our past while thoughtfully building our future. This is why we say, “It Takes Ten Hands to Score a Basket.” No meaningful legacy is created by one person working alone. It is also why I continue to believe so strongly in the power of “Just One.”
What is the one meaningful contribution each of us can make to strengthen The Austin Club and protect the historic Millett Opera House?
For one member, it may be attending a dinner or bringing a friend to the Club. For another, it may be joining a committee, mentoring a young professional, supporting a scholarship, making an introduction, or investing in the long-term preservation of our historic home. No single act must carry the entire weight of our future, but every act can help move that future forward.
One conversation can create a relationship. One invitation can awaken a sense of belonging. One mentor can change the direction of a young leader’s life. One gift can preserve a piece of history. One member can inspire another, and one generation can leave an institution stronger than it found it.
Bianca asked me about the greatest challenge in my job. She also reminded me of its greatest privilege.
We are not simply managing a private club, maintaining an old building, or planning for another successful year. We are nurturing relationships, preserving history, building futures, and extending a vision that began in 1878 into generations we may never personally know.
That is the work before us, and that is the legacy within our reach.
Every member a steward. Every gift a legacy. Preserving history and building futures.
With gratitude,
Paul Kornfeind, MCM, CCE, CCM
General Manager
The Austin Club