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Karen Kraus, SHRM-CP, The Club at ArrowCreek | Episode No. 490

·59 min·3 clips

Karen says she puts “white space” on her calendar and asks members, “what’s on your mind today?”

1. The Wednesday Match Play Podcast, brought to you by Eden Mill St Andrews, centers on Karen Kraus and The Club at ArrowCreek in Reno, Nevada. 2. Ricky Potts interviews Karen Kraus, SHRM-CP, who is the director of club experience and people at The Club at ArrowCreek, and her role matters because it combines HR, operations, events, and member interaction. 3. The episode asks what Karen’s “fun title” actually means and how her career path led her to a new role at a private golf club. 4. Karen says she has been in the role for about four months and calls it “my favorite job in my adult life.” 5. She describes ArrowCreek as a club on Reno’s south side with two golf courses, a fitness center, two card rooms, a Pilates studio, a coffee shop, a bar, a speakeasy, a restaurant, and a banquet space. 6. Karen says the club completed a “60, almost $65 million renovation of the clubhouse,” which changed the look and scale of the property. 7. She explains that Bee Bees, the coffee shop, sits off the main building, uses a bee theme, and looks out toward the Sierra views. 8. Karen says Reno had a warm fall, a 72-degree Christmas Day nearby, and then an atmospheric river that brought rain in Reno and six feet of snow at Mount Rose. 9. She notes that ArrowCreek is on the road toward Mount Rose and that the golf courses can stay open year-round when weather allows. 10. Karen walks through her background as a Division I college soccer player in Wisconsin, a mountain bum and bike racer in Oregon, and a student who finished Eastern Oregon Online. 11. She names several earlier roles in spas, fitness, wellness coaching, retreat work in Mexico, and a 25,000-square-foot spa opening at the Omni Mount Washington in New Hampshire. 12. Karen says she worked at Rock Creek, described as a Forbes five-star ranch, and later moved into a private club outside Park City, Utah, where her responsibilities expanded beyond spa and fitness. 13. She says Martis Camp became her next major club stop and that she later began thinking about the next 15 to 20 years of her work life. 14. Karen explains that she pursued SHRM certification after a University of Utah HR course because she wanted to make HR “official” and build on the HR work she was already doing. 15. She says SHRM certification feels like getting a CCM because people react to it as proof that the candidate studied and passed a difficult exam. 16. Karen also says SHRM offers micro-certifications, including AI and HR, but she chose the broader SHRM-CP path based on mentor advice. 17. The interview has an easy, conversational tone, with Ricky pushing for concrete details and Karen answering with examples from club life, education, and leadership. 18. Karen’s style is practical and reflective, while Ricky’s questions keep the discussion moving between career history, member experience, and the club industry. 19. People working in private clubs, HR, or club leadership would likely get the most from this discussion. 20. Listeners wanting sports gossip or a purely golf swing-focused interview may skip it.

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