Hosted by the Club Managers' Association Australia, this year's summit was held at the Dubbo RSL Memorial Club and was attended by managers from across NSW.

Narromine United Services Memorial Club secretary manager Robert Walsh said compared to the clubs in Sydney, country clubs had far fewer members.

"We've got 3,000 people in Narromine with four clubs and four pubs. It's hard to make a dollar and it's getting worse and worse," he said.

Narrabri RSL Club secretary manager Paul Gordon said the drought was a significant issue and clubs such as Walgett in drought-affected areas had suffered significant profit losses.

Armidale City Bowling Club CEO Phil Wheaton said the stress of the job was another area that needed more discussion.

"On the back of an armed robbery I found out I had two tumors in my brain, while dealing with prostate cancer but I still had to do my job," Mr Wheaton said.

He said stress was often far-reaching.

"Has it affected families? Has it affected marriages, partners? Has it affected longevity? Of course it has."

General manager of Barrier Social Democratic Club Karen Howe said club managers were meant to be "bigger than a human" and not show emotion or stress.

"We go to these seminars that tell you to look for the stress your staff are under but there's no one who's looking out for the managers," she said.

"We act as solicitor, councilor, accountant, negotiate our HR agreements; you're not just doing your CEO job but you're expected to know all of this."

When asked how many people in the room were affected by stress, at least half raised their hands.

Mr Wheaton said managers always had to be "switched on" when they were at work.

"How many of you, when you knock off work, go 'oh great, I'm the turtle that can go back into my shell?'"

CEO Inland NSW Tourism Graham Perry, Blacktown Workers Club group operations manager Morgan Stewart and Russell Corporate Advisory director Greg Russell were the guest speakers at the two day summit.