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Notes from the Board Meeting
December 1, 2014
Open Session
The Open Session of the Board of Director’s Meeting was held starting a 1:00 p.m. on December 1, 2014. President Joe Colvin welcomed the attendees and thanked them for their interest and participation. He noted that the Board had met in Closed Session beginning at 8:30 a.m. (before the Open Session) in order to provide timely feedback on any Board decisions made during the closed meeting.
General Manager David Loan provided his excellent State of the Club presentation and began by discussing the recent positive membership activity and the Board’s and Membership Committee’s focus on retention of existing members. He noted that membership growth through November was excellent with the overall membership count at the end of November showing a positive growth of 7 FDE (Full Dues Equivalent). He mentioned that through 2014, The Club has sold 77 memberships which is an excellent result. He discussed the goal for 2014 membership growth which is 540 FDE or +10 FDE over 2013 year end.
David the provided a staffing update and discussed the steps being taken to fill both the General Manager position and that of the Director of Membership, currently filled by Britt Gladu. He noted that the Board had hired Kopplin & Kuebler, the top executive search firm for private club placements for the GM position. He also noted that we had posted the position for Director of Membership and had excellent response. The responses are currently being evaluated to identify those candidates that we wish to interview. Interviews of the candidates will be conducted by both management and members of the Membership Committee.
David then discussed the financial performance of The Club which has been excellent overall. Details on financial performance as well as other aspects of his presentation are in the State of the Club Report which is available on The Club website.
David noted that this was his last Board Meeting before his departure to The American Club Hong Kong and thanked the Board and the membership for the opportunity to serve as the GM. He noted that The Club has made significant and positive change over the last several years and that he is proud to have been a part of that change.
Closed Session
The Board of Directors met in closed session on the morning of December 1, 2014 to review and discuss policy issues affecting The Club. The main focus of the Board at this meeting was to review and approve the budget for 2015. This work leading up to the proposed budget was the culmination of a tremendous effort by management and the Finance Committee, along with the committees responsible for the key areas of The Club. After deliberation and discussion, the Board approved the 2015 budget. Key elements of the budget include the following:
• Increase in member dues by 2.0% or $25 per month for full-dues members and $12.50 per month for half-dues members, effective January 1, 2015. This dues increase is the second dues increase since turnover, the last being a 6.5% increase beginning in January 2013. Employee cost increases related to increases in salaries and in items such health care cost were the principal drivers for the increase.
• Increase in golf cart fees from $20 to $22
• Increase in stall fees for all stalls by $50 per month
• A capital budget in 2015 of $1,361,000. One primary purpose of this capital budget in 2015 is to accelerate and complete some of the work on the Sunset Golf Course in 2015 to remedy problems with the bunkers and to fix the problems on Holes 12 and 16 in advance of the 2017 USGA Woman’s Team State Championships.
More details on the specifics of the 2015 budget will be provided to the membership by separate correspondence.
Other key issues discussed were recommendations from the Membership Committee to address the issues of honorary memberships and changes to the re-issues lists. The Board approved some guidelines for the parameters the board should consider in granting an honorary membership. The Board also approved a change in policy to the re-issue lists. The information on this change will be provided by separate correspondence.
Other policy issues were discussed but no Board decisions were taken.
The next Board meeting will be held on January 26, 2015.
Joe Colvin
President
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