Thomson Country Club Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting February 15, 2018 Present: Funari, Weilandt, Houten, Gianotsos, Leach and Manfra Absent: Hannon Approval of Minutes: January minutes were presented and approved Agenda: Presented and approved. Manager s Reports: Ted Perry Golf Course: Over the last three months the course has been very active with Capital Plan efforts regarding tree work, sodding, and pruning. To date 75 trees have been removed and there are another 25 earmarked for removal before the season opens. Major work was done on hole numbers 1, 5, 6,7,13,14, and 18. When complete, the total cost for this work will approximate $25,000. All of this work was considered to be critical to preserving the greens and tees, as well as addressing the encroachment of trees into the playing areas. In addition to the tree work, we are currently procuring quotes to have a GPS model completed that will outline the irrigation system of the Club. Currently we do not have a set of plans that provides us the necessary information to track problems and identify the existing system. This was a problem last year when we had a pipe break and it took several days to pinpoint, and fix, the problem. This is another capital plan project and is estimated to cost approximately $7,500. Lastly, the plan is to punch the greens before the course opens, which should provide for better green conditions throughout the spring and summer. Trevor Fuller Grill Room: Trevor discussed recent meetings with the Green s social committee, its president (Charlotte Murphy), TCC president (Pat Furnari) and himself. The objectives this year are all focused around increasing participation in the restaurant and bringing as much business as possible to the Grill Room. Trevor distributed an outline of condo events planned for the year which included a resident meet & greet on May 4 th, a resident golf outing and subsequent cook out later in the afternoon on June 10 th, and a golf outing and Octoberfest event later in the day on Sunday, September 30 th. Trevor went on to discuss the operational plan for 2018, the need for some minor equipment additions, and the need to evaluate the opening day of the Grill Room. This will be discussed in
more detail at the next meeting, however, factoring into the decision will be weather, financial costs in comparison to the expected activity at the Club, and the status of the installation of the new awning. Chris Young Golf Course: Chris indicated that new membership activity has picked up with several requests coming in this week (More on this under the membership committee). Other key items discussed include the following: Chris will be getting a set of used family tees that will be placed on the golf course for beginning golfers, women, and seniors who prefer to play an easier course. These tees will have no impact on the holes and are simply plaques that go into the ground to designate another tee for these players. Chris has opened discussions with the owner of Richardson s Driving Range to provide the Club a proposal that could be presented to membership. The proposal will most likely have a minimum participation level, with some type of discount offered to our members if we reach the required level of participants. The Wakefield golf team has asked to use the course again this fall. The Board agreed to allow this for a minimal fee of $1,000 and a requirement of the players to donate some time to the course fixing divots in the fairways. We also discussed a request from a league that plays various courses throughout the year. There would be a maximum of sixty golfers and we set the rate at $75 per golfer. If the rate is acceptable, the only date the Board approved was Saturday, May 19 th around 1:30 in the afternoon. The Club s advertising campaign will begin shortly and run for six weeks. This will be conducted in local papers, social media outlets, flyers in local golf stores, and any other available venues. The advertising will also concentrate on options for outings, as well as some of the new social memberships that we will be offering; discussed under membership. Denise Costantino & Pat Furnari Finance: The focus of this discussion was on the cash flow expectations for 2018 and the need to enhance cash flow through the addition of more members, enhancement to the performance in the Grill Room, improving our return from outings, and being focused on cost containment. A few specific items discussed include the following: 1. Expectations for new members in the spring of 2018 and the fall of 2018 is approximately 60 members. This is in line with previous years and we hope to exceed these numbers. The key to the success of the Club is really our ability to retain new members. This requires a better effort up front with new members coming in, enhancing
the engagement level of new members by participating in golf groups and tournaments, and offering a nice environment to enjoy a drink and something to eat after. It is critical that we have a net add for membership every year and for the last two years we have failed to do this. 2. Over the last eight years, the Club has paid out approximately $750K in bond repayments. The current year s cash flow assumes that $150K will be transferred from the investment account to the operating account to reimburse the Club for previous bond payments. Although this is an appropriate reimbursement, the Club is limited to what it can disburse from the investment account and it is critical that we reverse this trend going into 2019 in order to enhance the Club s cash flow, or we could have challenges funding operations next year. 3. Once we get through the first six weeks of the season, we will have a better idea as to the 2018 membership levels and we will update the information to get a better feel on the cash flow expectations for the year. Membership Related Items: Dave Leach will be chairing this committee and the goal will be to have a number of members available and willing to meet with potential members, have a drink and lunch with them to discuss the Club, and to set a time to play golf with the potential members. We believe this will go a long way in getting new members more engaged, exposing them to more members at the Club, and provide them an incentive to spend more time at the Club: Hopefully retaining their membership in year two. As a side note, the majority of the members we lost in 2017, joined the same year. It is always easier to keep an existing member than find new ones; we need to do a better job. New social membership classes were approved by the Board: A social membership for $100 that allows someone to use the Grill Room and purchase merchandise in the pro shop. A new social membership for $350 that allows the member to utilize the Grill Room, purchase pro shop merchandise, and play two rounds of golf per month for the appropriate fees. Golf times would be limited and could not be played before 1:00 on weekends and holidays. We are doing this to hopefully attract some new people to the Grill Room and also attract some potential golfers to the course. Membership Meetings: In an effort to avoid confusion and address questions from the membership, we will be scheduling four membership meetings. The first meeting will be on May 2 nd and it is really focused on new members joining the Club. Anyone will be welcome; however the objectives of
this meeting will be on answering questions about the Club, the membership, the course, golf groups, providing a demonstration on the web site, and providing an opportunity for the new members to meet more people. Regular membership meetings will be on 5/16, 8/8 and 10/10. These meetings will be open to all members and we will provide updates on the Club and address any questions that members have. IT Update Jack Weilandt: Over the last thirty days Jack has analyzed the IT systems at the Company and we have some items that need to be addressed: A new version of Jonas will be installed and operational in the next week. This should address some of the issues that have been present in the past. The system architecture will be changed so that people on the site that have not used the site for a period of time, will be timed out. This will hopefully address the issues of people being locked out from accessing the site. E-mail issues are being addressed and should be corrected. Current equipment, mostly routers and some PC s need to be upgraded to ensure appropriate security is in place. We need to install a WIFI extender to provide more coverage outside and around the tent. Jack and Denise will submit a budget for the above next meeting for approval. Awning for the Grill Room Pat Furnari: The awning was approved by a motion in the January meeting. We are waiting on further clarification from the Company, however, the plan is to move forward. The cost of the awning will approximate $35,000. It will consist of four awnings, all retractable and for the most part waterproof. The awning will extend out beyond the end of the deck. In addition, The Board discussed the possibility of installing a small, twenty-five-foot bar along the railing that faces the 18 th green. The bar would probably support 12 barstools and would need to be made out of low maintenance materials, similar to the flooring on the deck. Pat will investigate and report back to the Board but the assumption is this would also contribute to higher sales and utilization of the outdoor deck. The cost is expected to be approximately $3,000. These items would also be capital projects for the 2018 season and be paid for out of the capital fund.
The awning is critical for a few reasons: 1. The addition of the awning will allow the Club to host the majority of its outings upstairs; basically, any outing that has less than 90 people. Due to this, we will save the cost of the tents that we have been forced to rent over the years when we have outings of this size. The savings will amount to approximately $6,000 annually. 2. By having the outings upstairs, we believe there will be an increase in liquor sales due to the proximity of the bar. Last year this proved to be correct when one of the outings was forced to cram into the Grill Room due to inclement weather. This year we could see a nice boost from this. 3. In recent studies, amenities are the thing that attracts many new members to country clubs. We are not a country club, but we need to continually improve the facility if we want to attract more business and grow revenues. This awning should contribute significantly to this effort. Combined with the bar, these two changes will create a more enjoyable social atmosphere for our members and their guests. Other Issues: 1. Status of Liquor License Tim has all the paperwork and will submit it to the town. The changes include a change of officers at the Club, a change of manager, and an extension of the Grill Room license period until December 31 st. 2. By-Laws Tim should be able to finalize these before the March meeting and have them on the web site by April 1 st. 3. Leave of Absence - A motion was made by Tim Houten to approve a leave of absence for John Sheehan, seconded by Jack Weilandt and unanimously voted by the Board. Motion made to adjourn by Joe Manfra, seconded by Josh Gianotsos Tim Houten Clerk The preceding minutes were presented at the March 15, 2018 Meeting and adopted.