El Niguel Country Club

THE DIVOT | WINTER 2022 • 3 This evaluation considered relocation to: (1) south of the clubhouse, (2) be- hind the short-game practice area behind the No. 9 green and (3) on the No. 10 tee, as well as its current location. None of the locations is ideal and all required tradeoffs. At the end of the day, the member experience impact and cost bene- fit analysis of moving it do not work, so the plan is to rebuild in the same area. As part of that project the plan is to renovate the driving range and add the netting (assuming we can get the city to cooperate), and relocate the tee house. The Board will be presenting options to members over the next several months, and would look for a vote on that project and assessment in the third quarter. A special committee to the Board spent many months looking at a number of is- sues related to play on the golf course to address the tee time demand and the changing demographics of the member- ship as we have more families with chil- dren playing golf. The details of those changes will be communicated over the coming months, as the Board works through them, in an effort to stay well ahead of those issues. We have been fortunate to have a strong balance sheet over the last few years, the contributing factors to this im- provement have been exceptional manage- ment of expenses and significantly better performance in dinning and catering, as well as receipt of significant government support during the Covid period. Although in the short term it is nice to have some significant reserves, we need to project our long-term needs and provide the resources needed without coming to the members for assessments for items the club can predict. As a follow up to my communication earlier this year, we retained a firm that specializes in helping clubs design a plan to mitigate these matters and have fin- ished that process and adopted a policy to address the following guiding principles: >> Run the annual operations, services and amenities for members at breakeven and establish Member/Owner dues to achieve that result; >> Project the cost of capital needs over the next 20 to 30 years to maintain/ replace the course and facilities, and col- lect a capital fee monthly to fund that over the term; >> Use Transfer fees from membership sales to fund new projects. The impact of this policy will be blended in over the years by gradually in- creasing the capital dues and gradually al- locating transfer fee income to these categories. Further, the Board has established a process to designate these funds for these specific purposes so that they are only used for the specific purpose. The mod- eling for this shows that the impact is modest over the years, but very impactful over the long term. This does not mean that there will never be assessments – there certainly will be for the current unfunded projects like the maintenance facility, netting or im- provements to the golf course outside of maintenance. However, if the Club funds the items we know about over time, that impact is less significant, ensures that the replace- ments and maintenance occur timely, the quality of the course and facility are al- ways maintained, and the focus can be on continuing improvements. Much of what the Board accomplished was behind the scenes and focused on the long term. Kimberly's departure impacted the timing and our ability to move for- ward as quickly as we would have pre- ferred, but on balance, the Board is pleased with what management was able to accomplish this last year. We were fortunate to have Doug Holtz join over the last four months, and I know we will miss his energy and commitment to the Club. We are pleased to welcome Patrick Casey and look forward to his impact on the Club. Incoming President Ruthie Sheffield is already working hard to plan for next year, and with her energy, enthusiasm and drive the Club will be in great hands. This was a great year for me; I enjoyed serving all of you, and appreciate the sup- port of the Board, the various standing and special committees, management and the members in all of our efforts. My pri- mary goal was to be able to say we handed the Club to the next Board better than we found it, and am happy to say that was a success.

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