Sorry i meant to post this but got busy with a small shirt storm on Facebook. There was roughly 200 members in attendance and thankfully, not one non-resident tried to engage his rights to tell us what he thought about us trying to screw him out of his cheap, subsidized golf. The comments were all civil and while there was a diversity of ideas and solutions, airing them in pubic was good. It's how this is supposed to work. In fact the only person raising his voice a little, may have been me. Good mix of pickleballers (wanting more courts, both indoor and out); golfers, some wanting to maintain the Wal-Martization of the courses (cheap not caring about conditions) and some wanting the courses improved and willing to pay more to help make it happen. The softball players were also out in force as they were demanding (very nicely) the board get started on their club house that is an absolute dump. Let's stay there for a minute or three. Their club house was built in 1985 and is in a shambles. Adding to their woes were the homeless folks who defecated around the property repeatedly and the 5 or 6 break-ins; all of which should have triggered safety and health issues. Sadly, it didn't as the board shoveled them of to the Long Range Planning committee. I remember distinctly telling the president, don't let that happen. Now the rub is, apparently, the cost of the projected 1 million dollar replacement has gone up to 1.3 million dollars. No surprise there as building costs are exploding. Of course had they built it in 2019, it would have been half that. Now, for some reason this project is being stalled out and i have no idea why? I won't repeat the rumors and i truly hope they aren't true. Time will tell. There were assorted other comments and when the video is posted you should give it a watch. I will leave you with this tidbit. I am dismayed, disgruntled and disappointed this board and the golf advisory committee has the gall to suggest they just can't do away with non-resident passes. The 400k is too valuable. Duh, those 16,000 rounds will be replaced by someone. Hopefully by the members they belong to. It's really this simple, there's not one valid reason for anyone of the 30,000 Sun City residents who don't buy either the resident full play pass or the surcharge pass should be expected to subsidize non-resident cheap golf packages. They pay nothing for our infrastructure and what they are paying for a round of golf is cheaper than what i or any of you would pay to walk on a course Nov-April.
They won't have to replace all 16,000 rounds to bring in 400k. Many will be taken by full pay and surcharge pass holders. Some of the non-residents will still come to golf with their friends.
Control and power issues abound these situations, mixed in with conflict of interest. I believe board members serving as chairs or even members of committees to be the reason why.
I think it may be time to review conflict of interest policies, what they mean and why they are important. I have some real concerns about how some things are playing out. Do Board members sign and submit Conflict of Interest Statements, disclosing their affiliations with clubs and organizations, both internal and external? Financial Disclosures to determine any conflicts with contractors or vendors? RCSC isn't some minor league player; we're talking millions of dollars in contracts, plus other smaller personal gains. Every Board requires such disclosures. Members must be assured that no Board member is giving (or given) favorable treatment by their position.
It's an interesting discussion and i think you are close to being right o and t and maybe completely so. The reality is we (the RCSC, golf advisory committee, board members, management and even members) got caught up in the mantra of cheap is good. It permeated in golf as the full play pass generated lots of rounds with very little revenue. It has become a delivery system that is unsustainable. At least the surcharge buyers have this concept; the more you play the more you pay. With the full play pass buyers the oddity is the more you play the less you pay (per round). That's why SCW is $3600. Sun City Grand is over $4000 and the private courses around us vary between $4500-$6000 for full play passes. Ours is $1550. The problem is how do you wean someone off 200 rounds a year at $7.50 a round? It has to be slow and methodical. That said, there is no reason to compound our problems by selling non-residents cheap golf that every RCSC member is subsidizing. It is simply illogical.
Problem is the bylaws only require a Director to disclose any possible conflict of interest. It doesn't necessarily prevent them from doing anything about it even if they do! They cannot be compelled not to vote even if there is a conflict of interest. One of the things I think needs to be done is the board president should refrain from appointing a Director as the chair and co-chair of a committee where they have a selective interest from the start? Unfortunately, we appear to have Directors who rather than police themselves, take advantage of the situation to move their personal agendas. We also seem to have an over abundance of candidates this year who make no bones about it, they love golf!
Honestly Tom i thought the best motion would have been to remove the full play pass completely and leave the surcharge as is for a year and see what the fallout is regarding revenue. By eliminating those $12 average round costs and replacing them with the $16 dollar plus surcharge (and higher) it would have been interesting to see the net. The reality is the 485 full play pass buyers wield a lot of influence and it's really gets buggered when a director is telling them golf is and has been profitable. It's simply not true.
