Advisory Committee Meeting

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

 

Meeting was called to order at 4pm.

In attendance were: D. Dobbratz, L. Gawel, V. Heotis, D. Hoffman, K. Killoran, D. DiMartino, and J. Zickert

 

Also in attendance were: M. Cline, D. Capablo, B. Rose, D. Dickens, and C. Nehls presiding.

 

(Some opening remarks and the first minutes of the Golf Professionals report were lost due to a malfunction of the recording equipment.)

 

Reports:

 

Dave Dickens- Golf Professional

 

Upcoming Events: Saturday, December 15th is an MGA event; Beat the Pro and Shoot-Out qualifier number one. The 19th and 20th of January is the Club Championships for all groups and on the 24th the RLGA First Ladies’ Cup and also on the same day, we have a large outside event from Signs Now. On the first of January we have the Gold Tee Scramble, January 15th is the MGA Memorial Event (the Presidents Cup Qualifier and Shoot Out Qualifier number two). For those of you interested in the range program you will hear that the prices have increased (advertised in the golf shop).  The Manatee Golf opening date has been pushed back from January to some time in March. I am in the process of ordering things for the Ryder Cup and Member Guest, and both events seem to be going for more participation prizes, rather than performance prizes. There are some items on the golf survey that have not been attended to, but because of the time of year I am not able to do so. I consider those items minor compared to the other major items that have been addressed.  Some suggested adding another person to our pro shop, but at this time there is not enough play to justify this. I had a woman in the other day that was perfectly qualified, but I was unable to offer her enough hours at this time, hopefully this will change in January.

 

Chuck Nehls- Club Manager

 

Events since our last meeting October 4, 2007

October 12  NFL Tailgate Party

October 19  Dinner & Dancing

October 26  Oktoberfest

November 7         Fall Fashion Show

November 10       Black Tie Gala

November 22       Thanksgiving Buffet

December 3 Hanukkah

Upcoming Events

December 22        Holiday Gathering

December 31        New Year’s Eve Day Brunch

January 12  Gourmet Night

January 17  Ho Down Party

January 26  Dinner & A Show

January 30  Fashion Show

 

Since it appears that the membership will no longer support two Dinner Dances per month, we will replace one with some type of Dinner & Show. This seems to be very popular as the first two have been sold out, and I am working on one for the month of March.

 

New business, I would like to welcome Mr. DiMartino to his first meeting as a member, and Mr. Zickert who has attended a previous meeting but is now an official member.

 

Good news for tennis, a bid for new canvas tops has been awarded. The time frame for completion is 6 – 8 weeks

 

Dora Capalbo-Membership Director

 

Since our last meeting on October 4, 2007

 

New members from October 4, 2007 to present:

 

Full             Golf            Social                   Tennis                  House

   1                 1                   2

 

As of today- Member Count- 398 Total

The two main reasons for resignations were health issues and moving.

 

Activities:

q       October 31st – Halloween Trivia- had 2 winners, so they split the winnings.

q       November 2nd – Finance Club Seminar & Luncheon- Speaker Michael Pender on “ Be informed on taxes “ Cancelled.

q       November 7th – Fashion Show with “Hearts Desire”, The ladies’ were very impressed by the menu and the fashions.

q       November 9th – The Black Tie Gala was a very elegant evening.

 

Upcoming Events:

q       The following shows are full:

Dec. 18th “Radio City Christmas Show” – 60 reservations

Feb. 26th “Jersey Boys” – 160 reservations

q       December 22nd – Holiday Gathering, this always has a great turnout.

q       January 15th – Life Line Screening. Our representatives told me that we were having a great turnout.

q       January 26th – Cabaret Show “Diva & the Italian Guy”, 87 reservations.

q       January 30th – Fashion Show featuring “Stein Mart”

 

The Niners initiated a wonderful cause, “Project Snowman”.  People were very excited to participate in it because it was such a worthy project.

 

Michael Cline- Golf Course Superintendent

 

Our seed has come up very well this year, and I was very happy about that after last year’s problems. We did have the seed tested again, but I won’t have the results until the third or fourth week of January.

 

We are back down to our cut heights of .145.  We fertilized the course on Tuesday. The brown spots on the course are a turf burn from an herbicide.

 

Now that things have slowed down you will see more tree trimming, Spanish moss removal and other work outside, also the flowers are doing well this year.

 

Outside of the gate they are putting a sidewalk through, so we will be moving the irrigation and some of the plants.

 

Billy Rose- Tennis Professional   

 

I am glad to hear about the canvas for the gazebos.  We have been doing some general clean up and the courts are in great shape. I would like to note that the tennis holiday banquet was attended by more than 70 people.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: I would like to know why we take reservations in administrative office rather than at the podium. I know what happens in the back, someone puts it on a post-it note and it disappears, I am sure of it.

 

Dora: There is only designated times when someone is at the podium, so that would be a problem.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: You are open 11:30 to 2:30 for lunch, and 5:30 to 8:30 for dinner; those should be the only time reservations can be made. When making reservations for Fleming’s, you call after 5 o’clock.

 

Chuck: We can’t do that here; we take too many reservations for special events and parties, days and weeks ahead of time. Reservations are more likely to get lost if they are called in after hours, or another staff member, whose job is not taking reservations, answers the phone. Mr. Dobbratz: Would we as a club want a dedicated reservation line linked directly to the podium?

 

Chuck: At this time, the club is not set-up for this

.

Mr. Dobbratz: Phase three, any word on when Mr. Hunt is going to begin development?

 

Chuck: I spoke with Mr. Hogan prior to this meeting and everything is still on track, all that is needed is final county approval. We are still attempting to satisfy all of the county requirements. Model home designs are in the final process of the interior design.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: Since our golf membership is in a downward spiral, are we going to have any ongoing golf incentives?

 

Dora: Not at this time. I do not believe we are in a downward spiral, memberships decline yearly at renewal, and rebound during the year.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: I have a brother-in-law that played golf here with a bunch of buddies and they had a ball then went into the bar and got a pitcher of beer for $17.95 and they said based on the price of a pitcher of beer, they will never be back. Maybe we should do a special say a hot dog and a beer at a special price to get more outside golf play here?

 

Chuck: I can assure you that a pitcher of beer here is not $17.95, and our bar prices are generally 25 to 50 percent lower than that of other area clubs…………Mrs. Gawel: We did a survey along with the Rosedale Homeowners Council and our pricing was actually lower than other clubs.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: Any chance of Mr. Hogan attending these meetings, as I don’t know why everything has to be second hand to us and second hand back to him. I mean why can’t he be here, what would be wrong with that.

 

Mrs. Gawel: I have asked him in the past (Chuck: and how did he answer) and he said that he had his staff in place that were paid to handle what goes on, and he spoke about his responsibilities, and that he felt like the staff was capable of carrying out their duties.

 

Mr. Dobbratz: Is there any body here that deals with security? (Mr.Killoran: I am on the Security Council). I visited a buddy on the way to North Carolina and they had a very sophisticated sign in and sign out system. Any chance we can get something like that?

 

Mr. Killoran: We are working on that to include visitor passes, and a bar code system with cameras.

Mrs. Gawel: The tennis players coming in with other teams for lunch have had a much longer wait for lunch lately? I there something going on? You weren’t here, so I don’t know if you can answer this.

 

Chuck: There is always a manager in the building to talk to if the dining room manager or I aren’t present. The Chef is a manager, the lead cook is a manager, the lead server is a manager, the membership director is a manager, and the club comptroller is a manager. If service in any facet of the club is not timely, ask to speak to a manager. If in fact the wait for service was too long, I know that I would speak up and you should also. I want to be able to answer this properly, and I want to be able to correct situations like that, but I really have to know at the time or one of the other managers has to be informed. I am not aware of the particular day your are referring to.

 

Mrs. Hoffman: We have received raves about the food at the Rose Cup.

 

Chuck: I thought the committee did a great job of decorating, and I am always proud of the kitchen.

 

Mr. Killoran: How many members total resigned?

 

Dora: Twenty-seven. Twelve out of the sixteen golfers actually went to a social membership, but we did lose them as golfers.

 

Mr. DiMartino: (Since this was the first meeting that he was able to attend, he introduced himself and spoke briefly about his background and experiences here at Rosedale) Because of his background he and the Golf Course Superintendent carried on a long discussion about types of grass, herbicides, fungicides, cutting, aerification, trimming, sun, shade, greens green rather than fast, irrigation and specific problems and how the superintendent handles them.

 

Mr. Zickert: I would like to announce that starting January 1st we are going to change the MGA Hole in One to $200.00 maximum per event, and the tab begins only when the member enters the Members Lounge, and ends when it reaches two hundred dollars, or when that member leaves the club house.

 

Mrs. Hoffman: The RLGA and the RNGA are in agreement to keep their Hole in One at $150.00.

 

Mr. Zickert: MGA membership is lagging a little behind last years numbers at this time, as noted earlier we did lose some golf memberships.

 

Mr. DiMartino: How about more matting on all of the bridges?

 

Mike: We are looking into recovering those bridges and putting some new wood on them. The last time it was brought up we decided to wait for the new construction.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 5:30pm.