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Open Discussion of Food & Beverage |
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When the original developer was in charge, the service would only have been
described as "First Class". We had wonderful food and service at every
club. At the Yacht Club a member was welcomed by professional waiters
with red vests and black bowties. The food was delicious and very
reasonably priced. At the Country Club there was a weekly Sunday lunch
with entertainment and a buffet that was fabulous for a price that was just
great. Those of us who bought our property during that time were
oblivious to what kind of cost the developer was carrying for that service.
You can be assured, it was very, very high. So, how could they do that
and the property owners after taking over could not? Because, the
developer was in the business of selling lots. The food and beverage
services were marketing tools that allowed them to create excitement among
potential buyers and sell, sell, sell. It was very successful.
Once the developer had completed as much of the development that they intended, they sold out the amenities to the property owners association. And, for several years, the various boards tried to continue that same quality of service without apparently realizing that doing so was such a costly effort. As a result, the LFPOA lost many thousands of dollars on food and beverage services. We are taking in terms of a quarter of a million dollars a year. Then, the cutbacks started. Skipping forward a few years, a new general manager was hired in the form of Jake Bodiford. Mr. Bodiford was a strong manager and very savvy when it came to food and beverage. He tweaked the system and fine tuned F&B to a point where the costs were brought down to reasonable levels. Still, the requests came for that old time great service. Even Jake, who knew what it would take, yearned to provide that same country club quality of food and beverage. He tried special events from time to time. They broke even at best. He authorized with the approval of the board special Friday night seafood buffets. That one boosted the costs of F&B by another $40,000 a year. It was a losing battle. Why? Why can't Lake Forest provide successful and profitable food and beverage service? Well, there are a number of factors. For one, take a look at the two mile stretch of highway 98 from the Interstate 10 to Target. There must be over twenty restaurants of every persuasion in that short stretch of road. Good restaurants for almost any taste may be found there. The only thing missing might be a good restaurant with India cuisine or, perhaps a Thai or Korean restaurant. What kind of competition do you think that is for a Country Club or Yacht Club restaurant? To make matters even tougher, this restaurant is restricted to whom it can serve. Lake Forest is a private club. Only members and their guests may enjoy dining at our clubs. These other restaurants may serve anyone who walks in the door. Right off the bat, a Lake Forest restaurant is at a serious disadvantage. OK, let's say we don't try to establish an everyday kind of high quality food service. What if we just try occasional high quality special events? What is wrong with that? Well, it amounts to a Catch-22 situation. In order to have a profitable regularly scheduled special event, we must have the staff ready. We must have enough food to serve the masses that show up. What if it takes a while for members to find out about the regularly scheduled event and start patronizing? What happens? That staff and food go to waste. We lose money. Then, let's wait for the demand before we commit a large staff or plenty of food. If we don't have enough of either and people actually do show up, they go away mad and don't come back. We could try not to have a regular staff but rather bring in temps for the special occasions. Unfortunately, that doesn't allow us to insure a high quality service. It's a serious problem that even an experienced manager like Jake Bodiford could'nt figure out. Well, it appears we cannot compete. So, how about a suggestion that has been brought up time after time. Since we are a private club, let's charge a mandatory Food & Beverage fee to the membership each month, that they use or lose like other country clubs. The short answer to this is that membership in Lake Forest is not optional as it is with other country clubs. If you buy a home here, you must be a member. The by-laws are very specific about what kind of charges can be made to the membership. This idea would push the limits of the board's authority to the edge. There seems to be no solution to the problem. It seems that the Board of Directors either needs to find a way to create a demand among more of the membership or simply provide as much service as we can provide and still keep the bottom line in the black. Send us your ideas about the Food & Beverage problem from one of the site's Suggestion Box buttons. We will pass them on. Your description of the F&B issues are exactly right. And, as I read the background of how LF developed, I couldn’t help but recall all the times I’ve heard “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. As one definition of insanity goes “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. During the 70s going out to eat was a much different experience than today, and much less often. With the "rat race" we live in today, eating out, picking up dinner on the way home, calling for delivery, etc. is the norm rather than the exception. Another way to look at F&B is that we're probably lucky to only be having operational deficits in the amounts we are, considering we're trying to run 2 restaurants/bars not just one. As I've pointed out many times, after 4PM we only have 2 places for members of Lake Forest to go within Lake Forest. The Bayview-drinks only, or the Yacht Club-dinner served in a bar atmosphere, in an inconvenient location, away from the center of the subdivision, crossing an increasingly busy Hwy 98. By the way, the Bayview is the only breakeven or slightly profitable F&B venture we have, even if it is wholly supported by "those nasty golfers" as some bearded person announced the first night the Yacht Club reopened for karaoke. We cannot continue to dwell on the past, this community needs to move forward into the 21st Century. Attached is one idea of how that can be accomplished. (Magnolia Creek Amenities). Also see (Magnolia Creek) I think the headline "PLAY-TIME DESTINATION" describes the concept perfectly. Add the tennis courts to the layout, and now you have something that will truly raise the property values for everyone. This is located in League City, TX just south of Houston. It is a community of houses starting at $170,000. It also has 27 holes of golf, but no stables, tennis courts, or marina access. Since it has never been a secret on my part I think more Lake Forest members need to know that there is a potential option out there that:
Obviously something has to change for us to be able to do all this without raising maintenance fees ($37.50), user fees, etc.
With the $9,000,000,
Having done all of this and using some ballpark numbers I’ve done some inquiries on, we should still have $3,000,000 remaining from the $9,000,000. That balance of monies would first have to be protected with a By-Laws change saying that only the income from the investment of that money could be used for the Operations Budget. The Principal Amount could only be spent by a majority vote of the Assoc. excluding the Developer. Properly invested that amount should be $200,000 to $300,000 per year. By consolidating most of the operations into one location, operational efficiencies will return several thousand $’s. By building energy efficient and low maintenance buildings, costs for repairs and maintenance and energy would be contained. With Baldwin County continuing to grow, the community center, properly planned, could become the business meeting center of the county. Particularly with the close proximity of new hotels built and being built, excellent shopping, etc. This would help support F&B, and amenities.
To the naysayers: Yes the value of the Yacht Club land will go up over time. But what good is it to have something that only a very few get any value from? Why are so many individuals and businesses “cashing” out this type of assets i.e. the Woodlands, selling homes that have had drastic increases in values, etc. It’s because they want to enjoy what they’ve earned, and have something left for future generations. In the case of Lake Forest, it’s a way to upgrade all of the amenities to become more cost efficient, appeal to more member participation, as well as the appeal to prospective new members, which we know which we know from the last 6 months, drastically increase everyone’s property values.
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11/19/2005
Over the years the cost of providing food and beverage services to the
membership has been source of tremendous deficits and resulting discussion.
To provide a little background, the food services at the Yacht Club, Country
Club, 19th Hole and Bayview Lounge are ones that should be expected to some
degree or another at facilities like those. The question is "To what
extend should Lake Forest offer these services at the clubs?"
