Board Book 2023

Board of Directors Meeting Thursday, April 27, 2023

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Date:

Kevin Costello, Tim Bentsen, John Stakel, Kevin Case, Andrew Dunn, Jim Kiker, Laurie Ann Garrett, Milford McGuirt, Kyle Esmonde, Larry Delan, Randy Moore David Sheppard, GM/COO, Tony Kelley, CFO, Audra Lucas, Club Manager

Present:

SLT:

I. Call to Order/Approval of Minutes – Kevin Costello: President Costello called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. On a motion by Bentsen, second by Stakel, the minutes from the March 23, 2023 board meeting were approved. Presidents Report – Kevin Costello: Mr. Costello then introduced Audra Lucas who presented her department standards. She noted that she trains her team in Hospitality 101: To communicate in a positive way with proper verbiage and be accountable for upholding the Club’s standards and brand. She reviewed these standards. She then discussed the steps of service for each area that serves members. We hire for personality and we teach talent. She feels service is constrained due to the size of the Troon kitchen. She believes her team is appropriately compensated. She reminded the Board that the lounge was not set up as a dining room, but we are using it as such. She can control the reservations in the Troon, it is really the Interlachen orders that create the bottlenecks in service. There was a question about food service in the Ladies Locker Room. This needs to be considered as the men have it. She then showed how the Troon kitchen gets 75% of the dinner orders between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. and the kitchen cannot keep pace with these very large numbers. She and Chef are working on a plan to change the menu and assign chefs to certain dishes to expedite service. She asked to give this time to work. The new menu will be ready May 23. They will also try to utilize the banquet kitchen for the Interlachen menu and small plates. Chef will also utilize the green egg on the Troon lawn with a special limited menu. We will add equipment and change the Merion equipment to accommodate the changes to the menus. There was more discussion about using Merion on weekdays and Sundays, and offering early bird specials. Twenty-five percent of the members take advantage of the buffets offered on Friday nights. We have had kitchen consultants advise us that we lack the proper kitchen space even after the renovation and we lack the culinary talent to execute. Mr. Costello thanked Audra for her service and said the Board will help her with any resources she needs to solve the service issues. Audra then left the meeting. II. There was more discussion about the service complaints we have compared to other clubs. David said that Cherokee subsidizes their food service by 15 to 16%. He will look at Club Benchmarking data. It is a solvable problem but she needs tools and Interlachen compounds the problem. The Merion price point is keeping members from utilizing this amenity more often. Mr. Costello then continued with the President’s report. He reviewed some of the member discipline issues in the past month. He stated that he would like to attend each of the committee meetings once this year. Kyle Es monde agreed to write the “Inside the Board Room” report.