Golf Commission

Commissioners Present: Anne O'Connell (Chair), Jeff Odell (Vice-Chair), Ed Pavlu, Cindy Bingham, Marc Fontaine, Carl Blanchard, and Judy McCarthy.

 

Others Present: Mark O'Brien (Director of Golf Operations), Jerri Carlin (Friends of the Captains), and Sharon Marotti (Women’s 9-Hole Assn.) and Jackie Ferraguto.

 

This meeting was held at the Town Hall and was televised. The video of the meeting may be viewed at: http://view.earthchannel.com/PlayerFlex.aspx?PGD=brewsterma&eID=647

 

Call to Order: Anne O’Connell called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.

 

Public Announcements:

 

• Sharon Marotti thanked Mark O’Brien and his staff and Ardeo’s restaurant for being flexible by moving the time for the Women’s 9-Hole Invitational on October 2^nd due to the bad weather. With their help the event was a success.
• Sharon also reported that last Thursday the Women’s 9-Hole Association played their weekly tournament from the family tees and had a good time. October 30^th will be their last event of the year.
• Jerri Carlin announced that the Friends of the Captains had to cancel their cocktail party due to lack of sign-ups.
• Jerri asked when the new water enclosures would be installed. Mark O’Brien said that they would be put into place in the spring.    

 

Correspondence & Suggestion Box:

 

• Ted Nabywaniec – put up a sign at the tee to notify players of the drop zone on Starboard #5. Mark will take care of this.
• Sharon Marotti – do we still have the sign that requests people to leave the Starboard #5 green from the rear.
• Pat Girard – suggested having a group of women help with women’s selections in the pro shop. Mark O’Brien said that we would be happy to take suggestions, but we would not have a committee involved in the purchasing.
• Dean Foster – suggested having the bunker rakes placed perpendicular to the edge of the bunkers so that people would not get bad lies in the bunkers. Mark said he would pass this along to Pete Ervin.
• Dean Foster – suggested painting the bottom of the flag sticks black for better depth perception. Mark O’Brien and the rest of the Commission so no advantage to doing this.  

 

Director of Operations Report (Mark O’Brien):

 

·         Mark O’Brien reviewed the financial report for September. We are on target to hit projections.

·         Jeff Odell pointed out that Overtime is down and pro shop purchases are down.

·         Marc Fontaine commented that the golf industry is soft.

·         The sink hole and tee renovation project bid opening was on October 7. We had two bids from two qualified bidders. DHT was awarded the contract. We will not be doing any of the alternates that were on the bid. We will be doing 3 tee boxes and 12 sink holes. The project should begin in mid-November and be completed by March 31, 2015.

·         Cindy Bingham asked about Cape Tech doing some of the painting and carpentry work on the clubhouse that is needed. Mark O’Brien said he would look into this.

·         The survey results on the new tee time system were very positive. 92.5% said they used the tee time system. Of those that used the tee time system, approximately 90% used the on-line feature as opposed to the phone system. About 91% preferred the new system over the old system. 86% said the point system is fair. Mark O’Brien stated that he would do FAQ for the tee time system to answer questions for next year.

·         Marc Fontaine commented that we need to improve how we process penalty points for no shows.

·         Jeff Odell stated that we should explain the 8:00 pm rule to the members.

 

Superintendent’s Report (Pete Ervin):

 

• In Pete Ervin’s absence, there was no report.  

 

Follow-up:

 

·         Memorial Benches – Mark and Pete have not decided on the bench type as yet.

·         WiFi – Mark O’Brien reported that it has been repaired.    

 

2015 Rates:

 

• The proposal from Carl Blanchard was discussed. The proposal suggests lowering the non-resident rate from $1500 to $1200 to bring in more non-residents and be more in line with the competition. It also suggests offering a discounted rate to people who have a membership at another course. Discussion followed.
• Marc Fontaine is not in favor of lowering the non-resident rate. He thinks it is a risk to hope that we would bring in enough members to off set the reduction in price.
• Jeff Odell thinks that phasing in the reduction over two years is a good idea and will increase revenue.
• Cindy Bingham asked what the highest number of members we have had. Mark O’Brien stated that the high was 1281. We did have two courses at this time and we did not have a non-resident rate.
• Ed Pavlu suggested that we keep the rates the same.
• Mark O’Brien is not in favor of lowering the rate. He believes that there are several factors that influence a person’s decision on where to join that rank above price. He noted that the large increase in the number of non-residents we had this year is due in large part to the promotional efforts that we put into place this year. We did not reduce the rate this year to get these new members.
• Anne O’Connell suggested we continue this discussion to the next meeting.
• Mark O’Brien stated that he is probably going to recommend the same daily fee rates next year that we had this year.
• Cindy Bingham suggested that we freeze membership rates for those 80 and over in order to retain them.
• Some thought that 80 might be too young and 85 might be a better number.
• Anne O’Connell suggested we try to identify the ages of our membership.
• Discussion followed about offering a discounted membership to people that were members of another course.
• Anne O’Connell asked Mark O’Brien had any thoughts on resident rates. Mark said that he is in favor of keeping the tiered system and that if there is room for an increase on resident rates it is in the “Early” category. An increase of $25 – $50 may be in order.
• Marc Fontaine thinks a $50 increase in the “Early” rate is in order.
• Cindy Bingham thinks a $25 increase is in order and maybe a $50 increase would be phased in over two years.
• This discussion will continue at the next meeting.      

 

Discuss Possible Future Agenda Items:

 

• FY2016 budget.
• Update on joint aeration project.
• Memorial benches.

 

Approval of past meeting minutes:

 

• Cindy Bingham made a motion to approve the minutes of the September 16, 2014 meeting, seconded by Judy McCarthy. Motion approved 7-0-0.

 

Rescheduling next month’s meeting:

 

• Anne O’Connell stated that due to Veteran’s Day next month we cannot meet on November 11. She suggested Monday, November 10 at 4:00 pm at the golf course. All were in agreement.  

 

Topics the Chair did not anticipate:

 

• Cindy asked about holding one tee time per day for day of play requests. Mark O’Brien said this should be an agenda item.   
• Cindy asked about promotions for Thanksgiving weekend.
• Cindy noticed that areas where people pull their carts over near greens and tees gets worn out. She suggested having starters tell customers to keep all four wheels on the path.
• Cindy asked about Jay and Steve’s job titles and if they have changed. Mark said they have not changed.
• Cindy asked if the Brewster Police paid the outing fee for their outing. Mark said they did pay.
• Ed Pavlu said his contact information was wrong on the Commission list. Mark told everyone to email Dottie at reservations@captainsgolfcourse.com with the corrections.
• Ed Pavlu suggested getting the marketing person involved with helping with a membership drive.

 

Cindy Bingham made a motion, seconded by Jeff Odell to adjourn the meeting. The motion was approved unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 5:57 pm.    

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Mark O’Brien, Director of Operations