2017 President's Message
ALOHA!
What an exciting year we have had at our Makai Club Resort. Just to highlight a few things (as our Manager’s report will outline many more accomplishments.) Our pool cabana has had its roof replaced — it has been needing replacement for years and was showing the need! Although we did a refurbishment just 7 years ago it is time to replace our soft goods throughout our property. Soft goods are our sofas, loveseats, all chairs of any kind, carpets, drapes, painting accent walls, and so on.
This brings me to highlight how Management Companies work and our experience with Management companies and Developers – especially with experience of them serving on your Board of Directors.
As you all know Wyndham Corporation unseated one of our 30yr. Owners from the Board last year… a dedicated owner who worked hard for several years to get our property back to Gold Crown levels. Wyndham is here again this year to unseat other dedicated Owners from your Board of Directors. We expect that they will be successful later in the meeting during our election process. Let me reassure you that they will not gain a majority on this Board! Now, let me explain and give you examples of why we MUST keep Wyndham representatives from a majority on our Boards which we can do with Owners proxies being submitted EVERY YEAR!
A Management company is paid 10% of your Resort budget above and beyond all expenses being paid. We, Owners, pay for everything … all staff, computers, accounting services, supplies, insurances,…EVERYTHING! And then we pay an additional 10% to the Management company … I equate this to a tip left on the table at a restaurant.
So when we did a refurbishment in 2010 with Wyndham, as our Management Company at that time, we had a Special Assessment of $1800 – $2000/per week/interval owned. This was beneficial for the Management Company to require a Special Assessment to do the refurbishment because they get 10% of these funds. On your Board in the years leading up to the refurbishment were a Developer, his brother, and they were also owners of the Management Company.
But today, and for the last 4 years, your Board is made up of Owners (with the exception of the Wyndham employee) that have been able to evaluate Management Companies for the best fit for our Makai Club needs and Budget. The result: the pool cabana roof which should have been replaced in the 2010 refurbishment project was done this year at NO ADDITIONAL COST TO OWNERS. The complete refurbishment of soft goods that is coming …sofas, drapes, chairs … is already contracted for … they will be delivered and coordinated this fall at NO ADDITIONAL COST TO OWNERS. We decided this year to do some preventative upgrades on our lower unit Condos with tiling the floor units, enhancing waterproofing and water flow around the exterior of our buildings and again at NO ADDITIONAL COST TO OWNERS. And there have been many other enhancements that our Management team will report on later in this meeting at NO ADDITIONAL COST TO OUR OWNERS.
Why or How can these added expenses, that easily exceed a million dollars, be handled without Special Assessments. As Owners we are volunteers that work on your Board because we love our Makai Resort, our Time Share trading value, and our Kauai Island. We are not paid or influenced by any company. We all own here at Makai Club and visit yearly. As Owners when Maintenance fees increase ours do to – NO discounts. I personally own 4 weeks so mine is 4 times whatever we set. I am a retired librarian, so you know I, along with every other Owner serving on your Board, is closely watching and evaluating the budget. A Wyndham Representative on your Board is making a salary from Wyndham, paid by Wyndham and since they are Resort Managers or higher up in the Wyndham Company are easily earning conservatively $130,000 – $150,000+ plus per year and when they are working on Makai Club Board business they are being paid by Wyndham. We, the Owners on the Board, have no incentive to increase Wyndham or any Management Companies profits or to make decisions favorable to those companies! The favorable decisions this Board makes is for the Makai Club Resort and it’s Owners!!!
Our current Management Company, Grand Pacific Resort Management, works closely with this Board and helps us make our budget work for our property and our Owners. In other words your already paid Maintenance Fees covered all the costs I mentioned before such as furniture upgrades, pool roofs, also a major electrical upgrade needed for some Cottages, and so on. Maintenance fees are to keep our Resort properly maintained. With this Management Company, Grand Pacific our budget is properly planned and managed for the good of the Resort, trade value, and Owners pocket books!!!
As a majority of Owners on the Board we also evaluated Management Companies and renewed our contract with Grand Pacific last year because of their effectiveness in reaching Makai Club Resort goals, including keeping costs down while maintaining Gold Crown ratings. (As an aside, Grand Pacific staff close your ears, we do not automatically give them a 10% tip … we have goals that must be met to even reach that 10% maximum limit.)
You can see why it is so important for our Boards to stay Owner controlled … giving us the freedom to evaluate and make the best decisions for our property without Corporate profit influence. We allowed our contract to expire with Wyndham 4 years ago because they were NOT the best match for Makai Club … and now they want to control our decisions by taking over our Boards.
As a precaution this next year I would encourage all Owners to only vote for incumbent Owners as we expect, and have seen at other Resorts, that next year Wyndham may get “Owners they influence” to run for election and they will have a hidden Wyndham agenda in order to dilute the votes to real Owner incumbent candidates that you see dedicating their time here today!
Now to change our focus…
I would like to finish my Report with some BIG NEWS. Grand Pacific treats its employees with the highest regard, resulting in happy employees who give us Outstanding Customer Service to everyone on our Makai Club property. Every year an outstanding employee is awarded a trip to Southern California along with their spouse or significant other, a personal award, a generous bonus, and so on … basically given an Academy Award Winner special treatment. Heui Mahi-Higa with our Housekeeping department was our Be Epic champion. Thank you, Heui, for Outstanding Service to your specific job and to everyone on property that you have encountered.
And the BIGGEST NEWS, selected by objective goals, by percentages that exceed other Resorts, our very own Makai Club Resort was awarded RESORT OF THE YEAR … BEST OF THE BEST … of ALL Grand Pacific Resort Managed properties. Join me in a resounding STANDING OVATION to ALL of our MAKAI Staff here and working hard throughout our property!!
Nancy Baca, President
Makai Club Condo and Cottage Boards
