Minutes of Part 2 of the Committee meeting held at 12 00 on Tuesday 20th February 2024 via Microsoft Teams
Present
Committee members:
Andy Martin (AM) Chairman
Colin Rayson (CR)
Peter Barnes (PB)
John Dalglish (JD) Apologies
Crown Golf and St Mellion Management:
Paul Stephens (PS) Crown Golf Director
Robbie Smith (RS) Finance Director
Nick Lawson(NL) Resort Director
Kirstine Hitchcock (KH) Operations Manager
Stephanie Latham (SL) Time Share administrator
Thierry Delsol (TD) Crown Golf Director – Apologies
Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 9th January were agreed and approved.
Purpose of This Meeting.
To introduce Nick Lawson as the new Resort Director. (N L)
To update the Committee on the progress with the consolidation of the Time Share lodges, and discusswhat still needs to be completed. (S L) Had sent out the latest occupancy grid for everybody to look at prior to this meeting.
St Mellion to confirm the fee increase for the 2024/2025 year.
Prepare for the Annual Meeting which will be held on Friday 22nd March 2024 11am at St Mellion.
Introductions
Nick Lawson (N L) introduced himself to the committee. Following travelling the world, playing tennis, Nick said that he then moved into the hospitality industry where he has been ever since. Working for large hotels in London, and also for companies like Virgin Active. He has been the Resort Director for Woodbury Park Hotel and Golf Club near Exeter for the last four years and lives in the Exeter area.
Update on the Fee increase for 2024/2025.
(S L) The RPI figure to be used for the 2024/2025 fee increase is 4.90%, this is the RPI figure for January 2024. The invoices will be ready to be sent out soon from St Mellion and are for the year starting 1st April 2024, the invoices are due to be paid within 14 days of the 1st April.
(P S) At the last committee meeting held in January we agreed to defer the 10 year review as not all of the information needed has been available to make the decision. The 10 year review will therefore now be delayed for 1 year to take effect from April 2025. We will need to send this information to all Time Owners when sending out the invoices.
(S L) and (R S) there was a discussion on the practicality of sending the Fee invoice and the note explaining the deferral of the 10 year review at the same time. (S L) and (R S) will work together to check and confirm that the system will be able to deal with sending these two pieces of information together at the same time.
Action – (S L) and (R S) to make sure that the Time Owners have the Fee invoice and the information about deferred 10 year review at the same time.
Update on debtors, occupancy grid and non-movers.
(K H) At this time we still have six debtors, it was seven but we have been able to agree with one owner that St Mellion will take their lodge back. (K H) and (S L) are working hard together to resolve this outstanding situation.
(P S) We are not keen on taking legal action at this time to chase debtors and if we are unable to contact the owners or they do not communicate with us then we can just take back their lodge. If we got to this position after trying everything within our power we would not expect any problems from the debtor but if they then did respond we could deal with it if it happens.
(S L) With the consolidation process we have three non-movers
(A M) L35 will be sorted by the end of the week.
(K H) There are 10 existing Time Owners lodgeswith only 126 owners, so lots of vacant weeks. The plan with the consolidation process was to reduce the number of lodges to make the remaining Time Owners lodges after consolidation more viable.
Lodge 6 has only 5 weeks occupied and all of these owners are considering their options and we should be able to vacate this lodge next year.
Lodge 8 has only 4 Time Owner weeks on the chart, 1 week is a debtor, 2 weeks are owned by somebody who did not sign the original Deed of Variation.
Lodge 9 has no Time Owners.
Lodge 35 has only 3 weeks of Time Owners, week 8 considering options, week 10 is shown as occupied and week 39 is a debtor.
The occupancy chart also shows that lodge 17,week32, and lodge 18, week 24 are allocated to Time Owners even though these lodges are owned by the hotel.
(S L) I can’t make any decisions about the owner in lodge 8 who did not sign the original Deed of Variation and has indicated that they want to remain in their lodge.
(A M) Last year when we started this consolidation process we were trying to reduce the number of lodges to 6
(R S) I think that we can go down to 7 lodges but we will still need to look at the figures and the implications for the Time Owners and also St Mellion.
(A M) When we reviewed the need for consolidation last year the committee worked out that potentially the allocation of 6 lodges would potentially be the best option.
(P S) We will need to check all of the financial information so that we all know what the implications are for the Time Owners and also St Mellion.
(C R) At a meeting last year the committee were presented with financial figures showing the implications if the number of Time Owners weeks were reduced to 5 and also 7. The figures for 5 lodges showed that the remaining Time Owners lodges would be financially viable but if we retained 7 lodges we would lose money and therefore not be financially viable. As a committee we had already agreed to aim for 6 lodges and so at that meeting we requested that the financial person produced the figures for retaining 6 lodges.
Action – (R S) Review all of the financial information and implications around the consolidation down to 6 lodges.
(K H) Said that they had achieved a good result,getting the consolidation process to where it is nowwhich was now much clearer. (S L) agreed that a lot of work had gone into contacting Time owners and consolidating as many weeks as possible.
(A M) Stated that bringing all of the informationabout Time Share up to date was a good job well done.
Materials required for the Annual Meeting and who will attend.
(A M) The meeting on the 22nd March is an Annual Meeting and not a AGM, It has always been an Annual Meeting and several retired committee members have always been very insistent that it is called an Annual Meeting.
(S L) When we send out the notification about the Annual Meeting we need to confirm the members of the committee, Chair, Secretary and members of the committee.
(A M) Please can we ensure that the IT is working properly as we had some problems last year. (K H)yes we will ensure that everything is working correctly and also have microphones available. Also our IT person will be available if we do have any problems.
(S L) We have a new claim form for Committee members to claim their travel expenses, I will send everybody a copy.
(A M) I will be chairing the meeting, please can you tell us who will be coming to represent St Mellion?
(P S) Thierry Delsol Crown Golf Director, Nick Lawson St Mellion Resort Director, KirstineHitchcock Operations Manager St Mellion and Stephanie Latham Time Share Administrator will be there for St Mellion.
(A M) Do we have any up to date information on how many owners have signed the Deed of Variation (DOV) as this is an area that over the years that there has never been any clear information on. (K H) We have 126 owners and 73 have signed the Deed of Variation. (C R) Based on those figures it would appear that there are 53 owners who have not signed the Deed of Variation. In the past I was always told that by me not signing the Deed of Variation I was in the minority but it would appear that is not the case based on these figures.
(S L) Explained the Deed of Variation exit strategy available for owners at this time and said that is an£250 exit fee.
Date of Next Meeting which will be the Annual Meeting.
The Annual Meeting will be held at St Mellion on Friday 22nd March 2024.
St Mellion will be sending information and invitations to all of the Time Owners so that they will be able to join the meeting using Microsoft Teams.
Colin Rayson (Committee Member)