Additional levy on members?

[RichA]

Mixed feelings. I'd be livid, but I guess this is the nature of a members owned club, if people get complacent. The members should have paid more attention to which muppets they allowed to get elected to run their club.

 

[Jimaroid]

I’ve experienced something like this but I’d be careful about jumping to conclusions. Just because a club has sold land doesn’t mean they suddenly have that £320k available in cashflow to cover their shortfall, it may not be easily accessible and may have been required to secure other refinancing. And you may not find that out until the next set of accounts are publicised at AGM.

Unless your club constitution says otherwise you likely don’t and won’t know necessary details held in accounts.

Bear in mind everyone has been caught on the hoof by inflation, somewhat unpredictable energy costs and rising interest rates. No club is immune from having to make difficult financial decisions over the last year.

Time to ask your club committee a lot of unprejudiced questions. Maybe trust them, maybe not. There is more to this than just asking £100 from each member.

 

[HampshireHog]

Well, this is it. Members shouldn't have to foot the bill for poor budgeting and no contingency plan. Of course the subs will go up when you renew but that's the way I'd expect it to go. Rather than £100 now please and your subs are going up as well.

When you are part of a members club, surely you have to accept you are going to foot the bill? Who else is going to.

What poor here is the messaging from the club, based on what the OP is telling us.

It seems unlikely that energy costs will drop so raising the Membership costs has to be done moving forwards.
Charging a Levy for the current year is more contentious but understandable.
Demanding immediate payment and threatening to withhold the service that members have paid for this current year is outrageous. It’s not blackmail it’s extortion. Literally, demanding money with menaces.

 

[Jigger]

Bearing in mind I detest extra unavoidable costs in life, like airport taxes, I would expect the £100 to be bundled up in the next renewal fee, not as an extra once you’ve bought in.

Cost are unavoidable at present and I expect fee increases each year to cover them but if they’re saying they’ve stuffed up the finances to that tune then they need to sack the finance guy.

 

[3offTheTee]

If there are 500 full paying members as I doubt they will not be asking Juniors they would only bring in 50k.

Seems shortsighted and accounts need to be examined and why they did not know about this much earlier. If they took the 50k from the 320 there would still be 270

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

About 5yrs ago a members vote at my club passed a proposed 4 yr £50/yr levy for course improvements. As the membership voted for it all members had to pay it as part of the renewal - thinking it must be the case that if the members vote on a proposal and it is passed then it is a condition of membership that all members have to comply.

I do not know for 100% certainty what would have happened if I had declined to pay the levy, however as it was paid as part of the annual subscription for each of the four years, and members have one month past the due date to pay the full amount, after which membership lapses - I guess my membership would have lapsed.

All that said, as each member of the club is a shareholder of a limited company I might expect the company to come to me as a shareholder if additional monies are required by the company, and as a shareholder I can see myself having to cough up. And I guess a levy is the way a golf club company goes to its shareholders for monies.

 

[timd77]

Some more great points raised here and some questions I’ll put to the board next week.

I do get some of the counter arguments, that it’s a members club, we all part own it etc, and part of me does think it’s only £100. However, having £320k sitting in a bank account, which the board alone decided to not use to cover this shortfall, does grate a fair bit. If it were the case there was no money, the club was on its arse then I don’t think anyone would have a problem paying £100.

I don’t know if anyone’s seen this Gordon Ramsey clip on YouTube where he tells the story about asking his father in law for 20 grand to help him and his wife buy their first house, father in law told him to come back and so again when he’s sold his Porsche. It’s a bit like that for me.

 

[Crazyface]

Personally I would vote yes for the levy on one condition. The guy that Mis calculated the years running Costs is sacked. I would have no faith in him Whatsoever. And bottom Line for me how can they be trusted to run it next year. Paying £100 is a get out of jail card that can be paid again now a precedent has been set.
Wonder how many other clubs have under calculated costs.

Ours, for two

 

[Crazyface]

Rerally, you'd rather pay more, just to stop someone else paying less then you. A classic case of cutting off your nose.

Not really. Everyone pays the same. Then no one is annoyed. Apart from against the ones that did the budget. And there is a way to get rid of them

 

[Crazyface]

I’ve experienced something like this but I’d be careful about jumping to conclusions. Just because a club has sold land doesn’t mean they suddenly have that £320k available in cashflow to cover their shortfall, it may not be easily accessible and may have been required to secure other refinancing. And you may not find that out until the next set of accounts are publicised at AGM.

Unless your club constitution says otherwise you likely don’t and won’t know necessary details held in accounts.

Bear in mind everyone has been caught on the hoof by inflation, somewhat unpredictable energy costs and rising interest rates. No club is immune from having to make difficult financial decisions over the last year.

Time to ask your club committee a lot of unprejudiced questions. Maybe trust them, maybe not. There is more to this than just asking £100 from each member.

Ours sold land and still have shortfall. Not good.

 

[IanM]

I do get some of the counter arguments, that it’s a members club, we all part own it etc, and part of me does think it’s only £100. However, having £320k sitting in a bank account

So. The £320k is being used for what ? What happens if "the what" doesn't get done?

If the £320k is there "just in case," it sounds like such a case has arrived.

Doing a cash call on the membership, isn't a "load of tosh" but equally, it might be a really bad idea, depending on the full set of circumstances.

 

[doublebogey7]

Not really. Everyone pays the same. Then no one is annoyed. Apart from against the ones that did the budget. And there is a way to get rid of them

I am not a lover of discounts to attract new members as they just encourage golfers to move around and I'm less than convinced they meet their aims in the longtime. However if it were to be beyond little doubt that it would bring in more money in the longer term than I don't see the point in opposing on the the grounds "it's not far" as it would beneficial to all going forward.

 

[Tashyboy]

Ours, for two

How did they get round that CF

 

[BiMGuy]

I am not a lover of discounts to attract new members as they just encourage golfers to move around and I'm less than convinced they meet their aims in the longtime. However if it were to be beyond little doubt that it would bring in more money in the longer term than I don't see the point in opposing on the the grounds "it's not far" as it would beneficial to all going forward.

What’s wrong with people moving clubs?

 

[doublebogey7]

What’s wrong with people moving clubs?

Nothing in of itself, but its not good for clubs as it makes it difficult for them to budget effectively.

 

[JayB]

Nothing in of itself, but its not good for clubs as it makes it difficult for them to budget effectively.

Surely clubs take into account a certain amount of membership movement, I'd be very concerned if they didn't.

 

[2blue]

What’s wrong with people moving clubs?

Absolutely nothing wrong. In fact it is probably very, very healthy as likely to prevent the stagnation present in most Private Clubs.... however it probably won't!!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Put it this way. If the club intention was always to put the money from the land sale aside for course development the additional unbudgeted costs would still have to have been met and that would mostly likely have been through a higher renewal fee - so members would have to pay up whatever.

I would prefer funds raised by my club as a result of a ‘one off’ sale of land to not be used for such running costs, such income only comes once and shouldn’t be frittered away, running costs are year on year and such costs are ones that members would always be expected to fund through their subs…the costs are the costs…they will not go away and so must be paid - and so be it.

 

[doublebogey7]

Surely clubs take into account a certain amount of membership movement, I'd be very concerned if they didn't.

Of course they do, my original point was though that it is not something they would want to be encouraging.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I think that whilst we have a members side, we probably need the full club reasoning to be fully able to make a full judgement.
If it’s a private members club, I would probably side more with accepting the clubs reactions as given than if it was a proprietary or public club.