To: All of the Pointe West Property Owners
For those of you who may not be aware yet, the Pointe West Owners Association Board of Directors has established a committee to be a representation between the Pointe West property owners and the Terra mesa Hospitality Group. The primary goal of the committee is to develop an alliance and working relationship with the hospitality group to bring ideas, concerns, provide recommendations/solutions, and feedback from the Pointe West owners and to work with the hospitality group in achieving the highest possible level of services, amenities, and experiences to the Pointe West Resort. As a side note ... please remember that the Pointe West Hospitality program is a separate entity and is not subject to the oversight or direction of the Pointe West Owners Association.
Our first joint meeting was held on Saturday April 4, 2009 and the following is a general overview of that meeting. Please understand ... and bear with us ... this was our first meeting and we discussed in excess of 65 different individual issues so it is somewhat difficult to cover every detail of the meeting in this outline. Additionally, there were numerous items that the Hospitality Group will need to review and respond to our questions.
The hospitality committee is committed to establishing a strong and open communication link with owners so we hope that you will become an intrigal part of the committee by providing your input and response to our ongoing emails and blogs.
While it is inevitable that there will be different opinions and positions on issues that come up ... it is the responsibility of the Hospitality Committee to represent the general positions of Pointe West Owners and to present those positions to the Terra mesa Hospitality Group and to support Pointe West to work together and create a community that property owners, guests, and management alike will achieve a harmonious life style!
Those participating in the April 4 meeting included:
Pointe West Committee Members
Heather Belcher, Neerja Bhardwaj, Gene Fairbrother, Susan Gleghorn, Elizabeth James, Tom McKinley, Daniel Merchant
POA Board Members
Joe Castillo, Elizabeth Heckathorn
Terra Mesa Hospitality Group
Natthan Birkett
Terra Mesa Development Group, LLC
Tim Welsh
Property Management Representative
Deborah Bowers
Meeting overview notes
For those of you who may not be aware yet, the Pointe West Owners Association Board of Directors has established a committee to be a representation between the Pointe West property owners and the Terra mesa Hospitality Group. The primary goal of the committee is to develop an alliance and working relationship with the hospitality group to bring ideas, concerns, provide recommendations/solutions, and feedback from the Pointe West owners and to work with the hospitality group in achieving the highest possible level of services, amenities, and experiences to the Pointe West Resort. As a side note ... please remember that the Pointe West Hospitality program is a separate entity and is not subject to the oversight or direction of the Pointe West Owners Association.
Our first joint meeting was held on Saturday April 4, 2009 and the following is a general overview of that meeting. Please understand ... and bear with us ... this was our first meeting and we discussed in excess of 65 different individual issues so it is somewhat difficult to cover every detail of the meeting in this outline. Additionally, there were numerous items that the Hospitality Group will need to review and respond to our questions.
The hospitality committee is committed to establishing a strong and open communication link with owners so we hope that you will become an intrigal part of the committee by providing your input and response to our ongoing emails and blogs.
While it is inevitable that there will be different opinions and positions on issues that come up ... it is the responsibility of the Hospitality Committee to represent the general positions of Pointe West Owners and to present those positions to the Terra mesa Hospitality Group and to support Pointe West to work together and create a community that property owners, guests, and management alike will achieve a harmonious life style!
Those participating in the April 4 meeting included:
Pointe West Committee Members
Heather Belcher, Neerja Bhardwaj, Gene Fairbrother, Susan Gleghorn, Elizabeth James, Tom McKinley, Daniel Merchant
POA Board Members
Joe Castillo, Elizabeth Heckathorn
Terra Mesa Hospitality Group
Natthan Birkett
Terra Mesa Development Group, LLC
Tim Welsh
Property Management Representative
Deborah Bowers
Meeting overview notes
The Hospitality Committee, along with representatives of the POA Board, the Terra mesa Hospitality Group, and the Property Management Company met on Saturday, April 4th to review suggestions for improving the Pointe West Club and Hospitality services. While there are many items that were reviewed and discussed, the primary focus was on those items that would not require additional costs either through the club operations or ultimately passed on to property owners in the form of increased dues. Below, by category, is a summary of various items that came out of Saturday’s meeting.
Services and Amenities
- The Club is working with a group of individuals to create a services and sundry store in the front office area. This added amenity would provide an outlet for packaged food items, toiletries, magazines, etc. Additionally, the hospitality group is investigating developing relationships with providers that will come to Pointe West offering services such as massages, grocery delivery, nails, hair care and other services which might add to the amenities of the resort.
Beach
- While there has been a substantial enhancement in the quality of beach cleanliness, the hospitality department was asked to evaluate the possibility of having their employees make daily rounds to pick up trash on the beach and keep it in a more pristine appearance ... even though the ultimate responsibility for beach cleanliness is through the Pointe West POA.
- The hospitality department has explored options to have beach furniture available for rent however; providers are generally not very receptive to contracting at the west end of the island unless there is a high usage factor. Therefore, the Club has ordered 20 new chairs for the beach which should suffice for the beachgoer demand. As demand increases, more chairs may be procured.
- The volleyball court will be replaced once the bollards are in place.
Beach Club and Pool Area
- Pool towels ... while a seemingly minor issue; pool towels have become a very costly item, which ultimately gets passed on to owners in our club dues or paid via the developer through deficit funding to the club. Considerable discussion was involved in trying to come up with ways and options to decrease this cost area (in excess of $79,000 per year for replacement, laundering, and transportation of towels). From the discussion and suggestions the hospitality group is going to reevaluate how pool towels and the towel station is managed to decrease this expense area.
- Since Ike, one of the major challenges for the hospitality group is finding employees and staff for the summer season. With a current staff of 12, Pointe West will need to increase to 30 to 34 full time associates over the next 60 days ... a challenge for them due to the lack of island people looking for hourly-seasonal type work. Again, this was an area of discussion in bringing up ideas for ways to find qualified staffing.
- The access to pool facilities for adults and smoking issues were discussed. A couple of items agreed on were adult only hot tub hours being implemented from 6:30 am – 9 am and 7:30 pm – 9 pm. Also, that confirming the pool area is non-smoking and that this policy would be enforced by the pool staff.
- There was also an issue brought up as to the feasibility of heating the club pool. While it will be investigated, there is no natural gas (the most efficient heating method) yet available on the west end and previous estimates indicate costs would well exceed $30,000 per year plus the cost of purchasing the heating unit.
- General appearance and maintenance of the club was addressed and some items noted included beach club deck being painted, rusted light fixtures and railing being painted.
- Owner and guest communications were discussed in that it was felt by some that it was difficult to really know what functions were taking place at the club. The cork board at the beach club has been updated, and will be on an ongoing basis. There was also discussion on utilizing the new hospitality website to better promote what is happening at Pointe West.
- One of the key ... and lengthy issues ... addressed was the potential for establishing a daily resort fee. As this has been a very critical issue in the past, considerable discussion was addressed to this topic. The general concept discussed would be that “IF” a fee were instituted it would not affect owners but would be charged to renters in the range of $15 per day per unit (note per unit – not per person). A key part of the discussion was that if a fee were put in place that it would have to be a value added fee in that it would need to provide for enhanced club services, inclusion of what are now fee added amenities such as no charges for use of bikes, kayaks, chairs, etc. Again ... there is no final determination on this issue and the hospitality group has agreed to submit back to the hospitality committee a review of “IF” they were to institute a resort fee how it would be offset by the enhancing of services and other amenities.
Bay Water
- General discussions on how to keep this area more tidy and enticing to users. Such items as having staff visit the Baywater pool several times per day to make sure the pool is ready for guests, remove any chairs from the pool if needed, making sure lights and fans are off in the refreshment building, periodic clean-ups and proper securing of the area at the end of the day.
Club – Hospitality desk - Food and Beverage Facilities
- There was considerable discussion on the club facilities including maintaining hours of operations that were reasonable for a resort facility while still being able to maintain a reasonable staffing cost based not only on season but also owner/rental occupancy (which is subsidized by either owner dues or paid by developer subsidy).
- There was commitment by the hospitality department to update the after hours recording to provide an after hours phone transfer or number to security. Also for the creation of specific after hour policy for common issues that owners and renters might have for how security would handle these issues.
Rental Program
- There was considerable discussion on the various issues dealing with enhancing the Terra mesa Hospitality rental program but due to time restrictions it was not possible to cover all the areas. For that reason, the hospitality group will be addressing each of the various questions and items brought up in a separate report back to the hospitality committee which we will update owners when we have it.
General Property Social Activities
- There was some discussion of the different type of social activities that the Club offers owners, guests, and renters alike. The general discussion was that the hospitality group should look for new items, such as art shows, pot-luck suppers, game nights, and to basically stick with core social activities that receive the most participation. Past social events, including talent shows and bingo, have not received any participation and are only an added expense to club operations.
- Plans have been made by Pointe West Hospitality to have an Owners’ Social event on September 5, 2009 ... Details will come out from Hospitality as the date is closer.
Recap
The above is a “brief” overview of the meeting this past Saturday and we will update Pointe West owners with more information over the upcoming weeks. Our purpose in this general overview is to keep to our commitment to be responsive and communitive to the owners of Pointe West and timeliness of getting this information to you.
As we have more information to provide and as we meet with the hospitality group we will be disseminating that information to you.
We are also in the process of incorporating a committee section in the Pointe West owners’ website currently under development where there will be a central communication center for providing your input and getting information on what is happening within the Pointe West community.
In the mean time ... we as a committee appreciate any input that you have on how we can serve your needs and represent you. Please provide any questions, ideas, or issues you would like to bring up to one of the members of the hospitality committee. While we have several individuals who make Pointe West their primary residence who will be able to help keep all of us up to date on what is happening ... it will take all of us working as a community to make Pointe West what we all want it to be.
Thank you,
The Pointe West Hospitality Committee
