Recently, at my request, I sat down with 75% of your “B” Board for a short meeting. Larry Bowman was not present due to his 1st meeting with the Auditors at the HLR Association office.
 

I had asked for the meeting in order to communicate an idea that I been bouncing around in my head for sometime and I gave them a copy of a sample quarterly report, similar to the one shown below.
 

As homeowners, we often talk about “amenities” but we do so with out the necessary information to discuss them intelligently. What is the net cost of golf  as compared to the net cost of the restaurant? What do I mean when I say net cost?
 

Ok, here goes with the definitions: Net cost is subtracting from the revenue produced by an activity the cost of providing that activity. For golf,  the revenue would be the annual golf dues plus the daily play green fees plus the fees received from Silverleaf players plus the profits from tournaments. From those revenues would be subtracted all of the costs of operation including the salaries of maintenance personnel and the golf pros.
 

That single number would then be reported to homeowners Quarterly, as the Golf (net cost). The home owner could then, at his own discretion, divide that total cost by the number of homeowners to see what golf, as an amenity, is costing him/her. The same procedure would work with the restaurant. The story is different with the amenity we call gated security since there is no direct revenue coming in from security. That cost would already be net. I am a firm believer in KISS, or keep it simple stupid and that is the reason for the very simple and compressed reporting form. Next,  the form should remain consistent so that one quarter could be compared with previous quarters so that people can see trends developing.
 

The three board members present seemed to receive the idea favorably but made no other definitive comment. The report would not necessarily need to appear in the Gazette but could be in the Holly Herald, which is quarterly. Remember, KISS and also keep it consistent to permit qtr. to qtr. measurement. W.C.