Welcome to the 2007 Annual General Meeting.
I should start by explaining why it is me who is giving this address.
Alan will be presenting the Treasurer's report and he will also be reading a statement about Charles Mustard's resignation before the end of the meeting. Therefore the committee felt that rather than wear out Alan completely another committee member should present this year's Chairman's Address.
As I am sure you all know, Alan is Acting Chairman having been appointed by the committee following Charles' unexpected resignation.
As I have just said Alan will be reading out a statement about this but I would like here to record our thanks to Charles for his hard work on behalf of Sierra Park Club.
After last year's very high attendance here our numbers this year are substantially down. I would guess that this situation comes about from two factors. Firstly, many owners wanted to attend last year in order to say a fond farewell to Peter Adams. Secondly, some owners were disappointed with the venue, particularly the quality of the courses that had suffered through the very hot summer. Next year we shall probably seek another venue. Also, we are likely to change the date of the AGM by a few weeks so that those owners presently at the Club who wish to attend the meeting will have that opportunity.
So, what of the last twelve months?
Peter's departure went pretty smoothly even if for the first few weeks of retirement it was difficult to keep him away! He left on schedule at the end of February and Maria has taken over very successfully as General Manager. Alun Jeans has been recruited as the golf and social manager. He is proving to be very popular and a great success. Both Maria and Alun are very hard working and we are indebted to both of them for their commitment to running the resort efficiently for our pleasure.
Of course, Carlos, Pedro and Loli continue to provide loyal service. Those of you who have encountered a problem with an apartment on a Saturday or Sunday or have been locked out in the middle of the night will fully appreciate Carlos' dedication to our welfare when almost certainly he will come promptly to the rescue whatever the time of day or night.
I would also like to thank Brian Spearpoint, one of our fellow owners, who agreed to be co-opted to the committee over the last twelve months. Brian has undertaken a major review of the Club's marketing strategy of which more in a moment.
In his address to last year's AGM Charles referred to a number of significant issues facing the committee at that time.
The first was how to control the spiralling cost of golf. The limit of 16 rounds of golf per apartment has been introduced and most members understood the need to limit golf costs. The vast majority have accepted this solution without comment. The committee believed this was the fairest way to address the issue of rising golf costs – fair that is when balancing the high volumes of golf played by owners in the nine cooler months with those owners whose weeks are in the summer when there is much less golf played. The measure has been successful and golf costs included within the maintenance fee look as though they are going to be contained at just over 8,000 rounds. Even for the very keen golfers who want to play more, the cost of an extra round at El Paraiso at just over 42 Euros is substantially less than most green fees on the Costa del Sol.
Charles referred to two other significant issues that the committee needed to address.
One was our constitution. We are aware that this needs some amendment in order to comply with changes in the law in relation to operation of timeshare properties. This work is in hand and I would expect this to be resolved during the coming year. It is not expected that this will impact upon owners, rather, it is substantially a technical issue on which we are getting local legal advice.
The second was use of casual labour. In particular, our cleaning was carried out by a team of casual workers organised by Loli. There is no criticism of the job they did but the arrangement simply needed to be put on a more formal basis. This was rectified, at a cost, by placing the cleaning contract with a local company. This has not proved to be satisfactory and so the arrangements are currently under further review.
The cost of this change has largely been offset by doing away with the midweek change of linen and towels. This can also be looked at as SPC's contribution to the need to become “greener”. However, these items can still be replaced midweek on request to the office.
One final point that Charles mentioned last year was the possibility of building a shower and toilet facility. This project remains on hold.
Additionally, during the past year, some significant work has been done at the resort with the damp problem in A7 resolved and a major repair to the roof carried out. Derek Sleath undertook a major review of the state of the apartments and gardens late last year and Carlos and Pedro, along with outside help where necessary, are attending to the issues which require attention. One major problem was the crumbling of the mortar of the roof tiles and some cracks in the balconies resulting in a major E15,000 renewal scheme. We now have a roof over our heads as opposed to what was previously a loosely assembled set of tiles. The report Derek produced was very thorough and we should be very grateful for the care and attention he gives to building issues.
Where are we now?
By all accounts the resort is running smoothly. Financially, last year's results were sound and we are close to budget so far this year – you will hear more from Alan shortly. The general state of repair of the property is satisfactory although the committee is considering how a complete repainting of the exterior might be undertaken. The interiors of the apartments are being well maintained. There is now a “snag” sheet in each apartment for owners to identify any defects or jobs that need doing. Alun Jeans is keeping a note of any more significant issues being raised at the Friday night owners' meetings.
I would add a personal comment here from my own experience earlier this year when a lot of little niggling complains were raised one Friday. In fact some of them were simply not justified. However, it is not much use to anyone complaining at the Friday meeting about a light bulb that is missing or doors or windows that don't close properly. These are issues which should be reported immediately. They will be normally be rectified promptly and then next week's owners will not have to complain about the same issues. The office will always replace a missing item or, as I said earlier, Carlos usually acts quickly to mend anything which does not work properly.
And on to the future
We will continue to do our best to maintain and improve standards where possible. For instance we have agreed to install air-conditioning units in two apartments as a trial. If successful, these will gradually be extended to all apartments.
The really key issue facing us is the need to maintain and increase interest in the resort through additional sales and rentals. Whilst not at crisis point, we have an uncomfortably high number of apartment weeks for sale. Many of our owners have been involved since the beginning or close thereto. That is great but they will not be with us forever and the supply of new owners is not as strong as we would like.
I mentioned earlier that Brian Spearpoint had been co-opted to the committee and he has done a fantastic amount of work analysing our ownership and developing ideas for how we might attract more owners and renters. We are considering a lot of ideas generated by Brian including:
The committee spent a lot of time yesterday discussing these ideas. We can assure owners that whatever we do, no significant changes will be made without consultation where appropriate. We will keep you informed.
Whatever we do will be aimed at keeping the management fee at an acceptable level, attracting new interest on SPC and retaining the basic character of SPC which attracted us all as owners in the first place.
We are most unlikely to advertise as this is costly and has seldom been successful.
When all is said and done it is through word of mouth of owners and their guests that best sells Sierra Park and we all need to play our part.
I conclude by thanking the other members of the committee for all their hard work - Derek Sleath, Brian Spearpoint, Mick Graham and Alan Sowerby, I have already mentioned the significant contributions from Derek and Brian. Mick Graham plays an important role as a committee member and our secretary. As for Alan, he puts in a truly enormous amount of time and effort into Sierra Park for the benefit of everyone. Latterly, this has been not only as Treasurer but also as Acting Chairman. We all owe him very considerable thanks.
Thank you.
Howard Middleton
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