Board Meeting Summary by Steve Akers
Daniel Minnis
Here is Steves Aker’s summary of the meeting and his impressions.
I attended the March 19, 2019 Board Meeting and here are a few items I remember being discussed:
1. Dave Stonner gave a summary of the sales report, he was the only person that included me with any handout material during the day. He reported there were 221 sales from previously unsold inventory and 75 Member Sales, that resulted in $1,460,979 to the Members. There were 938 Bonus weeks & Rentals booked by sales....CVI and Members. There was $333,201 reimbursed to Members. Dave indicated these are unheard of number for the timeshare world. We as members, need to let Dave Stonner and the sales staff know how much we appreciate their efforts to sell villas, so the remodeling project can continue as planned. The annual maintenance fees alone are not adequate to pay for both the operations of the Club and the remodeling project. The Club will need to get a significant amount of funding annually from CVI/sales of villas in the future to complete the remodeling project! They mentioned that the 2019 sales were not progressing at the same pace as in 2018. The Developer transferred 1,130 unsold villas to the Club on 1/1/2018, so after selling 221 villas in 2018, it appears the Club had 909 unsold villas on 1/1/2019.
2. A new entity has been formed for the operation of the restaurant and I believe the other retail operations as well, it is called Bella Vista. Which I am sure is owned by CVI, but as a guest I can't ask questions and they did not include me in the handouts.
3. Mark Gross the Chairman of the Advisory Committee volunteered to head up a "communication strategy". It does not sound like they will necessarily be responding to each members issues, but rather a general discussion of what is being done to address various issues. I am sure they will make some announcement when they are ready. I was glad to hear Mark Gross was going to be involved, I believe he is a straight shooter and will be responsive to the Members requests for more TRANSPARENCY, TRANSPARENCY and TRANSPARENCY. This is something that I feel has been long overdue. I have sent 3 letter to Marty Russell requesting to inspect the "accounting books and records" as provided in the Bylaws, and to date I have just been stonewalled and ignored, which is a violation of his "Duty" as a Member of management.
4. Glen Brush announced Mark Giddings is putting together a plan on the remodeling project that will identify which years and specific buildings will be remodeled with the final year of completion in 2024 or 2025. Glen Brush is the newest member of the Board and I feel he has been a great addition to the Board. It appears he is a person that can make good things happen.
5. Richard Bort has been working with a law firm to revise the Bylaws of the Club to remove many of the references, that are no longer applicable, now that the Developer is no longer involved. He has indicated there has been no changes to the sections discussing what "accounting books and records" the members are entitled to inspect. Hopefully, any Members with a legal background can review those sections to make sure our rights as Members to inspect the Club's 'accounting books and records" has not been limited by these new Bylaws.
6. I spoke at the "open forum" portion of the meeting, which is one of the first orders of business, after the meeting is called to order. Dan Minnis was going to try and forward my questions and attached statements for any of you that are interested. I had questions for Richard Bort, Larry Greenberg, Marty Russell and Mauricio Quezada. I was only allocated 5 minutes to address the Board and Mark Gross announced at the beginning of the meeting the 5 minute rule would be sticky enforced. All I wanted to do with my 5 minutes was to get each of the three Board members to agree to meet with me for 10 minutes during the day to go the questions I had prepared that were primarily based on topics they had listed on their resumes. Richard Bort stated on his resume he was proud to have been actively and effectively involved in multiple leadership roles with the Club, including the Owners' information Guide, Annual Operating Budget, Remodeling program and Budgeting results. I asked him if he would give me his personal assurance he would meet with me during the day to answer my questions. At that point Mark Gross interrupted and advised Mr. Bort not to answer my question. So of course, Mr. Bort did not answer my question. I followed the same procedure with Larry Greenberg and Marty Russell and Mark Gross also advised them not to answer my question.
The last question I had was for all 3 of the above Board Members, who voted to distribute the Owners' Information Guide (OIG) to the Members that reported the "more than $5 million" amount on page 20 of the OIG. All three of them new the more accurate amount was "more than $10 million". I said if the accountant reported a $5 million dollar error on the financial statements the Board would fire the accountant, so why shouldn't the members fire the three of you? My 5 minutes were up so I sat down.
7. At the morning break I passed Richard Bort in the hallway going to the bathroom and ask him if we could meet and go over my questions. His response to me was "I have no obligation to answer your questions." He also indicated he thought some of my questions were unfair. However, he would not agree to meet with me to tell which of my questions he felt were unfair.
8. During the afternoon break I saw Marty Russell and I ask him if we could me and go over my questions. He said he had over 5,000 Member and he could not meet with each one. I told him that may be true but there is only one of them here today to meet with you, and you are here, and not in your office. So I said you are going to run from me? He said yes I am going to run from you.
Marty Russell has no good answer for why he has ignored and stonewalled my 3 written requests for the "accounting books and records" as provided in the Bylaws nor for his dereliction of DUTY, to provide me these documents to inspect.
Marty Russell seem like a very nice man, however it appears he may have violated his Duty of Loyalty to the Club and its members by allowing his Perla 9 villa to be remodeled rather than one of the Buildings 21, 22 or 24 with high amounts of unsold inventory. The question Marty Russell is unwilling to answer is, "Can you explain to the Members how you as a director of the Club, believed remodeling Building 1 and 9 in 2016 and 2017 were in the best interest of the Club and its Members?
9. Mark Gross and Earl Asbury came out after the meeting to meet with me and tell me "your voice has been heard". They indicated I would hear from the Board, but they were not specific on what it was that I would hear. I asked them if it would be something punitive and they said it was not.
However, I am now wondering if it will be something I will not like. I will keep you updated on what I hear. Feel free to call me if you have any questions regarding any of my presentation questions or statements that Dan Minnis was going to try and forward to everyone.
Daniel Minnis
Dan ,Thank you for all your efforts regarding the issues t Club Cascadas , there really is a lot of questions that we as members should have answered , but like talking to a financial adviser we tend to answer yes we understand , when we have now idea what the hell their talking about , we just don,t want to look stupid , this is the same situation , smoke and mirrors ,We receive annual reports , but I doubt if 10 % of the members understand any of the financials !I have worked in the Resort industry for 40 years , starting as a ski instructor in 1970 , and winding up Secutity Mgr . For the Aspen Skiing Co . For 30 yrs .Thanks for your efforts !If I can be of any help in the future , just ask , it,s free of course , that,s what it's worth !Keep the faith !Ben & Mary Dorman
--- dminn...@gmail.com wrote:
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Rob Winter
Thank you for the synopsis and effort to support/represent the Club Cascadas Family of Owners.
Kind Regards,
Rob
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