By Jan Ek
Financial Report:
Overall we have operated through April 30, 2013 well within our operating and capital budgets year-to-date. All divisions, excluding golf, have positive variances from budget and golf made an overall improvement in its bottom line in April, decreasing the negative variance from budget to $115,310 year-to-date.
Bowling Centers:
Last week a Brunswick software upgrade was completed at Bell Lanes and Lakeview Lanes. The software upgrade included hardware to bring both centers into compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards. PCI compliance is necessary to ensure that all credit card data is transmitted securely. The cost of the project was approximately $23k.
New bowling pins have been delivered to both bowling centers as the pins currently in use have reached the end of their life. The pins will be stored for six to eight weeks in order to acclimate to our environment before installation, which is scheduled for late July 2013. The cost of the bowling pins was approximately $13k and the vendor was Brunswick Corporation.
Cardholder Services:
Payments made by property owners in outside collections totaled just $5,436 for April with payments from 16 property owners. For the two months ending in April our new outside collection agency has collected 24% of the referred balances, or $6,411.
The payments on past due assessments in April were consistent with last month but still 13% below the monthly average. March billings went past due at the rate of 6.1%, up from last month, but reflect a higher amount due to increased March billings. February balances went over 60 days past due at the average rate of 3.5% which is the lowest rate since April 2012. At the end of April, outstanding balances related to property transfers increased by 2.5% and now represent half of all receivables due.
Trustee sale notices on Sun City properties went down to 62 for the end of April. The number of properties owned by lending institutions increased slightly to 88 this month. While these continue to be lower than last year we are seeing foreclosed properties turned over by lenders at a higher rate this year. Often properties are sold by the lender before we have notification of the sale.
The Preservation and Improvement Fees collected in April were $778,368 with the resale activity being high the first four months of the year. Year to date PIF fees are $2,404,368.
Human Resources:
The manager/supervisory training session on Lawful Interviewing and Selection presented in April was very well received and the participants are now making standardized changes in the procedures and processes. While the former worked well, we believe the adjustments being made are an enhancement. Better interviewers make better selections.
Currently our staff includes 274 employees with 68 being full-time and 206 part-time. Two hundred are residents of Sun City comprising 73% of staff. The remaining 74 individuals are from the surrounding areas with the next largest number, 20, residing in the city of Peoria.
Events & Entertainment:
The Farmer’s Market, which was a great success, is done for the summer and will resume again in the fall on October 17.
Come join us on Thursday, July 4 for the 35th Annual Ringing of the Bell Ceremony at 9:30am in Social Halls 1 & 2 (chairs provided). A special dedication to Ray Mills, the former “Uncle Sam” for 18 years will be presented. Then follow us to the Bell bowling center where we will have an afternoon (11am-3pm) indoor picnic with food, beer, free bowling, shuffleboard, billiards, dancing, games, prizes and just plain fun!
We have three summer events scheduled at the Sundial. Sunday, June 16 at 7:00pm, Come Back Buddy, a rock-n-roll band inspired by the legendary “Buddy Holly and the Crickets.” Wyatt Earp is set for Sunday, July 21 at 7:00pm. This is “The Story Hollywood Didn’t Tell!” by Wyatt Earp’s great-grand nephew also named Wyatt Earp. Finally, the infamous Ice Cream Social, Sunday, August 25 at 7:00pm featuring the wonderful performance of Mark Baker.
Sun Bowl shows will resume September 29 at 7:00pm with the Nashville Road show.
General:
For those who may not be aware, the monthly management reports are available on our website www.sunaz.com under the corporate tab. Also, if you have not done so already, please sign up on the RCSC email list where you can designate topics of interest and stay in the loop with RCSC news alert emails! We have forms available at the table in the back so you can sign up before you leave today.
