by Jan Ek
As another year comes to a close, I just want to acknowledge the incredible amount of service provided to this community by our volunteer, non-paid Board of Directors. Whether you agree or disagree with them, they devote an enormous amount of time and energy in their allegiance to Sun City and its residents. It has been my pleasure to serve you this past year. As we head into a new year, I would like to give special acknowledgment to Vance Coleman and Craig Brown as you leave the board; thank you gentlemen for your time, your knowledge and your devotion. Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to Sun City; may the holiday season bless you.
Financial Report:
We have ended November 2012 well within our operating and capital budget year-to-date. All divisions have met their net operating budgets excluding golf and food service. Food service has met all their operating objectives, however, the expenses incurred in the remodel and equipment repair/replacement in the café at Lakeview Lanes has created a budget variance in that division. While the golf division has not met all their operating budget objectives this year, they have, in fact, operated $44k better than last year, so overall the financial operation of the golf division has improved considerably.
Bowling Centers:
On January 5th and 6th, 2013, Lakeview Lanes and Bell Lanes will host the Metro Phoenix USBC Senior Open tournament. The tournament is open to all USBC Seniors 50 years of age and older.
Bowling league records must be processed quickly and accurately due to the effects of league standings and bowler’s average score changes. The Bowling Department processes forty-one leagues each week, which includes data processing, award submissions, printing and web uploads. Due to vacations and unforeseen absences, the Bowling Department has begun to train additional employees to process league records. Currently there are three people in the Bowling Department that have the skills required to process league records: the Director of Bowling Operations and the two Bowling Supervisors. League record processing is a critical part of bowling customer service.
Cardholder Services:
Payments made by property owners in outside collections were up in November and totaled $7,446 with payments from 14 property owners. During the month our internal collector processed payments from past due property owners totaling $38,402 and property related transfer fees totaling $124,790. These have both increased slightly from the summer months.
Payments on past due balances in November were the same as last month, continuing to be down approximately 20% from the monthly averages over the past year. October billings went past due at an 8.9% rate, which is which is almost 20% more than average. The rate for September balances going over 60 days past due was down to 4.7%, and is right at the monthly average for the past year. As a result of the lower payment rates in November, past due balances increased almost 2% in the last month. At the end of November, outstanding balances related to property transfers remained unchanged and represent 55% of receivables due and 53% of past due balances.
Property trustee sale notices on Sun City properties went down to 97 at the end of November and the number of bank owned properties increased to 89 properties owned by lenders.
The Preservation and Improvement Fees collected in November were $510,000 and were 55% over budget. Year to date PIF fees are $2,582,075 over budget. Remember that the PIF budget is extremely conservative to assure that there are sufficient funds available for budgeted PIF projects which are required to be greater than $300,000 with a life expectancy of 15 years or greater.
The layouts of the RCSC Member and Privilege Cards have been changed with the most significant feature being the removal of the expiration date from the cards. With the integration of RCSC departments onto the same computer system all RCSC locations have up to the minute information regarding cardholders. As a result, we can streamline our processes to reduce expenses and pave the way for increased online services in the future. In addition, we have already created an online process whereby clubs can validate RCSC Cardholders as being in good standing with RCSC’s Wi-Fi access.
Information Technology:
During November the installation of Wi-Fi services at the remaining RCSC locations were completed, with the exception of the Bell Center. Some additional wiring is needed at this location for services to be fully functional there. This is expected to be operational in the next several weeks.
The RCSC IT team also recently completed the replacement of the telephone system at the Lakeview campus. The new system implementation was completed without downtime and provides improved functionality and integrates Lakeview Center and Lakeview Lanes. During the installation courtesy phones were installed in each office for cardholders to use as needed.
Human Resources:
The past few weeks HR has been involved in coordinating the implementation of RCSC’s new employee benefits program effective January 1, 2013. We have coordinated the enrollment process which includes; assisting in creating a benefits booklet and announcements, benefits and enrollment meetings and processing the enrollment forms to assure that all eligible employees are enrolled and receive their I.D. cards prior to the effective date.
During the past month, we have seen an increase in the number of individuals seeking employment and have dedicated time to processing job applications utilizing Great Plains software for applicant tracking. The system works efficiently. We have a large number of applicants in our active files. Since turnover numbers have been low, our applicant files are full. We use these files in filling open positions when they occur and as a result, found it unnecessary to advertise this year.
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.
Wishing you all a very happy and blessed holiday season!