Thank you to those who came to the Forum on Monday. I appreciate the frank and open discussion that took place regarding the future directions of our club. The most important things that came out of it, from my perspective, were membership drive, meeting format and structure of club committees. An update from Wally on the Flats was informative too.
Because of the importance of all the discussion that took place it was decided that we not make any formal decisions until we have more members in attendance. It was suggested that on the 19th April, which is the 3rd Monday, we have a meeting as we will not be having one on the 4th Monday as it it ANZAC day. It was thought that we had had so many holidays on Mondays since the beginning of this year.
Please make it top of your priorities to attend the meeting on the 19th April. We will not have a speaker so as to keep within our time limit but do check your bulletin to see duties.
Just a Reminder.
If you are not going to be able to attend a meeting you must let Wally know before lunchtime on the Monday. This is a requirement. Too often Wally has to guess if a member is not attending and this makes a difference to the Auto Lodge for catering purposes. This applies to all members. Also if you have a duty you need to try to find a replacement and ring or message Wally as well as myself as I write up a schedule for the meeting. If everyone follows these guidelines it will make it easy for everyone.
Yours in Rotary
President Sally
Forum Discussion:
Rotary Trust Flats: Wally Garrett Chairman
Wally explained that the Trust Committee had decided to employ a Property Manager (The Rent Shop) to manage the flats.
This will be for a trial period of one year.
The cost to do this will be $350.00/month plus GST.
The Rent Shop will have authority to approve any maintenance requirements(with an invoice being sent to The Trust for payment) up to $300.00/ item but would need approval from the Trust for any higher amount before proceeding.
Wally explained the following reasoning behind the decision:
1.0 The Value of the Flats at $1.5M warrants a professional organisation to manage them.
2.0 A Professional Property Management Company would better handle existing and future tenancy contracts ensuring maximum return on the investment in keeping with the original intentions of providing accommodation for those in need.
3.0 There is a need to ensure The Trust conforms to the new Tenancy Act February 2021. A property management company is better able to handle this.
4.0 . The ability to respond to maintenance and tenancy requirements in a timely and empathetic manner with one point of contact.
5.0 The current commitment by Trust committee members has become increasingly time consuming and difficult to always respond in a timely manner to tenants needs.
6.0 Need to make the management of The Flats more transparent avoiding conflict of interest issues between The Club and Trust given that some Directors sit on both boards.
Concern was expressed that the Club did not regularly hear from the Trust and that the decision could have been more transparently handled with the full agreement of the Club.
There was also a concern that the cost of management would reduce the funds available to the club to meet ongoing financial commitments and therefor require more fundraising.
The counter argument was that the rentals for each unit will be more able to be adjusted in tune with current market rentals and offset the cost. Some tenants had not had a rent review for some time. This would be a Rent Shop responsibility.
Wally explained that garden maintenance would still be a club responsibility. Assistance for this may be possible via the Future Interact Club being established at New Plymouth Boys High.
Meeting Format:
There was considerable discussion about:
That there should be only one guest speaker evening /month moved by Des Friedrich and seconded by Wally Garrett.
Reasoning behind this was to ensure that the club had more time without speakers to regularly discuss and hear reports about all the activities/projects the club was involved in monthly on a transparent basis. It was felt that currently this was being handled in an adhoc and haphazard way because of meeting time constraints. This would give members the opportunity for more buy into being involved and agreement to priorities for club activities/projects/fundraisers etc.
Counter arguments were that fewer speakers would discourage some members from attendance at meetings and that there would be less opportunities to hear from community groups and individuals who were interesting/informative and kept the club in tune with community needs and happenings.
The motion was lost on a show of hands.
An amendment to the motion was also proposed that the meetings should be run on a tighter time table giving the speaker a maximum of half an hour including questions and invited to leave the meeting to allow discussion on club business. This motion lapsed as it was felt that there needed to be more time given over to further discussion on how meetings were run including interaction with guest speakers who could be potential members.
