(Oct. 27, 2016) September was another good financial month, according to Ocean Pines Association Controller Art Carmine, who briefed the budget and finance committee on that month’s financial report last Wednesday.
Overall, he said the association was about $30,000 lower than budget, bringing the year-to-date variance to about $12,000 off estimates.
“Variances have been relatively minor – $12,000 in five months isn’t bad,” Carmine said. “No need to panic at this point.”
He highlighted revenues at several departments that had a more than $5,000 variance from the budget, which included golf, off $26,141, the beach club, off $14,134, and the yacht club, which was $36,720 lower than estimates.
In what has become something of a trend during recent committee meetings, the majority of the discussion focused on the yacht club, where Carmine said costs were down, but not enough to offset the dip in revenue.
Banquet bookings were notably slow, and Carmine said the abandoned food truck accounted for “probably about $75,000” of the $179,413 variance between year-to-date net operating and what was budgeted.
The reasons? “I guess there’s a lot of theories around,” Carmine said. “We really need to talk to the manager and see what trends that he’s seen over the year. Obviously, Friday and Saturday nights are popular – and Sunday brunch – but that’s only three out of seven days.”
Carmine said a large number of people in Ocean Pines that have disposable income traditionally go south for the winter, a circumstance that makes improving the club’s offseason fortunes unlikely. During football season, the club is open Monday nights, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and open again for portions of Thursday through Sunday.
He joked that several committees were looking into the problem and sending the board “emails, smoke signals” and dropping “flyers from airplanes.”
“The question gets to be do you want [the club] open for members that want to go or do you not?” Carmine said. “We’ve been struggling during the summer, which is alarming to me.”
“If the summer’s this bad this year, it’s never been enough to offset the non-summer time, historically,” committee member John O’Connor said. “It doesn’t foretell anything very nice for the rest of the budgeted year.”
Carmine said stiff competition from other restaurants in Ocean Pines – not to mention Ocean City – were obviously hurting the club.
“Therein lies part of the solution is – you’ve got to be more competitive,” O’Connor said, adding that both quality and service were still concerns.
Overall, he said the association was about $30,000 lower than budget, bringing the year-to-date variance to about $12,000 off estimates.
“Variances have been relatively minor – $12,000 in five months isn’t bad,” Carmine said. “No need to panic at this point.”
He highlighted revenues at several departments that had a more than $5,000 variance from the budget, which included golf, off $26,141, the beach club, off $14,134, and the yacht club, which was $36,720 lower than estimates.
In what has become something of a trend during recent committee meetings, the majority of the discussion focused on the yacht club, where Carmine said costs were down, but not enough to offset the dip in revenue.
Banquet bookings were notably slow, and Carmine said the abandoned food truck accounted for “probably about $75,000” of the $179,413 variance between year-to-date net operating and what was budgeted.
The reasons? “I guess there’s a lot of theories around,” Carmine said. “We really need to talk to the manager and see what trends that he’s seen over the year. Obviously, Friday and Saturday nights are popular – and Sunday brunch – but that’s only three out of seven days.”
Carmine said a large number of people in Ocean Pines that have disposable income traditionally go south for the winter, a circumstance that makes improving the club’s offseason fortunes unlikely. During football season, the club is open Monday nights, closed Tuesday and Wednesday, and open again for portions of Thursday through Sunday.
He joked that several committees were looking into the problem and sending the board “emails, smoke signals” and dropping “flyers from airplanes.”
“The question gets to be do you want [the club] open for members that want to go or do you not?” Carmine said. “We’ve been struggling during the summer, which is alarming to me.”
“If the summer’s this bad this year, it’s never been enough to offset the non-summer time, historically,” committee member John O’Connor said. “It doesn’t foretell anything very nice for the rest of the budgeted year.”
Carmine said stiff competition from other restaurants in Ocean Pines – not to mention Ocean City – were obviously hurting the club.
“Therein lies part of the solution is – you’ve got to be more competitive,” O’Connor said, adding that both quality and service were still concerns.