JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Members of the Ocean Pines Clubs Committee discuss comment cards during a recent meeting at the community yacht club.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Jan. 3, 2019) For more than a year, Ocean Pines Clubs Committee members have debated what to do with comment cards submitted by customers at the yacht and beach clubs.

With a professional management company now overseeing food and beverage operations, they’ve also wondered about their larger purpose.

A year ago, when the association was running the yacht and beach clubs, committee members thought comment cards could help Ocean Pines to do a better job, with customers weighing in on what was working and what could be improved, and the committee breaking down that data.

Now that the Matt Ortt Companies are running the show, however, committee members have wondered how best to contribute to a management already seen as successful.

Committee Chairman Gary Miller said Ortt Companies co-founder Ralph DeAngelus was more than happy to turn over stacks of comment cards received at the yacht club. DeAngelus personally delivered a stack to committee members last spring and committee members had several more large stacks of cards during their last meeting, on Dec. 20.

Miller said most of the comments were, essentially, “good, good, good, good,” while committee member Gerald Horn said of the cards he had reviewed “I haven’t seen anything below a four” out of five.

“The one thing they’re saying is more vegetable entrees and more fresh seafood,” Miller said. “So, they like what’s here, [but are] suggesting some additional things.”

Miller said it would be helpful if committee members could sit down with DeAngelus or Matt Ortt himself.

“What are the plans going forward into next season … what is their viewpoint on how this first season went?” Miller said. “What type of issues have they had that they would need our help to straighten out?

“It would help if we could say … what’s going on? What do you see as problems? What do you want us to do with cards? What do you have planned in advance? Do you have a new menu that’s going to come out? Just little things like that,” he added.

Committee member Cheryl Jacobs said there ought to be a way to get that information “without stepping on anybody’s toes.”

“We’re here to assist in any way,” she said. “What can we do? What would you like us to do?”

“And we’ve said that numerous times, but the impression that we’ve gotten … is the board didn’t really want them interacting with us,” Miller said.

Director Slobodan Trendic, the board liaison to the committee, said the situation is somewhat complicated because recent changes in association resolutions forbid committees from directly interacting with staff.

“Some of the resolutions have changed last year during the time when the acting GM was here. A lot of interaction with staff … for certain committees was removed,” he said. “It was done for different reasons – some were valid [and] others were maybe not so valid. But, these are all the things that we’re dealing with now.”

He added the committee was an advisory body to the board – not to the general manager or the Ortt Companies.

“This is their first year so, obviously, we don’t want to sent mixed messages from different sources,” he said. “I can’t speak for whatever happened in the past … [but] going forward, if you have an idea of how you can make yourself more efficient and more effectively, more valuable to the GM and to Matt Ortt, I think the board would be happy to listen to your ideas.”

Trendic suggested inviting Bailey to the next committee meeting, because the general manager “is responsible for the operations.”

“It’s a question of sequence,” he said.

Trendic added, “If we have any issues with what you’re planning to do, the board will voice their opinion.”

Miller said he would invite Bailey to attend the next committee meeting “and have a discussion on how he’s interacting with the Matt Ortt Company and how we should interact.”

“That way, we can do all that and then report to the board on how everything’s coming together,” Miller said.

The Ocean Pines Clubs Committee is scheduled to meet again on Jan. 17 at 4 p.m. at the yacht club.