CYC Home
By Remmert Wolters
CYC Treasurer
Throughout the history of our yacht club, our membership has been enormously generous in their donations on behalf of capital projects. So successful, in fact, that the distinction, between capital and operational expenses had a tendency to fade and capital monies were being used to fund day-to-day operations for the yacht club. Last year, the rubber hit the road and the capital funds had been reduced to a point where they could no longer be relied upon to fund operational losses.
Last fall, the board made a commitment that CYC, from an operations standpoint, had to stand on its own feet and this meant that some very painful decisions had to be made. Every operational expense line item was reviewed, and opportunities for savings were investigated. The Leschi clubhouse already was a financially very difficult situation, and, when the landlord wanted a 30 percent increase in lease payments, there was absolutely no way that the financial structure of the yacht club could support it. In addition, an increase in dues was implemented as was a small increase in race fees. A detailed monthly and yearly budget was developed, and the income and expenditures are being closely tracked and reviewed at our monthly board meetings.
We are happy to report that our hard work in developing that budget has paid off and that, with very few exceptions, the forecast very closely tracks the actual activity for each of the approximate one hundred general ledger accounts.
With the recession looming last year, we anticipated that we would lose some members who could no longer justify owning a boat or paying the expense of participating in some of the race programs that we offer. Our dues income projection is therefore below budget but not by as much as it could have been. Racing income is slightly above budget and so is bar/food income. It has been a reasonable year, in terms of race equipment and club house rentals, and this has resulted in our overall income being slightly above budget.
The effort to track and control our cost structure has paid off. In spite of the fact that our insurance costs were up, our overall clubhouse expenses are below budget as are the maintenance costs for our race equipment. We did not increase pay rates for any of our employees and we are very grateful that they understand the budget dilemma that the yacht club was facing. Compared to previous years, the big expense savings are generated by the unfortunate loss of the Leschi club house and the bar/food losses suffered there. Overall, our expenses are therefore slightly below budget.
We are at the time of the year where we have secured the vast majority of our yearly income and we still have six months of expenses left. It is therefore way too early to declare victory but, to date, the budget has been a very good indicator of both income and expenses, and I would therefore like to suggest that we can hopefully avoid any major surprises between now and December. The budget calls for a very modest surplus at the end of the year and it is targeted to go back to replenishing our capital fund, which has been raided to fund the operations shortfalls in previous years.
In the months ahead, we will be working on a budget for 2010, and, since our current budget has proven to be a very good indicator, we are confident that we can do as good a job as we did in late 2008 with the current budget.
We realize that this is a very difficult financial year for many of our members. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of stopping and starting operations at will, and we therefore have to muddle through until better times return. In addition we need to constantly review our business model for viability. Other yacht clubs are not necessarily a good reference. Many are more social in nature and rely on volunteers to do much of the work. We distinguish ourselves by offering a very high quality racing program, and our professional paid staff makes that possible. Our cost structure is therefore higher than other yacht clubs, and the fact that we do not own any real estate in the Leschi area handicaps us in providing a suitable yacht club space at that location, but we will continue to investigate our options there.
We appreciate the support that our membership provides and hope that you are having as much fun on the water as we are. Should you have any specifics on the subject of club finances, please address them to the club manager. He will either address them directly or forward them to me to respond.