Answer: Nothing it should cost over $14,000,000* to fix !

*Approximate price I was given by the clubhouse management.

Do your homework before it's too late:
		Get yourself a level lie! NOT an uneven one.
Check this out:
	There are approximately 125 memberships for sale [updated to 133 by a member], as of mid-August—a two year backlog, per Elizabeth   This alone tells me the club is not managed for the benefit of the membership as a whole.  Is 15% of the membership moving out of the area?  I doubt it.
	It took “about a year, to sell the last membership before another forty or so people joined the list in anticipation of the new clubhouse assessment,” per Elizabeth.  Is the building more important than the people we’re losing?  While a selfish person or a person with misdirected social ambitions or a shallow set of values, might say, “yes,” I for one don’t agree.  The members are more important to me than the symbols of opulence and consumption that some wish to use to crown the Hill.
	The current membership selling price is $45,000, artificially fixed by the board. What do you think they would sell for on the open market within a reasonable period of time—say, three to six months?  That’s what your membership is really worth and the value of it will only go down, if/when the resolution is passed.  Proof of this is that the value of memberships has declined since the Valley Clubhouse was rebuilt, notwithstanding promises and assurances to the contrary.
	Don't be snookered !!!!   I can’t remember a single time in my sixteen years of membership when any project cost what the board claimed it would cost.  I'm told by someone who's knowledgeable of past "Castlewood construction" projects, who said that "The $14,000,000 could easily become $18,000,000 to $20,000,000." There were "hundreds of thousands of dollars in" overages on the Valley clubhouse.  And, how many times were we sold the pitch and putt revenue as an offset to capital improvements? Then, there are the problems with "irrational exhuberance" on the revenue side (see my fairyland piece).
It is my understanding that the Valley Clubhouse project is not completed.   For one thing, the windows are not tempered with sufficient strength and composition to withstand breakage by a golf ball.  This has already been proven by an errant shot.  As an attorney, I am particularly concerned about the liability potentially associated with a similar incident in the future.  This is particularly true, since it has now been proven that it can happen.  What if a member, a visitor, or an employee is struck by an incoming golf ball, or the attendant broken glass?   What’s our defense?  Will our insurance pay for this level of negligence?
I’ve also been told by numerous individuals that we received a variance to have a smaller parking lot than the governmental agencies require and that #18 green will have to be torn out, replaced with asphalt and the hole extended and rebuilt to accommodate this. I’ve not been able to corroborate this, but have heard, “It’s part of the deal we made to get the variance,” so many times that I’m not ready to dismiss it either.  Is this true?  Have disclosures about this been forthcoming and forthright?  What are the implications?  Why does this rumor persist?
I’ve also been presented with a list of problems associated with the Valley Clubhouse.  Why should we start a new major project before the last one is finished?
I am often told that “We used to have lots of wedding receptions at Castlewood and now we hardly have any.  We have to rebuild the clubhouse to get more wedding revenue.”  How many additional weddings do you think it would take to generate the revenue to support this project for a month, a week, or even a single day?  What are the actual numbers—then and now?   What are the tax implications?  Would we not lose our tax exempt status if we increased our business related revenues?
Every indication is that your dues will continue to rise, whether or not the resolution is passed, as they have every year since I joined in 1989—always for a different, but equally compelling reason.
Has anyone told you, or have you asked, what the current main dining room attendance is on a nightly average?  Half full?  Less?		Didn’t we just rebuild the Hill Course pro shop, the dining room, etc.?
Plenty of new ways to spend your money will be brought up and approved, whether or not you vote for this project!
And whatever you do:
Don't shoot yourself in the foot!

      Don’t trade some fancy architectural drawings on translucent paper, pretty drawings that look remarkably like what we’ve already got for a clubhouse, a lot of soft soaping and glad handing for your good, common sense.  I urge you to vote no on the new clubhouse project, as well as against the Hill snack bar. 

For additional commentary on the proposed Hill snack bar--click here.

    And--whether you vote yes, or no—do vote!  It’s the only way we have to make it clear that the membership, and not a small, elite group of tax-and-spend, fiscally-fast-and-loose (with your money) social wannabees, run the club.  What some people don’t realize is that social prominence does not come from the trappings of wealth that one displays, but who one is and what it is that he or she stands for, things like friendship, comradery, loyalty, hard work (whether on or off the golf course), sensitivity and compassion.

      And what is it that you’ll get in return for your yes vote?  A big, fat assessment is all you can count on.  You won’t even have a clubhouse for a year, or so.

      Thanks for listening.  Now, I’d like to listen to you.  You may follow the following link to a survey regarding the main Hill clubhouse, or email me your views at dan@danoconnor.com .    If you have received this by U.S. mail, kindly return the enclosed postcard.  If it is postpaid, it is part of a scientifically selected sample to determine the overall views of the membership.  If not, I’d still like to hear what you think, although the card will require a stamp.   The source of all replies will remain confidential, unless you indicate otherwise. 

      To be removed from my mailing list for all purposes, type unsubscribe in the subject line of this email and hit the reply button.  To sign up for future mailings by category of interest, go to www.danoconnor.com and follow the “subscribe to mailing link,” or use this:  http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/subscriberprefs.aspx?customerid=54905

     Sincerely, Dan O’Connor