A River Oaks Update - the Save The Club Fund

Fellow River Oaks Members,

 

Recently I wrote an email suggesting that Michelle not have the checks for the $300 fee written directly to her.  Many of you encouraged her to take the advice, and to that end, late this afternoon, I accompanied Michelle and Todd to Huntington Bank at Rockport where they established the Save The Club Fund.  Rick Joyce, a very helpful banker at Huntington, worked with us to set up a free checking account with no monthly fees for making deposits.  Michelle made an initial deposit of $8,400 and the remaining checks that have been received will be deposited on Monday.  Chuck Simon, the General Partner for River Oaks, will not have access to these funds until we, the members, write him a check from this account.  The account was set up with Todd Ashdown as the Account Manager and Michelle Kuri as the Account Administrator.  Because this account has been set up to accumulate our investment in the future of River Oaks, we only requested deposit slips for the account..., no checks!  When we are successful in soliciting the necessary investment level, which is at least $150 from 800 members by February 2nd, we will present this information to Chuck and ask for his commitment in writing that he will keep the club open until at least September of this year and ask for his verbal commitment that he will sign the 3 year lease extension on April 1st, with the assumption that we will collect the remaining $150 from each of the 800 members.  When all of this is completed, we will obtain a bank check for the payment to the club. 

 

First let me thank all of you who already contributed.  For those of you who have already written checks to Michell Kuri, your checks have been signed over to the 'Save The Club Fund'.  As of this afternoon we had received 187 checks and pledges, and many of you gave your entire $300 as a show of good faith in the club.  For the rest of you, I encourage you, as Midge & I are doing, to open your check books and make a check payable to; 'Save The Club Fund' and drop it off at the front desk of River Oaks as soon as possible.  The deadline for committing the minimum number of 800 members with at least $150 is February 2nd.  The checks will be deposited as they are received.  For anyone who is upset that we are depositing the checks rather than holding them, please consider that having the possibility of at least $120,000 in checks sitting around the club is a rather risky proposition and a poor business practice.  With the Save The Club Fund account, the funds are in a federally insured bank account and receipt and deposit records will be much more accurate.  When the time comes, Todd Ashdown who is now an independent contractor, will authorize the appropriate funds to be transferred.  Michelle will have online access to monitor the account and to track our progress.

 

We made our concerns known..., Michelle & Todd stepped up and did the right thing..., now we need to do our part!  Please remember all of the fun, competition, and friendships that 'our club' has fostered over the years.  Do the right thing..., make your payment to 'Save The Club Fund'.

 

Best Regards,

 

George Swartz

Fellow River Oaks Member