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

My take on River Oaks

Hello all,

 

River Oaks has meant so much to Cathy and I over the past ten years.  To even think that the club might be closing makes me sick.  Who would have known that attempting to swing a tennis racquet correctly (still have not quite figured that out), would lead us into a world of wonderful new friends.

 

Over the years we have been members at multiple clubs.  Some new and high tech, but lacking in thought when it came to the tennis program.  Some had a good tennis, but lacked any amenities.  River Oaks has it all.

 

Sure, the club may be a little dingy around the edges, but what club do you know that has so many wonderful homemade planters?  The truth is, R.O. has a wonderful homey feel...at least to me.

 

Those of you that have played USTA know that our club does things that other clubs do not.  Paying for team fees up front...even to the point of paying expenses for teams involved in the playoffs. 

 

Heck, most of the people I know, including myself, have swiped at least $300 of free court time after PCT or drill (except when Doreen was working..lol).

 

I could go on and on....

 

Your dog is at the door...go wipe off his feet with your stolen River Oaks towel...then grab your checkbook and take a chance :)

 

Tell your friends...Love you all!!

 

Tony White

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

More from George Swartz

Hey Team, First, my primary goal is to ensure that we get the opportunity to be a team together this season. To that end, I wanted to let you all know that I am sending in the $300 to help River Oaks keep operating through the 2008 season, and hopefully beyond. I have done some research and there are cheaper alternatives out there, but none that can guarantee that we would be able get permanent court times, have our own USTA teams, or even have teams that we could join. I, like many of you, am a River Run Refugee and I am not in a hurry to go through this all over again if there is a possibility that we can avoid it. The closest alternatve to River Oaks, Five Seasons, is $110/mo. individual membership and $160/mo. for a family..., thats $1320 to $1920 annually and that's just to get in the door. Our River Oaks memberships will go up, but not that much. Also, if we go off to another club and join an existing USTA team, we will likely be the 14th, 15th, or 16th player on a team of guys that we don't know. It has taken 7-8 years, and in many cases much longer, for us all to become friends, teammates, and members of Petit's Posse Tuesday Night Tennis & Drinking Club! How would it take us to recreate this somewhere else (and who nows if we could)? I look forward to playing with many of you on the PCT and on the 3.5 team and I would hate to see this all disappear without a fight. I am cracking open my wallet and encourage and urge all of you guys to do the same..., $300 is a small price to pay to preserve our fun, recreation, and fellowship (drinking). It is easy to be mad at the management and the owners, and the whole situation, but at the end of the day, the important thing is that we all get to keep our teams and permanent court times and friends, in an environment that we have come to enjoy..., let's keep it going as long as we can!! Please join me..., send in your check Your Friend, George Swartz

From George Swartz

Dear Friends of River Oaks, I wanted to bring an urgently important issue to all of your attention in a more direct manner than the blog. I was up at the club tonight for my Tuesday night PCT, and following play I was stumping like a New Hampshire Primary candidate to encourage as many people as I could to commit to the $300 to keep the club going. An issue that was raised by about a dozen individuals was a nervousness about making checks out to Michelle Kuri rather than to an account or fund set up specificaaly for these funds. I had the same concerns which I talked over with Todd on Monday and with Michelle today. I explained to Michelle that people might be somewhat hesitant to write out the check to an individual. I also explained that she should not be taking on the personal risk and potential liability of having over $200k in checks written to her, even if she does just sign them over to the club. I suggested that she, on behalf of the club, open a new Bank Account specifically for these funds, to be administerd by a 3rd party such as a bank official. This would make good business sense and would remove Michelle from any risk or potential liability. Both Todd and Michelle thought this was a good idea, but I'm not sure that Michelle will take the initiative to get this done without some additional prompting and support from all of you. To that end, I would ask each and every one of you on this distribution list to call, email, or fax Michelle to encourage her to open this account. I am going to follow up with her on Friday afternoon and it would be very helpful if many of you had made contact with her between now and then. I am then going to offer to help her get this set-up so that the money goes into an account which is administered by the bank or a suitable 3rd party, not her or Chuck Simon. With these assurances and steps in place, I have a feeling that we will have a much better chance of raising the money necessary to at least keep the club open through the 2008 USTA season, and hopefully beyond. Your Fellow River Oaks Member, George Swartz

Rest In Peace River Oaks?

In today's Plain Dealer, Business Section, there's an article about River Oaks and it's financial troubles which it blames on the opening of municipal fitness centers in Rocky River and Westlake. Each member of the club received a letter asking them to contribute $300.00 to keep the club open at least until next September. If they don't get enough members to contribute the club will close on February 2nd.

The letter raises as many questions as it answers. It seems strange that the checks are to be made out to Michell. The club has stopped taking charges at the front desk. Why don't they want to put any money into the River Oaks account? After over 20 years of business and the amount of cash flow that has transpired one would assume that there would be a good relationship with a bank or two. Many other questions could be asked about this situation but remember that this is a privately owned club and all of their financial information is private and need not be shared. However, having been in business myself for over thirty years I would make the following analogy. It's like I got a unexpected large credit card bill from my wife's Christmas spending and I went back to my customers and asked them if they would mind paying more for the work I did after they paid their bills because I needed more money for my personal bills. Folks, this is not how you run a business.

In the opinion of this observer, the only viable solution is for new ownership with the ability to negotiate a new long term land lease and the willingness to spend major money on renovations. This blighted building is probably worth less that $10.00 per square foot now considering the liability of the necessary repairs to roofs and insulation. At 150,000 square feet that would be a value of less that 1.5 million, and maybe that's high. The value of the land is blighted too if the club should close. Redevelopment would require it's demolition....although they may make out because the price of scrap steel is up.

All in all it's a sad time for the River Oaks community. Yes we are like a family and there and many friendships and romances have blossomed here. We need a knight in shining armor to rescue us. The band-aid approach that has been proposed seems doomed to failure. Yes, I will contribute my share as part of the family but lets get real. If you (the club) wants our help, lets have some openness and some sort of membership meeting to present the real facts. Stop hiding behind Michell. There are some of you owners who have had many years of profit sharing. Will the real owners or River Oaks please stand up?

More to come......Please leave your comments....