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Dear Members,You may recall Club management chose not to increase dues at the beginning of the year. Although we had hoped to begin the Clubhouse remodel by now, delays in the planning and permitting process have pushed our start date back. Given summer is now upon us, we felt it would be best to begin the disruptive process of construction after summer and begin this during the 4th quarter. As a result, we will also install our new Clubhouse interior furniture package to coincide with the date of the reopening of the renovated bar/grill. With this in mind, we have decided to increase our 2018 annual dues by 4%. The full calendar year dues increase will be reflected on your June 30th monthly statement. The Club continues to seek your help in completing our membership by selling out of each category with the goal of having a wait list to join and please know how much we appreciate each and every referral. You continue to be our best source for prospective membership and real estate sales. As each new Member joins, each has a desire for both a golf locker and a wine locker. And like most golf clubs, there aren’t enough lockers for all Members so “waitlists” were created and to date, they have been quite lengthy. Several new Members have commented that they have noticed many golf and wine lockers aren’t being utilized (or perhaps just partially utilized) and they have offered to pay monthly fees for immediate access. This is new territory for Mayacama and it has pushed us to think in ways that we simply weren’t willing to consider in the past. The question is should we be charging for lockers now and allow the economics of supply and demand to take over? It is something we have been considering for the last few years. As you are all most likely aware, the unemployment rate in Sonoma County is the lowest it has been in over 18 years at only 2.8%. The state of California is at 4.3% and the entire country is at 4.1%. While this is seemingly good news, it has made for a difficult operating environment in hospitality-centric wine country. Wineries and local hotels rely on the local workforce to deliver on the experiences you have all come to know us by. We are all competing with one another for staff Members who can consistently deliver “VIP-like” services and Mayacama has been forced to increase wages in just about every department in order to attract and retain better staff. No doubt many of you have seen several new employees here in the last 24 months, especially in the spa and restaurant. Two more hotels are opening in Healdsburg this summer and two more are on the way soon, thus making things even more challenging. Sadly, the Tubbs fire has chased some of the workforce out of the county. And finally, the lack of affordable housing in the area has really made it difficult to retain solid staff Members. All of these factors combined together have simply increased the cost of labor at Mayacama. So at this time, we have decided it is time to begin charging monthly fees for both golf and wine lockers. The laws of economics suggest those who are not using their lockers, will not pay for them and those who are willing to pay, will use them. The fees earned will help offset the increasing cost of labor at the Club. Effective August 1, 2018, the Club will begin charging $10/per month for golf lockers and as you know, golf lockers are shared and we unfortunately do not have enough to allow Members an option to rent a full locker. Please be advised “shoe care” by Locker Room Manager, Rick Pool and his staff will continue to be offered on a complementary basis. Also, effective August 1, 2018, the Club will begin charging $30/per month for wine lockers. If you no longer want to use the locker(s) and prefer to avoid the monthly fee, simply email the Club’s General Manager, Greg Brown at [email protected] and notify him before July 31, 2018. Otherwise, charges will be reflected on your July statement. It is our continuous goal to offer great service and experiences at what we believe to be one of the greatest golf and private clubs in existence. This all happens through the hard work of the familiar (and sometimes not so familiar!) faces of the operating team that you have developed relationships with over the years. We realize this is a change in how we operate, however these fees will be used to offset the dramatically rising cost of labor in Sonoma County. Our hope is with your support we will continue to build upon the legacy of what has become Mayacama. The Club has created a truly unique wine program and takes pride in holding one of the best wine collections in the club world; we have incurred the cost of a retail liquor license (in addition to our separate “serving” liquor license which is certainly unique to private clubs), we have a wine cave cooled 24 hours a day and a dedicated team who handles shipping and storage logistics, etc…all at the best price in the marketplace. Currently, we have what most people are saying are “the best greens in the state of California”, we’ll have four new 4 bedroom villas completed within the next few months and will begin the clubhouse renovation and introduce the new furniture package late this year! We’re proud of what is happening here and hope you are too! Thank you very much and please come visit the Club soon! |
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