The CEO discusses HSVPOA third party marketing during the January 15, 2020 Board meeting. Most of this is covered in the pdf below. As her presentation to the Board is easily read in the pdf, I did not transcribe everything. What I did transcribe, was done to the best of my ability.
12Third-Party-Marketing-Services-DiscussionAn important fact to glean from the CEO’s presentation is that the Board will need to make a decision in February, as to whether the POA will engage the services of the Sells Marketing Agency. Mr. Sells was present at the January 15, 2020 Board meeting.
Nalley: “If things are progressing positively, we’ll invite Mr. Sells back at your February meeting, if you make a decision if it looks like we are moving towards that.”
Campagna talks about Discovery Packages and Tellico Village
Campagna: “I’m not sure what the difference at Tellico Village is. It is my understanding they do 600 of these a year. Discovery Packages. And I am not suggesting, get to 600 overnight. But with a ten to fifteen percent growth rate on a 100, you don’t get to 600 for some years; I am going to guess about 20 years.”
Campagna: “But, guess at ten percent growth, it doubled every 7.2 years if my rules of 72 is correct. If we’re now engaging, correct me if I’m wrong – our realtor community, in the methodology which is similar to theirs, shouldn’t we have a higher growth rate than ten to fifteen percent of Discovery Packages?
Nalley: “I don’t…I would hope eventually we would. Tellico Village did not have that in their first years. They are seven years in. So, what I would hope, each year, this marketing plan – this should be updated and revised. Right?”
Nalley: “So, as we are ramping this up and we see that it’s more achievable because of course we want our goals to be smart and we want it to actually be achievable. As we see that we can increase beyond that, we should absolutely increase our goals. What we need – we’re starting from ground zero, though.”
Nalley: “So what we took was a conservative approach to what we believe and likely still a stretch, even for what Tellico Village did in their first couple of years. But we believe we can get there. Maybe not.”
Campagna: “Is there any way we can get the data?”[Untelligible]
Nalley: “We have that. That’s part of what we built this on. That’s part of why we built this trajectory in the way that we did.”
Separation of Marketing agency duties versus in-house
Nalley: “If you look at page six of the Sells Agency contract, it looks like everybody has it…”
Nalley: “So page six summarizes and defines the scope of the third-party service and it does so in specific time allotments and those time allotments, there are these items there:”
Nalley: “They’ll spend time on Discovery Packages and primary brand marketing, market research and strategic guidance, target audience analysis, website design, ongoing support, target audience marketing such as the things we were talking about, about targeting our military members and the golfers, etc.”
Nalley: “And as I mentioned, our very important goal, internally, so that internal marketing is clearly communicating what our amenity offerings are. Clearly communicating dining hours and entertainment and all of the things we are working on, on the Community Calendar and that sort of thing.”
Nalley: “Is there any question about those separations of duties?”
Primary brand marketing
Campagna: “I may be at the wrong time. Without discussing specific numbers in this, I don’t quite understand why such a high percentage of the expense is going to be, it would appear, around marketing Discovery Packages. I was under the impression that much of that would be done now through the methodology of using the 90 realtors through a part of this program. Not spending a whole bunch of advertising dollars or expertise on it.”
Nalley: “I think you’re only picking up on the…notice there is a slash. Right? So it’s Discovery Packages and primary brand marketing.”
Erickson: “So what exactly is ‘primary brand marketing’ for those of us that maybe don’t understand that vernacular?”
Nalley: “Now here’s a good question. Mike, would you like, or Paul, would you like to talk about the ‘primary brand marketing’? You’ll have to do it in a microphone. You can come and grab Buddy’s if you like.”
Paul Sage: “By ‘primary brand’ marketing we mean marketing the entire, come and see the Village, Explore the Village, come to the website, see everything we have…”
Sage: “Versus a specific amenity like golf, pickleball, trails, lakes. If you look at the ads, such as the current ad we have running in ideal-Living, it shows you the portfolio of things we have. So the ‘call to action,’ is to visit Explore the Village dot com, to call the phone number or to look into the Discovery Package. So it is to ‘explore the Village’ as a whole.”
Campagna: “Paul, do you believe that currently we have a good quality of branding?”
Sage: “We certainly have established a look. We have established the focus on the activities that go on here and reasons to live here. But that’s why we are hiring more, proposing to hire an agency is to help us develop that. We’re not saying, ‘change the logo.’ We’re not saying, ‘change the overall message.’ But we have to enhance that and we have to find the people to whom that appeals.”
Campagna: “So to rephrase, part of this is for the Sells Agency to ‘spiff up’ our branding.”
Sage: “You could say that. Certainly it’s not just what we say. It’s where we say it. It’s how we say it. It’s the look. It’s being more strategic in finding where the people who are most likely for that message to appear – where they are. And they are not just in one place and they’re not just looking at one type of media.”
Sells Agency advises to not make assumptions about who your customer is
Nalley: “Now one of the things that I really enjoyed about our visit with the Sells Agency was they talked a lot about, ‘Let’s stop making assumptions about who your customer is. Who your…’ We don’t necessarily know from year-to-year who the golfer is, as a community. We may assume that we know. But there is data and evidence that will tell us that. So if we’re trying to target a specific item, doing some of that analysis and making sure that that branding is specifically focused on who our customer, who’s most likely to buy. You mentioned the cards, the bingo cards and the others. It’s really about who is most likely to actually be our customer. We’re very focused.”
Website design and ongoing support
Erickson: “I have a question with regard to website design and ongoing support. Are we talking, I’m going to describe as both sides of the website – there’s the public side, the promotional side? Then there’s the member resources side. Will they be working on both pieces or just the promotional side?”
Nalley: “So let me be careful to say that obviously with this number of hours, we’re not asking them to completely overhaul our website. Right?”
Nalley: “So as it strategically fits in with the branding or I guess the opposite way to say it is, if there are things on our current website today that contradict our branding – that is our first order of business.”
Nalley: “Obviously a lot on our members’ side, some of the functionality, I am going to say, ‘making a tee time,’ some of those things, those are tied to our Total e database and they will require some expertise by Total e. What we would hope that would happen over time is that we would get those things very aligned so that our conversation with the, or our branding, our communication with the community on the members’ side is equally or as flowing as the visitors’ side is.”
Nalley: “And they’ve made several recommendations. One of the things they most recently helped us with, as one example, is the Realtor Partner Program. That was an immediate need. We needed to get that in order to watch that program. We needed to get those things set up, so actually their agency helped us with that. Does that make sense? I don’t want to characterize it as, ‘there’s now this big – we’re going to see a big transition.’ We’ve already spent, and this is my, you know, we can devote resources as much as you want. We’ve already spent, over the last ten years, hundreds of thousands of dollars on changing our website – tweaking our website. What we want to do now is be very targeted about the pieces we mix. And as it touches the Total e database, no they will not be involved, other than the look and feel.”
Where marketing dollars are being spent
Podawiltz: “The question that I had asked for those – I sent it by email and it was in regards to how does this $84,000 piece relate to the Operating Expense Budget of $395,000.” [$84,000 is the cost of hiring the Sells Agency for one year and $395,000 is the HSVPOA budgeted amount for marketing. This does not include salaries.]
Podawiltz: “And that’s what I am still trying to get my head around and I understand that, I mean the credentials for the Sells Agency are very good. I’ve read through everything and I’ve got all that. I’ve got that down.”
Podawiltz: “But I am still looking at, being a number person, I’m still looking at Operating Expenses and $395,000 and we’re looking at a slice of $84,000 – right now with this contract. So that’s still leaving us $311,000, if you will on Operating Expenses to be, you know, for the budget standpoint. So what we’re looking at for $311,000 then will be additional ad buys, social media…”
Nalley: “And then your basic operating expense. Office expense. Right?”
Podawiltz: “Sure.”
Nalley: “I mean the majority of it is the ad buys. But you have a small piece in there that’s pencils or whatever. You have some materials that you purchased. Liz, you have?”
Podawiltz: “We’ve got the swag that we give out for the Discovery Packages and the trade shows.”
Mathis: “A large chunk of it is actually printing and postage on the Advocate. That is a big chunk of that.”
Podawiltz: “Advocate. Okay.”
Erickson: “So the $395,000 does not include compensation of the two marketing people?”
Podawiltz: “No, that is in the Compensation number.”
Nalley: “In your budget, if you looked at that – yeah, that’s separate. Right?”
Nalley: “That’s the reason why the total budget is…the net operating budget is $636,000 for marketing.”
Podawiltz: “I think as it related to my question the other day, this $84,000 obviously is just a very, very small piece of this operating expense amount. And I see on the contract what we’re asking the Sells Agency – what the Sells Agency is agreeing to do for that $84,000 – the hours spent, per Tormey’s and Cindi’s discussions.”
Podawiltz: “My question was, ‘Will we be using this agency also for further work and will we be seeing that then in terms of further contracts or is that going to be broken down in something other than $50,000 limit?’” [The CEO has a $50,000 limit on spending at one time.]
Nalley: “What I’ve asked Paul to do is that all of the Sells work remain within this contract amount. We don’t want to have any surprises. Now I can’t promise you that we won’t come back and we won’t say, there is this phenomenal opportunity – that we want permission to increase that buy. I don’t know that we’ll do that. And I told Paul, that would be a last resort. But it would be a decision that would come and as far as I am concerned, every dime that we pay the Sells agency is this number right here, unless we come back to you and say that otherwise.”
Podawiltz: “Okay. Don’t you – I don’t – I try to do some research on this because I don’t come to this from a marketing background. But isn’t it typical that when you’re doing advertising, you buy ad packages and you can negotiate discounts and there’s different market pricing and different times run and there’s just a lot of variables that go into that. And that doesn’t seem to me to be part of this contract.”
Nalley: “That’s Paul’s job.”
Podawiltz: “That’s Paul’s job.”
Nalley: “And as a matter of fact, we actually saved, I guess we saved our, no, we didn’t save ourselves, we prevented the additional fifteen percent markup that normally happens when you make an ad buy. [Our previous marketing company received this additional fifteen percent markup.] Usually the agency gets a percentage of that. And as you saw in this contract, that’s not part of our agreement with Sells because Paul is managing those relationships.”
Podawiltz: “Okay, thank you.”
Why HSVPOA chose Sells Agency
Nalley: “So, I just want to acknowledge, I mean we heard the Board; we heard the community; you wanted to see a comprehensive look at our various third-party services. And that’s what we pulled into this contract. We chose a firm who we believed could meet all of those needs in one contract and who understood that we didn’t want to exceed that, unless it was, unless we all came back together and discussed that. So, and that’s the reason also why I love the fact they put in, let me see which page it’s on. Here’s some tracking. Paul do you remember the tracking section of the contract?”
Nalley: “On the first page, number three. Item three. So you notice there, there’s some very specific language that says, you know the client, Hot Springs Village, has to approve if there are any additional services. And it’s Paul’s job to make sure that we don’t get there. We don’t need additional services. We handle it in-house or we do a better job of managing it externally. That’s one of the reasons why…You know in future years, you may see, I am not saying this is the number forever. But this is what we’ve locked down for them for this year. In future years we may need them to produce more photography, more videos, etc. That may be a whole different conversation. But for what we prioritize this year, that’s the number. Right? And we will stay on top of that.”
Nalley: “Mike, did you have a question?”
Medica: “I don’t have a question. But I undertand this firm also is the main marketer for Ozark Bank, which…[this was corrected and it is actually Arvest Bank]. Arvest. Excuse me. So they’re an Arkansas company with a very good background. So I think that’s good for us.”
Nalley: “They have a great reputation and if you looked at their response to the proposal, you’ll see some of those listed in there.”
The CEO asked for the Board’s support at the February Board meeting.
The Sells Agency has indicated that they would like to go to one of the upcoming trade shows and “really learn about what the questions are that people are asking about your community. What your team is saying and just get a good understanding of that.’
Nalley: “When you have a potential partner who says, ‘hey, we stand ready to go and learn and to execute.’ That gives us some confidence. So that’s the next step, should we approve this.”
Nalley: “Between now and your approval and kicking off, we will be working with, just like I mentioned we’re working with Sells. We’ll work with Sells on our webpage updates. The things that we have to do, to get ourselves started, we’re going to continue doing those in very small pieces. But we’re hoping that in February we have your approval and we roll into our agreement.”
Note: We were not able to see any details of the Sells Agency contract so we do not know all the details.
Click here to watch the CEO’s Third-Party-Marketing Presentation
By Cheryl Dowden
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Melinda Noble
01/25/2020 — 12:36 pm
So in a nutshell we will be spending $395,000+ to market Lesley’s and Nikki’s CMP dream.
Gary Puffer
01/25/2020 — 1:40 pm
I would think, in order to market our Village, the amenities we offer would be a cornerstone item in the overall marketing scheme. So, I can assume that there will be lots of photos, videos, etc of our amenities. Here is my concern with that. One of the most popular amenities is the trails in the village. However, some trails are almost impossible to walk-on without careful and mindful stepping. A very well used trail is the Desoto Multipurpose Trail. I walk this trail almost daily with my dogs. In the ten years I’ve been a resident of HSV, I have yet to see any work done on this trail. The trail is badly deteriorated and walkers and bikers are lucky not to twist an ankle on this trail. So, if the trails are to be marketed as one of the most popular amenities, we need to maintain these trails better than we do now or it would be false advertising to a would-be visitors and possibly future residents. This is not to mention the huge liability HSV will incure if, heaven forbid, one of the visitors fall or break an ankle.
Another trail that needs a good makeover is the Way Point Trail from the fishing deck on Carllela road to the Way Point as well as the access trail from the Desoto Center abbutting the Al Jimadore restaurant.
Any Non Moose
01/25/2020 — 2:53 pm
The POA isn’t worried about liability. They have dozens of lawyers on retainer and specialize in lawsuits.
As to marketing the Board needs to set up a separate organization reporting only to them to manage all village marketing. Having a mishmash of different departments, agencies and the like is not, has not and will not work. It could be set up as a nonprofit just like POA but with a charter only of marketing, a separate budget, etc. No connection or reporting to the “ceo”.
Adonna lovehsv
01/25/2020 — 8:52 pm
Help me understand why we need an staff salaryied marketing administrators directors whatever
and we need them to Outsource our marketing to a third party and pay the third party and also pay in-house staff .
I would think you do one or the other.
Appreciate any explanations.
Sounds like redundant duties to me…
It is our MONEY.
Julie
01/26/2020 — 5:33 am
The only reason you would have salaried marketing staff and then feel the need to outsource is if the marketing staff you have is not competent enough to do their job.
Andy Kramek
01/26/2020 — 11:43 am
And yet we are paying the three people (Manager + 2) a total of $228,486 per annum. Pretty decent salaries by any standard even if the split between manager and workers is not clear.
Kirk Denger
01/25/2020 — 8:48 pm
$395,000 is just the tip of the iceberg, last year was over a million and the year before was over a million… all a loss with zero return. All of those wasted marketing dollars should have been invested in our infrastructure, new roof for the Balboa club and paint job, carpeting, broken cart path sections, powerwash the mold off buildings. Take a look around, falling down worse than ragged empty shopping centers… is that what we want the visitors to come here to see for themselves?
Diane Bielanski
01/26/2020 — 4:18 am
I speculate that part of the $395,000 covers advertising media such as Yesterday’s Oaklawn 2020 Official Program for racing. The inside back cover had a full page advertisement about Hot Springs Village. It had three photos identifying three of our most important amenities – golf, pickleball and the walking / running trails picturing the one over the spillway off the Lake Balboa parking lot. It was quite eye catching to the point where the person might think, hey I’d like to learn more and see about this place. They are then invited to phone the number for a Discovery Package. Some of them will drive out to the Village on a race day morning.
As a volunteer at the HSV Area Chamber of Commerce, I have greeted many walk-ins who are in Hot Springs to go to the races over a weekend. They will drive out to the Village on one of the mornings (I see them on Thursdays or Fridays), are directed by the west gate guards to the Chamber, and will receive an introduction by either a Chamber representative or that day’s volunteer realtor. If they have the time, they are invited on an escorted tour by the volunteer realtor. If the realtor is not readily available, the Chamber has alternate contacts / methods to assist the visitor.
Bob Mollerberg
01/26/2020 — 1:17 pm
Diane,
Can you provide any numbers as to how “many walk-ins” from the race crowd you have “greeted”, & how many of them bought property in HSV? Thank You.
Bob Mollerberg
Kirk Denger
01/26/2020 — 7:48 pm
As in North Korea, The visitor is escorted on a tour that carefully allows the visitor to see only the three amenities so skillfully pictured on the inside back cover of the Oaklawn program (only another $1,000 of our $395,000) A thousand here, 295 thousand there, paid vacation for staff at shows out of town promoting declaration changes. Three million later we still must divert their attention away from our neglected Balboa club, Empty DeSoto, Coronado and Cordoba Centers, 18th hole, and closed golf courses. Quite a racket if you can continue to con the Property Owners into paying for it with zero return on their investment.
Tom Blakeman
01/26/2020 — 10:14 am
The smartest and quickest way to get more folks coming to HSV would be to cut the currently ridiculous price of the so-called discovery packages – probably in half. That also means including a round of golf – free – in the base package price.
The idea here is that we want prospective buyers to come here. Give them an offer and enticements so good they cannot refuse. More traffic, more home sales and more new building. Simple business 101.
Back to the golf part, the known and unfortunate fact is that we have way too much golf capacity. What’s it going to hurt to give a free round to a legitimate prospect? Our cost might be for a half gallon of gasoline for the cart. If we can’t afford that to attract “retirees who are golfers” then we might as well roll up the fairways and shut down.
In case anybody cares, I’ve written about this (and many other ideas) before, in my “A New Plan” paper published last summer. Guess how many POA managers or Board Members even acknowledged it . . . . ? Zero. That’s probably because none of them bothered to read it.
For those of you who might now be interested in “A New Plan” it is posted elsewhere on this website or I’d be happy to send you a PDF copy. Just ask: tomblakeman@yahoo.com It’s light reading really, only 42 pages. And it didn’t cost the POA one thin dime either unlike our infamous CMP.
Andy Kramek
01/26/2020 — 10:38 am
Let me see if I understand this correctly. First we hired a Chief Member Experience Officer who has numerous responsibilities that include marketing. Then we created a Marketing Department, with staff. Then we hired Paul Sage as Community Marketing Manager who reports to the CMEO and, presumably, heads up the Marketing Department (or else what is he managing?). The 2020 budget includes line items showing salaries for Community Marketing at $228,486. The same budget shows a full time staff of three, i.e. a Manager plus two (the latter seconded from the golf department). We surely are paying these people well!
The total budgeted expense for the Marketing department is $636,979 including $37,500 in revenue (not quite sure how a Marketing Department generates direct revenue but…). According to the report the marketing budget for operations is $395,000 – so presumably the difference between total budget less salaries ($636,979 – $228,486 = $408,493) and the operations budget ($395,000) is the cost of running the department – which comes out to be $13,493.
By my math that means the true cost of our running our 3-person Marketing Department is actually going to be $241,979 in 2020 (always, again, assuming they actually generate $37,500 in direct new revenue or else the cost increases).
So, in a nutshell, we are proposing to spend almost a quarter of a million dollars to fund 3 people to handle our marketing in 2020. They must be pretty special and really, really, good at what they do.
Ah, but wait, apparently they cannot do it all! We now want to spend $84,000 (21% of the $395,000 “operating budget”) for “80 hours per month” of this third party agency’s time. In all probability, that is, despite the weasel words of the “ceo”, just the beginning. Read the following exchange carefully….
Podawiltz: “My question was, ‘Will we be using this agency also for further work and will we be seeing that then in terms of further contracts or is that going to be broken down in something other than $50,000 limit?’” [The CEO has a $50,000 limit on spending at one time.]
Nalley: “What I’ve asked Paul to do is [to ensure] that all of the Sells work remain within this contract amount. We don’t want to have any surprises. Now I can’t promise you that we won’t come back and we won’t say, there is this phenomenal opportunity – that we want permission to increase that buy. I don’t know that we’ll do that. And I told Paul, that would be a last resort. But it would be a decision that would come and as far as I am concerned, every dime that we pay the Sells agency is this number right here, unless we come back to you and say that otherwise.”
Notice that the “ceo” very carefully did not actually reply to the question! So it leaves open the possibility that any further work by this agency could, indeed, be handled in bundles of $50,000 or less, so that they can be approved directly by the “ceo”, without any further reference to the Board.
I am sorry, but this just feels like more of the same smoke and mirror stuff that the management is peddling. Just what, exactly is this agency going to be doing for us? How will their success be measured, and what recourse do we have if the promised success does not materialize?
Phil Lemler
01/26/2020 — 11:44 am
To your point Tom Blakeman …. how ignorant to develop a program “Discovery Packages” and charge people to come here and visit.
Would you pay a car dealer a fee for a test drive? Why do you think casinos comp rooms and provide free gambling chips? Would you go to a casino that charged you a “cover charge”? How about a restaurant who charges you just to look at their menu?
I believe the Discovery Packages has done more to harm revenues (and HSV’s image) than anything else HSV has done. I mean think about it. We spend hundreds of thousands to interest/inform people about HSV and then charge them to come here. They finally see our ad … respond to it … and then learn we are going to charge them to visit.
Duh!
George
01/26/2020 — 12:16 pm
Tom and Phil,
Just talking about this with others…the excess golf capacity and the need to draw more golfers. They are out there.
Offer free two night stays with 4 round packages. ($200 a night x 100 packages = $40k and I am sure we can do better than $200 a night from our rental partners)
Money well spent when you compare to the plans mentioned above.
Require a realtor visit for an hour.
If golf is not the main interest, hook them up with Pickelball, Tennis, fishing, etc. club contacts.
If they want to add days or rounds, offer a discount; golf lesson, offer a discount.
The publicity and leads this would generate would be equal or better than any consulting plan.
Phil Lemler
01/26/2020 — 12:59 pm
excellent idea George … one of the primary philosophies of “marketing” is that you want it to be “as easy as possible” to try and buy your product.
You NEVER place artificial barriers (Discovery Packages … paid for by the prospective property owner) … in the way of introducing a customer to what you offer!
Companies go out of their way to get coupons (as one example) into prospective customers’ hands. You would NEVER ask the customer to pay for the coupon!
Julie
01/26/2020 — 8:17 pm
I have previously stated and will once again.
None of these people could run a successful business own their own.
Not a one.
Phil Lemler
01/26/2020 — 11:58 am
And, all things being equal … if HSV had spent the same amount of ads dollars (over the past two+ years) and given away a couple of rounds of free golf (to qualified prospects) versus charging them hundreds to visit … I’ll bet HSV revenue would be substantially higher and we would probably have twice the amount of new rooftops (versus what we have now)!
Bob Mollerberg
01/26/2020 — 1:53 pm
Phil,
On 2/12/18 I emailed T. Weiss a “simplified” plan to assist in our marketing effort. It was largely about a “Veteran’s Incentive Plan called VIP. The plan, among other things, suggested ads in Army Times, Marine Corps Times, etc. On 5/23/18 LN graciously followed up wanting to be reminded of my suggestions that T. Weiss indicated that he had forwarded to her. On 5/25/18 LN responded. No action was ever taken but NOW we are finally “working” on this with highly paid professionals. I thought it was a sound plan but, it was apparently dismissed out of hand.
Bob Mollerberg
Phil Lemler
01/26/2020 — 2:13 pm
Bob – your plan and name is on a long list of Villagers (plans) who have offered help to the POA …. only to be dismissed as they did not fit the CEO’s agenda!
Moe
01/26/2020 — 8:15 pm
Not sure they dismissed it. They stole your idea.
Crazies.
Minn Daly
01/26/2020 — 12:46 pm
To all above, thank you for your input. Of course what your suggestions are is common sense of which the CMP committee does NOT make. We all know that the Legacy BOD/CEO love to spend money & hire unneeded staff to make CEO job look so hard. We need to stop the spending until NEW BOD gets elected. The CMP needs to be abolished as well as the governance committee. Quarter million here, half million dollars spent on these unrealistic projects, so far, what do you see? NO RESULTS! Stop this until we get NEW BOD with common sense! Vote. Tucker, Lloyd & Dick. Minn Daly
Julie
01/26/2020 — 8:14 pm
Plus these fools don’t discount the packages for off season times. They clearly don’t have a clue about marketing or much of anything else. The program to date has been an abject failure.
A complete waste.
And even if someone is silly enough to pay us for one of these stays, they will never want to move here once they see the sad, deplorable state of our “amenities “.
Everything they do results in a net loss. Has anyone ever noticed?
Everything.
Without exception.
Ridiculous.
steve bylow
01/26/2020 — 9:23 pm
Sorry but the plan to have the Sell Agency go to a trade show to understand our business and better understand our potential customers does not instill confidence. Having them “get a discount” on advertising also sounds kind of sketchy.
I’m afraid we are missing some basics like “talking to” people who have recently moved to the village, people who moved out, and people who visit. The most common comment I hear is; what’s with the POA leadership and CMP?
Julie
01/27/2020 — 4:49 am
They don’t have a clue. None of them.
Andy Kramek
01/27/2020 — 9:24 am
Exactly. I really want to know what we are getting for the $84,000, how the success will be measured and what guarantee they are offering that they will succeed in their objective. Apparently the detail of the proposal was made available to the board, but has not, as far as I know been made public.
Without that information, how can we know whether this is a good investment or just another case of throwing good money after bad. (Given the record of the “ceo” and her cronies in managing OUR money I know which one I am betting on).
Henry Ewersmann
01/27/2020 — 10:46 am
The product of any POA marketing program is to increase net assessment revenues.
The Preliminary 2019 Net Assessment Revenue is listed at $14,759,744.
There should be just 1 goal or objective for the 2020 Marketing Plan and that is to increase the 2020 Net Assessment Revenue by an equal or greater amount over the cost of the marketing plan.
So for example, if LN wants to spend $500,000 for marketing, the 2020 Net Assessment Revenue should exceed $15,259,744 to cover marketing cost.
The BOD should set up a 2020 Net Assessment Revenue objective for LN. It should be one of the main objectives to judge a CEO’s performance.
Andy Kramek
01/27/2020 — 11:37 am
No, no, no, Henry. That is impossible! If the BoD were to do that it would create an objectively measurable target for the performance of LN and that is totally unacceptable. I mean, what would happen if she should fail to achieve that target? That proposal is totally unthinkable (UNFORTUNATELY).
Of course, this sort of target is precisely what is used in any real business and it more than fulfills the definition of a target – Unambiguous, Realistic, Achievable and Measurable. So LN can breathe easy – there’s absolutely no danger whatsoever of it being applied by this spineless bunch of incompetents (with the notable exception of Diana P) that dares to call itself a BoD.
Lloyd Sherman
01/27/2020 — 6:59 pm
To date, I have seen no plans that adequately define how we are going to increase revenues or specific goals if we did have a goal. All we hear is new rooftops, right after we announce an almost $3K increase in builders cost to get a permit for a new rooftop. Not exactly a move that will have builders beating down our doors to get our volume up to where it could make a difference. Then shortly after that, we start closing down courses and negatively impacting restaurant revenues. Now we circle back around to Discovery Pkgs where we obviously have excess capacity and yet we expect people to pay to come to try us. Many of us have attempted to bring to the POA’s attention that we are overpriced on our Discovery Pkg. Our marketing efforts to date have been shotgun style and not laser-focused. We can’t even decide what kind of a community we are and if it confusing to those of us who live here, what do you think the message prospective property owners are getting? Every time I hear Branding anymore, my body goes into convulsions. We have moved further and further away from the property owners having anything to say about what goes on in our community. Serving on committees has largely become an exercise in futility and we seem to have adopted a philosophy of not utilizing volunteer labor for certain tasks. Then we can talk all day long about the infrastructure that is slowly deteriorating around us. Some areas are becoming an embarrassment when attempting to give a tour. As was suggested by someone earlier, we need a board-level Marketing Committee that reports to the board and not to the position that should be also laser-focused on taking care of what we have. There is so much talent within this Village that is frustrated because they aren’t being given a chance to use the skills they spent a lifetime perfecting. One of the key traits of a leader is to surround themselves with the best. There is no I in TEAM and it will take a TEAM of talent to solve a growing list of issues. This really isn’t rocket science but we sure seem bent on making it look like it is.
Julie
01/27/2020 — 7:16 pm
Right on the money. Speaking of which – we are broke and are losing money every single day all year. Why are they throwing more money at this company to market for us when the company doesn’t even have a feel for HSV and needs to go to some event to learn more?
What a sad, sad joke.
Andy Kramek
01/28/2020 — 9:05 am
Lloyd you are correct about both the depth of talent within the community and the reluctance to make use of it. That reluctance must be laid squarely at the door of “ceo”.
She is clearly not interested in surrounding herself with the best. What she seems to want is only those who, first, will slavishly obey her every whim and second, ignore anything that conflicts with the first.
It is very sad to see people, who clearly wish to do things the right way, being forced into silence and subservience for fear of retalitation from this “ceo”. On the other hand, it must be said that she does reward her acolytes handsomely, (with our money of course).