Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Keep it Simple, Retain the Crystal Experience, Think Green




The second clubhouse input meeting resulted in a good discussion and some solid direction for the board. Attending were Carl & Billie Hays, Eric Benne, Ron Ferguson, Mike & Christy Schmidt, Gretchen Delaney, Craig Smith, Mike Jackson and Jim and Melodee Walker. All that attended participated fully in the discussion and added meaningful comments.

The big ideas coming out of the meeting were (1) keep it simple (2) retain the Crystal experience and (3) Think Green. Its great to have some guiding principles and these are excellent.

Gretchen Delaney got us started with her observation that as Dylan sorta said, the times have changed. 30 years ago, club parties were in vogue; not just at Crystal Lake but in society in general. Christy added that we are more of a cocoon society now; we like spending time at home and those homes take up much of the functions of clubhouses of old. Dave Riley pointed out that club parties have been averaging less than 50 attendees for many years now; Dave wants to size the facility to handle club needs which means seating 50-60 for dinner with the provision to shoehorn in say 20 more. Craig Smith added that he and his wife have hosted numerous private parties and a room of this size would fit their needs. We discussed the possibility of members wanting to host parties for their businesses. We agreed with the point made at the first meeting that today's firms have grown and for the most part their needs are beyond the space we at Crystal could accommodate. Mike Schmidt made the point that his company has meetings of about 20 for which the clubhouse as we've discussed would be an excellent location.

We moved on to discussing the kitchen and quickly came to agreement that a catering kitchen with plenty of counter space along with refrigeration, cleanup facilities and a simple stove and over are what we need. Mike Jackson said that this type of kitchen would be at the low end of the cost range. Dave Riley made the point that we needed to incorporate buffet serving and we were able to move on to a discussion of outdoor space.

The clubhouse plan calls for a fairly large 3-season room on the north end. Mike Jackson explained that the difference between 3-season and 4-season may be mostly in the name and less in the cost. Dave & Linda Riley stated the most used room in a Midwestern house could be the screened in porch. It brings the outside in while leaving the bugs out. Mike agreed that going to a screened in porch would cut costs, but there would still be a roof and the ongoing maintenance costs of screens. We discussed briefly the possibility of going to just a large deck, but those pesky bugs kept coming up. Carl and Billie pointed out that we could screen in the lower level, i.e. the pavilion that will be created under the elevated north end of the clubhouse. This would provide the functionality of the screened in porch without the need for a roof and with better access for the picnickers. A good suggestion and one worth considering.
Carl made the final point of the evening and it was a good one. He would like the club to incorporate green technology in the new clubhouse. He feels this is in keeping with our tradition and given the low level of usage, a solar system might pick up a good share of the future electric costs. Jim Walker added that green could also mean a reflective roof. There was general agreement that spending more upfront could reduce ongoing operating costs and we should seriously look at these options.
Thanks all in attendance. Your ideas and input were valuable. In one hour we accomplished a lot.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

March 4 member input meeting

Thanks to those members attending the first input meeting - Jeff Walter, Ron & Cheryl Lee, Gregg & Pam Calderwood, Tom Swiler, Lynn Crabtree, Charles E Walsh, Willie Peugh, Melodee Walker, Jay Johnson and winning the farthest away award, Paul Von Tersch.

This energetic group talked over the issues of sizing, type of kitchen, and how we should handle the steward's quarters. Pam Calderwood had a succint comment on sizing - "we should build a facility that meets the needs of the membership events". Jeff Pence added that this means a dining facility that would accomodate the President's party, the Christmas party, the annual meeting and the wild game feed. Paul Von Tersch and Jay tossed around the idea of seating somewhere between 1 and 1.5 times the membership (75-110). Tom Swiler spoke up for the need to seat potentially all the members and their spouses or 150. Ron and Sheryl Lee echoed the idea of building to fit our club party needs. Their view was that we need not build to accomodate large parties as many other facilities now exist to meet these needs.

The consensus on the kitchen was that we need to talk to caterers and find out what type of facility would meet their needs. There was no support for having a kitchen capable of preparing onsite meals. Charlie pointed out that he caters company parties at his farm for 150. Paul said that caterers prepare meals offsite and only need lots of electrical outlets at the facility. Lynn said we shouldn't overbuild the kitchen. He pointed out that restaurants are among the hardest hit business in any economic downturn and there should be plenty of good used equipment available.

The high point of the meeting was Jay Johnson volunteering to design the kitchen! This offer was immediately accepted.

The final discussion item was the need to build steward quarters. Altho there were calls at the annual meeting for immediately getting the steward housed on site for security reasons, those in attendance questioned whether this is really this really represents the majority view. I'll post a summary of the factors and solicit your input in a separate post.

Next meeting is 7PM at the Center for Business, room 111, 610 N 4th on Tuesday March 9. Hope to see you there.

Friday, February 19, 2010

We're looking for your input

The board is committed to getting the new clubhouse built, but we need your input. We need to know how the membership will use a new clubhouse and whats of value to them. We are going to hold a few small group meetings in early March to allow members and their spouse to help us answer questions such as "what size of parties would you like the clubhouse to accomodate?", "what season", "what type of party". Your input will help us to right size the new clubhouse. We are also looking for your input on the type of kitchen we should be looking at. Do you want a kitchen capable of cooking for your parties or would you instead be catering the meal? Do your party plans include cooking parties where the kitchen would be the focus? As we all know, kitchens make up a big part of the cost of a house. We want to build the kitchen that will be of value to you.
I don't mean to restrict your input to the above questions. We really want to hear what you want in the clubhouse and all input is welcomed.
As mentioned earlier you'll soon be getting an invite to a small group discussion meeting and we hope you and your spouse will be able to attend one of the meetings. We'll pay attention to what you have to say.
If you'd like to join in a virtual meeting you can post your comments right here. Just clik on the comments link below. If you don't already have a Google account you'll have to create one. Its quick and easy. I hope you'll comment this way, but if you prefer you can use the following form.








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Tell us about how you would use a new clubhouse.
What type of kitchen would fit your needs
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Monday, February 15, 2010

The base layout

The is the base layout the board is currently working from. I know it looks small here, but if you click on the drawing it will load in another window and be much easier to view.

The proposed steward's quarters are on the south end at the bottom of this drawing. The north end is a 3 season porch. rough dimensions of the finished space excluding the steward's quarters and the porch are 40' x 70' or 2,800 sq ft. The approximate sizes of the various rooms are:

  1. Dining Hall 1,400
  2. Kitchen 310
  3. Bathrooms 275
  4. Lounge 275
  5. Foyer 100