October 22, 2014

Board Meeting Minutes – October 22, 2014

Bayport Marina Association
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Marina Clubhouse
October 22nd, 2014

Board Present:
Brad Baune
Morgan Fudge
Val Fuller
Eric Pederson
Dave Peterka
Amy Tolbert
Keith Vinje

Absent:
Sandor Csallany
Steve Paquette

Meeting called to order at 6:29pm by Commodore Brad Baune.
Confirmed a quorum was in attendance forapproval of business items.

Approval of the April Minutes.
Amy Tolbert had some grammar changes and an addition to the HR process which she had previously provided. Noting these changes, a motion by was made by Morgan Fudge to approve the September 24, 2014 Meeting Minutes,bseconded by Val Fuller.
Unanimous approval of Minutes.

September YTD Financials 
September Financials

Highlights:

• Not all the winter storage has been billed out yet, so we will have additional revenue   come in during October.
• Real Estate Taxes were budgeted for October, but paid on September 30^th, so we will get caught up in the month of October.
• Service-Parts were up in income; therefore, they were also up on the expense side.

Not all the winter storage has been billed out yet, so we will have additional revenue come in during October.

Real Estate Taxes were budgeted for October, but paid on September 30^th, so we will get caught up in the month of October.

Service-Parts were up in income; therefore, they were also up on the expense side.

September YTD Financials

Highlights:
Compared to last year we are up 6% in service and 16% overall.

Marina Operations
Cliff Lewis discussed that Kori and Tavia are working diligently on contracts for people renewing their slips for next year and boaters that are winter storing at Bayport. We already have a high rate of interest for slip rental in 2015. As of today, 130 boats have been hauled out of the water.

Cliff is currently working on getting the staff performance appraisals ready. At this point, we have more jobs than staff and working on prioritizing the work load.

Potential New Hire
Cliff is proposing that we hire Al Jahnsen who has been working for BMA on a contract basis for a year now. He started helping with haul-out, power washing and the blocking of boats at this time last year and then transitioned to the BMRP and has worked closely with Scott Nielsen. To hire him with the added benefits that BMA would provide, it would increase our cost by 30%. It would also alleviate the possibility of losing him and bring his pay more in-line with the other employees doing the same jobs. After the BMRP project is done and we have caught up on deferred maintenance, we could possibly transition him into a parts or woodworking position. At this time, Al is being paid $11 per hour from the temp agency and we pay the temp agency $15.95 per hour for his services. If we were to hire Al, Cliff is proposing a salary of $15 plus the benefits package.

Keith Vinje suggested seeing the budget with his payroll included and a timeline of expected projects that Al would be a part of over the next 4+ years. Amy Tolbert noted that anyone we hire should bring in 1.5 times their wage.

At this time the board is suggesting a mapping and evaluation of all staff and five year project map for them to reach a consensus about hiring him.

Oil Burner
The oil burner is up and running in the shop. It did take more work than expected as more electrical was needed and all the lines needed to be replaced due to their age. It was approximately $200-300 in additional materials and labor by Scott N.

Fuel Pricing
Cliff explained that we have not made any changes to the way we price our fuel. We are on a program with Cenex in which we do not own the fuel in our tanks and only pay for it when it is used. Our fuel cost is an averaged price so we don’t encounter the same volatile swings of the gas pumps at fuel stations; therefore, our gas cost did not go down as quickly as it did at the pumps on
land. On the other hand, we won’t experience increases as quickly or dramatically. In addition, we actively get pricing from the other marinas in the area to ensure that our prices match or beat them.  We also give a 10% discount to our members whereas other marinas on the St. Croix River give a maximum discount of 10 cents off per gallon to their members.

Additionally, we sell a premium product with a Valvtec additive and have ethanol free gasoline.  Our diesel is state mandated to be biodiesel and is 5-10% maximum bio. Along with not buying the same volume as a land fuel station these are things to consider when comparing the price at gas docks.

Service Department
Mike Hurley commented that this fall has been great for us with combination of mild weather and October having five weeks.  We have hauled out 135 boats and will have 155 pulled by the end of this week. The projected number is 194 by the end of the season.

Mike went on to explain the haul-out process a little further. Two of our mechanics are at the lift well winterizing boats all day long for the duration of haul out. We have one mechanic as a  floater doing other jobs and working on trailerable boat winterization. The three yard staff
work on post-haul out, pressure washing and then place and block the boats.

The regular service work load should easily take us through April with two of the mechanics transitioning to the BMRP in November.

BMRP Updates
Piles will start going in next week. Scott has already straightened A Dock by moving areas up to 18”.  Brackets are being shipped from Mecco and should be here in time for installation. Xcel has been here this week pot-holing and boring. Terry from Freeway Electric has already pulled wires and will only have to pull power from the stations once then are connected. He has also added sleeves to run power to both points if we choose to do so in the future.

Keith Vinje asked if there was any possibility of changing the landings so they were more of a straight-on approach. He noted that at this time, the ramps do not sit flat on the dock. Cliff
suggested that once the dock is straightened and any support issues are fixed there should not be any problems. Eric Pederson also reminded everyone that at the beginning of the project they had
all agreed to, we would not change the landings. Cliff agreed and that we may need to do some
excavating under ramps where soil has filled in under them.

Terry from Freeway is still looking into sleeves for the exposed wires on B Dock; however, with Xcel onsite and the rating of the wire, it has not been a priority.

Brad Baune suggested that since petroleum costs are down at this time, we should get pricing on asphalt to do the entrance of the Marina this spring. We currently have a budgetary number and Cliff spoke to the Condo Association and Mallards to give them a heads up of possibly moving this portion of the project up since they are responsible for sharing some of the cost.

Social Committee Update 
Val Fuller proposed the idea of having a winter activity for BMA. She has been researching a venue called Pinstripes in Edina and wondered if it would be of any interest to the membership.  Discussion that a winter event would be a good idea, but maybe it should still be located in Bayport or at BMA to get the largest crowd. Members may want to see progress on the docks midwinter too.

Val then proposed the idea of moving the Ice Breaker to June 6th, which would be one weekend later than it traditionally has been.  Her reasoning was three fold; it could possibly be warmer than it has been in the past, it hopefully would not interfere with the St. Croix Yacht Club activity and the band we are hoping to have is booked on May 30^th, but available on the 6^th.  Brad Baune suggested that we should confirm the date of the St. Croix Yacht Club function, but didn’t have a problem moving the party to June 6^th.

OLD BUSINESS 
BMA Slip Rental/Sales and Compensation
Dave Peterka presented an option for both slip sale transactions and slip rental transactions. He stated that he understands there is value in having the office involved in these transactions and ultimately gets the slip owner the most visibility in both circumstances. Below are the proposed
fees.

Eric Pederson stated he is not against this idea, but noted that we should be mindful of the fees that are being imposed right now with the BMRP and all of the changes on-going at the Marina right now.

Kori mentioned that there could be a third option and that if it is a returning renter the document prep fee could drop to $25 because we would have all the information we need and we wouldn’t have the activities of advertising the slip and gathering information for a new renter.  There was agreement from most board members that this sounded like a good idea.

Website
Kori stated that we are still getting quotes and examples of work back from a few website companies and would be making our decision in November as far as who we would like to work with to redo our website. We have mapped out the main page layout we want and will start focusing on that during November and December.

NEW BUSINESS
Brad Baune has asked Cliff Lewis to have a proposed budget at the next board meeting.  He wanted him to make sure we include any maintenance that we expect we will “cash flow” instead of
pay out as part of the project.

New Phone System and Improvements to the Patio
Cliff and Kori have been getting pricing on both and will see if they can fit them into the 2015 budget.

Closed Session
Cliff and Kori stayed for the Staff Reviews and Compensation portion of the meeting.

It came to light that when Kori’s 6 month review was done, the revised method for reviews was not used.  Amy Tolbert stated that the new review process will benefit the employee more and help
them to see how their actions affect the responses they get.  The employee should also create a personal development goal that can be measurable by the following year.  The person reviewing the employee should provide very specific feedback about their work.  Cliff has already prepped this year’s review using the new process.

Regarding compensation, the board is questioning if the Marina can withstand the continuous increase of employee wages at the current rate. Additionally, do we have a salary cap on any of the positions? Cliff has researched what the local and national averages are as far as compensation increases. The metro area C.O.L.A. is at 3% and nationally it is closer to 2%. As for bonuses, he uses a compensation graph that was created during the year Russell Sheaffer was the Commodore and was planning to do the same for this year.

In past years, Cliff has presented the board with his plan for raises and the board has approved or provided adjustments.

The Board agreed that the same process should be done for the 2014 year and would approve at the November board meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 9:27, closes session continued.

September P and L

September Balance Sheet