As your Club approaches a critical stage of its journey, it is probably timely to take a more in depth look at where all the money has gone and continues to go. I think this blog has already done the staff issues to death so let's focus on some of the other costs.
Beloved members, while I can honestly say that through the number of years of my membership at the American Club there have been some less than fiscally responsible decisions made, for the most part, the American Club has done the right thing in reinvesting in itself. In fact, by regulation as a Shadan Hojin (non-profit organization), any income we receive has to be used in providing value back to the membership and to the community as a whole. So the following rant by the Unlock TAC blogger, while not 100% misguided, is a poor attempt at making the argument that TAC spends money recklessly.
Club Magazine
This is an anachronism in today's world of IT communications and PDF files. God only knows what this costs to produce on glossy paper and post out. How many members read it? One third of the membership is Japanese and we are in Japan ... but not one word of Japanese.Why hasn't it been done away with? Simple answer is that it is not an arms length relationship.
It's an anachronism? Way to check your figures pal. Current global indicators suggest that between 49% and 52% of the literate population still prefers reading traditional media over something communicated online, in e-mail, or in a PDF. If you knew anything about the club's finances (you'd think, by the way, that if you are going to do a post on how the club is wasting money, that you'd at least take the time to understand some of TAC's finances), you'd know that the magazine is completely paid for by advertising and that TAC may in fact take a modest profit off each issue. How many readers read the publication is a fair question, but the good news is that unlike a lot of companies, TAC understands that the magazine can't be the only channel for communicating - hence the previous fax blast schedules, the Web site, and the e-mail distribution lists to name but a few. Not one word of Japanese in the magazine - absolutely true. Do I agree with that? Not necessarily. But as you might know, to be granted membership at the American Club the account holder must be able to speak English. This could be corrected with some Japanese text - but in the end, I don't think it's the end of the world that the publication isn't bilingual. But your suggestion of a lack of arm's length in the total relationship is what really got me - you see, the lack of arm's length you must be referring to is the distance between the accounting department and the communications department (which by the way is almost literally an arms length). There is no nefarious relationship at work here. TAC's communications department handles all of the sales and all of the production in house. But I appreciate your attempt at bashing the magazine - I really do. In all fairness, the magazine is pretty awful. The publication is riddled with ads (yes, keeping costs down, but also rivaling Vogue magazine for total space consumed for said advertisements). And what's with the generally poor stories about Japan and regional lifestyle problems and such that have absolutely nothing to do with our membership? The magazine does have issues - but it has nothing to do with cost.
PR Consultants
US10K per month. What value is this company adding other than to do work the staff should be doing?
Good question. Seriously. And I think you've hit the nail on the head. They are doing work the TAC staff should be doing on their own. Want to get rid of this cost? Change the management - perhaps it's time for regime change of our own?
Wine Consultant
I see the Club now has a globetrotting wine consultant. Wonder where this line item gets buried??
I'd imagine this line item gets placed under Food and Beverage - wouldn't you? But let's not talk about burying, shall we? Everyone who has spent more than a few weeks at the club knows that we have a fairly pricey wine consultant. But you know, we also have a pretty damn good wine list, and can't a club that is aiming to be the most exclusive in Asia/Pacific be allowed a few luxuries? And what the hell do you care anyway? His expenses have no impact on what you pay in monthly fees to TAC.
IT Consultant
US10k per month for one 'high-powered' person on for 4 hours a week.
The IT consultant is paid a retainer - not on a project basis. Whether the consultant works 4 or 40 hours - the price remains the same. Are you paid more than US$10k per month? Do you consider yourself "high-powered"? Of course you do - so what? How does this IT consultant impact your bottom line - he doesn't...next topic.
Equipment
Long printer/photocopiers.In fact there are 27 of these babies at the Club. Again another less-than-arms-length transaction some time back.
Thank you for this one - this is my favorite. How many printers and photocopiers do you have in your office? Could your company operate without a few of these? And sure, a few is less than 27. So let's try an experiment. Let's remove all but five of these and we'd place the five as such: one in the GM's office, one in the Communications office, one at the Front Desk, one at Accounting, and one at the Rec Office. Now let's say you work at the membership office and you need to print out a member's bill - that's a flight of stairs and down the hall to either the GM's office or the Front Desk. Or better yet, you work at the video library and you need to print out the chit we all sign before we collect our videos - would you have the staff and the membership head down four flights of stairs to check out? How should all of the F&B establishments print their chits? Should the library not allow photocopying anymore? I'll bet TAC has three times as many phones. Do we need that many phones? Maybe we should start removing those too?
Carpets & Curtains
Then there was the US25k spent on a consultant to procure from home. Problem was the stuff didn't meet Japanese fire regulations.
Ahh yes. Furniture. We shouldn't get new furniture. We've got too much of it anyway - it should be dumped with the photocopiers and the phones, right? Ok, so a major mistake was made - fair point, but procuring furniture kinda has to be on our list of top priorities. We are trying to be the premier club in Asia, not a Howard Johnson's. Stupid idea to purchase furniture that didn't meet Japanese fire code. Not stupid to renovate. Mistakes happen sometimes and sometimes they cost money. You've never made a mistake before?
A lot of this stuff is treated a bit like the War on Terror...no longer a conflict of interest.
Yes, let's compare Al Qaeda and Hamas to the situation at the Tokyo American Club. You repeatedly refer to this arm's length problem we have, but you fail to note where the arm's length problems actually exist. The fact of the matter is that the membership is composed of some of the world's largest and smallest brands and companies - so it's natural that some members (myself not included) would enter into business with the Tokyo American Club at some point. I know that TAC conducts a full bid process with RFPs, presentations, and committee meetings - so here again, I have no clue what arm's length problems you are specifically referring to. Care to shed some light on the matter or is this like some of your other arguments where you make baseless claims to hide the truth and attempt to influence opinion, despite the fact that you know you have no evidence to support your claims?
Just wondering.
Want to help your club? Join a committee. Let your voice be heard.
