Members of SCVCC,

A growing number of our members are fed up with the litigation brought against our Board by two members, Mr. Dennis Teifeld and Mr. John Crowley. The lawsuit relates to the Board’s decision to contract Troon as SCVCC Club Management. Their first cause of action is that the Board breached its fiduciary duty. Their second cause of action is that the Board did not disclose all corporate records.

Per the SCVCC Mid-Year Letter From the Treasurer, “Despite all of the challenges in the country club industry, SCVCC is doing quite well. By all standards, our financial results through the mid-point of this year were excellent. Our cash position at the end of June was $1.4M up 24% from the same time last year. That’s the result of 9 straight months of operating profit and our current forecast is to end the year with a cash position of $1.5M. From an operational point of view, at the midpoint of this year, our revenues were 1.7% higher than plan, while our operating expenses were 1.6% below plan. These results have netted an operating profit of $305,000 through the first six months of the year compared to a loss of $50,000 for the comparable period in the prior year.”

To many of us, this litigation seems senseless.  There can be little doubt that hiring Troon was beneficial to the Club. Not only is the Club doing better financially, we, the members, have realized significant improvement in service levels throughout Operations (dining, golf course, tennis pavilion, etc.). These improvements positively affect the member experience. Even if hiring Troon was not beneficial, the lawsuit still is a waste of time, money and effort and unnecessarily causes strife amongst the Membership. The lawsuit will not bring Rene, the prior SCVCC General Manager, back.  Rather, it continues to cast a pall upon our Club, making it difficult for us to attract new members – thereby driving down the value of all of our interests in the Club.  

In our opinion, we believe Mr. Teifeld‘s and Mr. Crowley’s action to bring suit against our Board is not only frivolous, but is  devaluing our memberships, tainting the Club’s reputation, as well as disrupting the harmony of the Club. They have had ample opportunity to recognize their actions have had nothing but a destructive effect on the Club and its members, yet they continue to dither on with a lawsuit that provides no "end game" to benefit the Membership. 

Their actions are not only “improper,” they have already and will continue to “endanger the welfare, [] harmony or good reputation of the Club or its members. . . “ (Bylaws, Article XVI – Discipline).  Due to their detrimental actions, we, the petitioning members hereby request that the SCVCC Grievance Committee accept this petition to suspend Mr. Dennis Teifeld and Mr. John Crowley from SCVCC for a minimum of 1-year. 

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