Howdy Pardners,
In our organization it is very important to be fiscally responsible. Owners have expressed that they want us to keep the costs of being an Owner to a minimum, so we do our best to operate within a very tight budget. This summer has been off to a very slow start. We just aren’t having the number of Owners and their guests visiting that we normally do so our income is down. We also haven’t sold the number of shares that we had as a goal for the year.
We do not want to be short on funds at the end of the year, so we are being proactive about cutting costs now and reworking the budget to ensure that we will have enough funding. Change is very hard, but we determined that restructuring our staff would be the quickest way to get our spending under control. Unfortunately that meant we had to let a staff member go. We recognize that staff are our biggest assets and are the heart of the Ranch, and this was not an easy decision to make. Please bear with us during this transition. We understand that the timing during the busy season is not ideal, but we felt it was necessary to make the change before we find ourselves in a financial deficit.
We need volunteers now more than ever, and we need new Owners too. We’ve lost too many Owners this year due to aging out, moving away, the dam removal, differences of opinion, and those that have passed away. Our organization is more than 50 years old, and we need to recruit the next generation of Owners. Please volunteer to help if you are able, and please send new Owners our way.
Our fire insurance is the single biggest reason we are struggling financially. Just like everyone else in CA, our fire insurance has gone through the roof. We will be putting an option to the Owners for a vote to approve a self-insurance option instead of us spending over a quarter of a million dollars on fire insurance each year. We encourage you to support this cost saving option because it will benefit us for many years to come.
Thanks again for your support. We can get through this. We are R-Ranch Strong!
Sincerely, The R-Ranch Board of Directors