Rancho Santa Fe Association board reviews options regarding possible Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club pool and fitness center
By Karen Billing
The Rancho Santa Fe Association is taking the initial steps in the process of considering a pool and fitness center for the RSF Golf Club, which involves receiving input from the community, as well as exploring the capital expense and operational costs.
To help in the process, the RSF Association board Dec. 5 looked at a marketing consultant proposal from Club Mark, the company that conducted the online survey to measure demographics of the community and the RSF Golf Club earlier this year.
Club Mark’s proposal would help the RSF Association with baseline analysis, form a steering committee and host a series of public workshops, as well as facilitate focus groups, prepare financial and long-range plans, and develop a communications campaign to build consensus as any RSF Golf Club add-on would require a vote of the community.
The Club Mark team has more than 90 years of combined private club experience relative to membership strategies, recruitment and retention. The cost of its five-phase proposal is close to $60,000.
“They bring a lot to the table but it’s rather rich,” RSF Association Director Craig McAllister said of the price tag, wondering if they would need all of those services from the company.
Director Heather Slosar said they could consider scaling down Club Mark’s consulting to just a couple of the phases rather than all five.
“We have staff here and volunteers that will do the heavy lifting,” Slosar said. “We’re here to work too.”
Director Rochelle Putnam said the Association would need the bulk of the proposed work, however, estimating they would need 80 percent of it to close the gap between idea and execution, especially to help get the RSF Association to a steering committee level.
Director Jerry Yahr agreed that they would need a lot of Club Mark’s services to help guide them in this process and that those services would be very helpful.
The board directed staff to work with Club Mark on costs and phasing possibilities. A tentative schedule from Club Mark had the first phase beginning in January or February, with the final phase — a presentation of the final plan for a community-wide vote — by May 2014.