MINUTES Finance Committee Mad River Glen Cooperative Wednesday, January 16, 2018

 

Attendance: Matt Lillard, Eric Palola, Meg Schultz, Andrew Snow, John Stetson, John Tobin, Geordie Hall, Matthew Milan, Meg Hourihan

 

The meeting was brought to order at 8:00 AM by Matthew Milan, MRG Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair.

 

————

 

Approved December minutes.

 

————

 

December Financial Reports Review:

 

• Matt Lillard walked the attendees through the December Financial Reports. The balance sheet looks positive, and the Co-op is running a good cash position relative to last year.
• The business continues to contribute money to the rainy day account, and closed December with $136K in the account. Matt Lillard commented that the mountain is still able to cover its costs even after putting additional funds in the rainy day account.

 

 

December  P&L:

 

• December Christmas week was disappointing, but December was still good considering. Matt Lillard commented that early opening is a good for many things, but it’s a break even proposition.
• Mad Cards sales were good, and as a result the liability is higher than last year.

 

Year to Date P&L:

 

• The Co-op is up $38K over budget and up $76K over last year at this time.

 

• Matt Lillard noted that starting early incurred additional expenses, but overall things are looking good.

 

• Geordie Hall asked a question about season ticket sales vs day pass sales due to the early opening. Matt Lillard replied that we sold a few more season passes during that period. Matt reinforced that early season visits were slanted heavily towards die-hard Mad River skiers, not a lot of new visitors in the pre-holiday period.

 

• John Stetson and Geordie Hall commented on Christmas week ticket sales and the positive response to opening early. Matt Lillard commented that it’s good for awareness and marketing, but early opening, like staying open later in April does not make a lot of money.

 

• Matt Lillard called out the Basebox is well ahead of budget relative to last year. Eric Palola asked Matt what the revenue split was for the Basebox. Matt Lillard said that the cafeteria was up $22K over budget and $15K over last year, and the pub is up $23K over budget and $10K over last year.

 

• Eric Palola asked where Mad Card sales ended up, Matt Lillard said we had a healthy increase, totaling almost 2900 Mad Cards, up 13% over last year, equaling an addition $58K in revenue.

 

• Geordie Hall commended Matt Lillard and the mountain staff for the effort required to open early.

 

————

 

Campaign:

 

• Matt Lillard noted there was not a lot of Campaign related finance activity in December. The goal in Janauary and February is to close out snowmaking and Birdcage grants. The Co-op board plans to approve CapEx at upcoming January board meeting and then management will write the approved new grant requests to the Stark Mountain Foundation (SMF).

 

• Geordie Hall asked a question about a figure of $1.6MM in the Campaign overview tab. Andrew Snow confirmed that the number in question is the amount granted by SMF to the Co-op to date. John Stetson asked for a clarification as the $1.6MM as monies received as grants from the mountain. Matt Lillard and John Tobin confirmed this is the case.

 

————

 

Cash Flow:

 

• Matt Lillard highlighted the addition of 75$K to the rainy day account. As a result of the deposits into the rainy day fund, he projected that the Co-op will only draw on the line of credit for $165K this year.
• Matt Lillard noted that Co-op is currently in a good position cash-flow wise, and account payables are a fraction of they were at the same time last year.

 

————

 

Open Questions:

 

• Geordie Hall asked about the focus of the rainy day account relative to how it was used in the past. Matt Lillard explained that the current focus of the account is to support breaking the yearly line of credit dependency cycle, at which point the monies in the account will be deployed similarly to how they had been used in the past to soften the blow of bad years.

 

• Meg Hourihan asked if management had given any thought to selling tickets in the spring, so that even at a discount we can bring money in the door earlier in the year. Matt Lillard replied that the management team was working on this concept and would have more to share in February.

 

• John Stetson asked if all the shares which had been requested to be tendered had been tendered. Matt Lillard confirmed that this had taken place and the remainder of those monies had been transferred to the rainy day fund.

 

————

 

 

Matthew Milan made a motion to adjourn – John Stetson seconded. Motion passed.

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:30 AM.

 

Next meeting, Wednesday, January 16th at 8:00 am

 

————

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Matthew Milan, member Finance Committee