Finance Committee Meeting Minutes: October 18, 2023

Attendance: Will Kriewald, Matt Lillard, Andrew Snow, Brad Noble, Geordie Hall, John Skelly, Brian Williams, Richard Gervase, Leigh Michl, Jeff Wittingham.

The meeting was brought to order at 9:34 AM by Will Kriewald, MRG Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair.

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Approved September 13, 2023 draft minutes with a minor correction

• Suggested corrections to the minutes: Brian Williams was not present- Minutes updated in Google Drive
• Motion to approve by John Skelly; seconded by Richard Gervase. Minutes were approved.

Request for Secretary – Will Kriewald

• John Skelly offered to help

Review September and YTD financials – Andrew Snow

• All referenced documents can be found here in Google Drive. Refer to reports for detailed comments.
• September P&L
  • Strong summer business continued with the help of Foliage Season revenue (the Saturday of Green and Gold Weekend was the last day of the fiscal year)
  • Final Month of the fiscal year leads to updating accruals and year-end journal entries- Examples:
    • Breakage for the year was $51K- above $40K budget and down from $56K in 2022
    • Use of Mad Money drove retail revenue higher in line with budget and $3k over last year
    • Vacation Accruals helped drive Admin expenses higher ($6K over budget)
  • Overall Expenses continued at elevated levels driven by:
    • Labor and Food Expense in the Basebox
    • Insurance
      • Audits of Workman’s Comp and General Liability insurance resulted in $18K of adjustments ( $9K each), and learnings will be brought forward into the Co-op’s insurance practices.
    • Credit Card Fees- timing of start of Fall Pass sales meant charges were included in September 2023 versus spread between multiple months in 2022 ($10k over budget)

Review September and YTD financials – Andrew Snow (Continued)

• YTD P&L
  • Gross Profit is $4.5M or $542K over budget and $852K ahead of last year
  • NOI is $155K, or $59K over budget and $22K over last year.
  • As labor cost continue to rise, the Committee suggested Management review total labor costs as a percentage of expenses and the trends for two purposes:
    • As a cost control metric and;
    • As a positive story of the investment the Co-op is making in providing competitive compensation to retain staff in a difficult labor market.
  • An outstanding year for which the Committee congratulated the entire Co-op team!

• Balance Sheet
  • Adjusted Co-op Cash (cash, less POP account and Construction Loan) is $2.6M, or $491K over last year.

Review cash flow forecast – Andrew Snow

• Cash Flow Projection
  • Full Year Operating Cash Flow increases were driven by operating profits ($206k), Season Pass sales ($158K) and Share Sales ($192K) while supporting investments in the Investment Accounts ($902K) and capital improvements ($100K).

Review Pre-Season Sales

• Overall Sales were up 3% in Volume and 5% in Dollars compared to the prior year (1% in Dollars over Budget)
• Trends included:
  • Slower engagement than 2022 with passes selling out a few weeks later
  • Movement of prior year value pass holders to full adult holders
  • An increase in Senior passes (10%) and a decrease in Teen/Junior passes (7%)
  • A College Pass was added ($159 for a full season). This should offset the loss of the Joint pass with Sugarbush.

Cash Investment/Withdrawal Charter Updates and Thresholds – Will Kriewald

The changes to the governance documents to allow management increased flexibility for investing excess cash and allowing board oversight beyond certain thresholds was discussed. The initial proposed thresholds (minimums) are as follows:

Investment Funds – proposed minimum thresholds:

$750k Non-Operating (Capital) Fund

$400k Operating (Rainy Day) Fund

$250k+ Excess cash held in Operating (Rainy Day) Fund

$300k minimum cash in-season, $200k off-season

The committee was in agreement with the proposed thresholds and a formal vote on recommending the thresholds will be made after the governance documents have been approved by the Board.

A motion to recommend to the board the changes in the governance documents for the Investment Funds was made by Gerodie Hall and seconded by Richard Gervase.

The motion passed unanimously.

10:34 AM  – The meeting adjourned by consensus.

Next Finance Committee Meeting – November 15th, 9:30 AM.

Submitted by:  John Skelly