Finance Committee Meeting Minutes: September 18, 2024
MEETING MINUTES HISTORIC ARCHIVE
Type
Year
Mad River Glen Finance Committee
Meeting Minutes
9/18/24
Attendees: Will Kriewald, Matt Lillard, Geordie Hall, Leigh Michl, Andrew Carey, Andrew Snow, Brian Williams (scribe), Brad Noble, Richard Gervase
Absent: Jeff Wittingham, Meg Schultz, Bryan Hall
Agenda
9:30 am – Call to order – Will Kriewald
9:31 am – Review June minutes – Will Kriewald/Brian Williams
9:33 am – Review Summer and YTD financials – Andrew Snow
9:45 am – Review cash flow forecast – Andrew Snow
10:00 am – Review Operating/Non-Operating Fund Balance Proposal
10:30 am – Adjournment
Approval of Minutes from Prior meeting
No comments. Andrew C motion to approve, Geordie 2nd. Approved.
Discussions
Started the meeting with a discussion of the target amount of funds in the operating and non-operating accounts. One attendee needed to leave half-way through the meeting, so we started with this topic to have a quorum for any motion to change the target amount. The current recommended target for the non-operating fund is 750K$. There is a request from management to drop the target to 500K$ to allow for the MRG portion of the mid-station double project and maintain the desired minimum cash balance per the forecasted cash flow. The Operating “rainy day” fund target would remain 400K$, the current recommended level. Changes in target for either account require a recommendation from the Finance committee per the policies developed to manage these funds.
Andrew C – What are the current fund balances? Total cash balance is currently 2.5 M$ – Andrew S.
Geordie – Will this be a permanent reduction? Andrew S – for this year, yes. The 250K$ reduction is to allow for mid-station double. This assumes SMF provides 250K$. MRG could be responsible for this additional amount if SMF funds do not materialize. We may front the SMF over time and still stay at 1M$ total cash until the SMF money available.
Will – do you feel confident at YE cash flow? Andrew S – not 100% comfortable given one-time year-end adjustments that happen each year.
Will K – If forecasting a positive NOI and current cash from season tickets sales, do we need to draw down 250 K$ from non-op fund? What is advantage in available cash versus funds? Andrew C – 1) Do not want the Finance committee/trustees to be in the business of directing MRG Management team on real-time decisions – looking for leeway for Matt and Andrew to manage the short term. 2) Provides flexibility if SMF funds are delayed.
Geordie – Should we take money out of lowest yielding account? Will – funds are comingled across investments so no difference in return by fund. Less liquidity with T-bills, however.
Geordie – didn’t we setup with non-op in higher investments? Andrew C – Rainy day in money market, Non-operating in T-Bills. We are now comingling. Andrew S – We can still remove funds from lowest investment return products.
Andrew C – Didn’t we fund deposits? Andrew S – no, SMF funded the initial down payment.
Will – would like to determine purpose and trajectory of these funds. Adding and withdrawing from non-operating funds.
Andrew C – Finance committee operates somewhat in a vacuum regarding Facilities plan. We need to understand depreciation as well. Brian – Cash flow forecast has a 110 K$ funded by net new shareholders. Current depreciation is ~200K$/yr. Investment at the current level of depreciation – part of current depreciation is assets acquired via SMF investment – is about 100K$ above the net new shareholder funds. We are good a year out but not a more detailed longer-term plan (5-10 year) would be helpful for the Finance committee – Andrew S.
Geordie – Does it matter where the funds are? Will – governance policy around two funds exists. Also, messaging to shareholders on what co-op is looking to do is important as well.
Richard – Shareholder expectations around these funds? Will – Not ready to forecast YE 25.
Geordie – Not comfortable with comingling of funds versus original proposal. Will – Money Market funds yielding more right now. Geordie – ok
Motion: Andrew C – Motion to approve revised balances per management request. 500 K$ non-operating and 400K$ operating. Geordie 2nd. Motion approved.
May – Aug (Summer) NOI
Revenue
Basebox flat year-on-year with a decrease in July versus prior period. External comments around the valley is that food orders are down. Retail down but numbers are small (3K$). Total revenue flat versus last summer. Well above budget (30K$), however.
Expense
Credit card fees below budget as fall sales for season passes not started until Sept. 13K$ electricity bill for solar reconciliation. Matt got a 10% reduction for one-time payment of this.
Geordie – what is the IT restructure? Hired our own MRG employee (3 day/wk winter, 1 day/wk off season, 2-day shoulder). Matt – Replaced a Butternut contractor with employee.
Geordie – What is IT backup? Matt – Butternut still covers this. Brian – cloud or servers. Backups are in the cloud.
Geordie asked Andrew to confirm backups in October. Revised question – Are local servers backed-up? How often? Nightly – Matt. Will – multiple locations of holding data. Andrew C – want all POS information in the cloud, not onsite servers, as they are.
Geordie – What do we lose transactionally if the MRG office had a catastrophic fire? Want to continue business. Andrew S clarified that he would confirm.
Andrew S noted that some employees do get billed to capital as part of the summer projects.
Summer loss of 612K$, 20K$ above budget (582K$) but close to last year. Interest income of 30K$ has more than offset.
Andrew C – facilities expense lower by 130K$ v budget. Higher than PY. More mountain operations but has always been called facilities expense.
Cash Flow Through Aug YTD
Total cash at end of Aug 2.2 M$. 240K$ above Aug 23.
Fund balances: 400K$ Operating, 750k$ non-operating, 500 K$ additional available cash. Preseason sales cash offset in other liabilities until recognized on Oct 1st.
Richard – What is the breakdown of April/Sept sales? Andrew S. – 1.1M$ April, expecting 900K$ in Sept.
Geordie – Are we on track with pass sales? Andrew S – Yes.
Will – Do I get to participate if I buy a share today if pass is sold out? Yes. Fill out form and reach out to office to confirm/setup payment plan. Does take a couple days to process so do not wait until Sept 27th per Matt.
Cash Flow 2024-25 Projection
Now projected through Sept 25. POP account balance has been removed from cash flow. Ending/low point cash above the 200K$ goal for all months with a 1.25M$ minimum for brokerage accounts in Feb25 (final funding of Sunnyside double mid station)
Will moved to close meeting. Andrew C seconded. Meeting adjourned.
