The Timeshare Beat: Jerry Sikes; With Regard to Enlightenment

"The two words "information" and "communications" are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things: information is giving out; communications is getting through. -Sydney J. Harris-

It was about 10.30 on a typical spring morning at Scottsdale Camelback Resort (SCR) and the past two hours had been spent clearing up yesterday’s leftovers and the overnights. That done, she could get out of the office and out into the real world. For her the real world is her Resort, her Staff and her Guests. This time of the year many of her Guests are her Owners and today she is on a mission that directly relates to them.

You see, during mid year -- last year-- her Board of Directors had approved expenditures of almost half a million dollars for continuing rehab and refurbishment (from the accumulated Reserves) in dozens of villas and parts of the common areas at SCR. Much of the last two months of last year was taken up by meetings with the Reserve Committee, staff and vendors, developing a plan of attack that would allow her to start the new year with a bang. The first week in January was somewhat a blur of activities as project after project was commenced. Things previously depicted on color boards were beginning to show up on walls, floors, and countertops. Bedspreads did actually go with the new carpet, new artwork actually enhanced the accommodations and the tree did fit in that corner.

During this First Quarter whirlwind of activity it had been extremely difficult to ensure that the ongoing improvement did not negatively impact those guests who were on property. Sometimes that was just impossible! The pool deck had to be closed for 10 days and that meant that two weeks worth of guests were inconvenienced. The HVAC contractor had wanted his crew to start placing the new heat pumps on the roofs at 6:30 a.m. so as to beat the heat of the day and the tree trimmer had wanted to start cutting limbs and making mulch no later than 7:00. Mrs. Jones (one of her Owners), who was in A-11, wanted to know why we always had to do all that kind of work during her weeks.

Directing, motivating, reallocating, demanding, balancing, appeasing and apologizing had been necessary. Banging her head against the wall had occurred a few times when informed about out-of-stock items and discontinued patterns, however it had all started to come together and it was time to ... go out and take more pictures. Pictures? Well yes! The slide show needed to be updated with the before and after pictures!

It was now 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning and all was ready. The coffee, tea and juice were in place, the handouts were arrayed on the table by the entrance, the new slides had been developed, the projector and screen were set up, focused, and her guests would begin arriving in the next few minutes. Previously she would have gone out on the loading dock and had a cigarette to calm her nerves, however, she had overcome that habit last year and just had to be content fussing with the chairs and going over in her mind what she was going say in the next hour or so.

"Good morning! Good morning, welcome, it's good to see you again. Welcome Home! Please stop by the table and help yourself to any of those items on display. They will all be informative and we will be going over most of them during this morning’s get-together. Good morning, Coffee is on the sideboard, please help yourself. The decaf is in the white pot. How are you? Welcome home! If you would please find a seat we will get started... Good Morning, My name is Lori Entwistle and I'm your General Manager. Welcome to our Owners’ Update Meeting."

For her it's not a case of trepidation it is more a time of anxiety. She is well aware that she is about to face her severest critics. This is the second and sometimes third time some of this week's owners have attended her party and they have heard this stuff before. Some of them are in the "A" units, which were completed last year, and some are in the ones scheduled for this year. There are also a scattering of "B's", "C's" and "D's" who will surely have comments. The thought "you can't please all the people all the time" keeps running through her head. They just don't know how hard she works to do just that.

"We know that you are on vacation and we will not take up much of your time this morning, however, we have a lot of information to provide you and we hope to communicate to you the health and well-being of your Resort. Along with my associates, we will bring you up to date about what's going on in the Timeshare Industry with information about ARDA and ARDA-ROC, with the hope that we can communicate the need for your support of those activities with your $3.00 voluntary contribution. We will provide you with information about what's happening with the local economy and how it affects our other income sources such as the Rental Program and hope to communicate with you how important those incomes are to helping us hold down your annual assessments.

"Then we will get right to those items which we know are of upmost importance to you. We will do this with the assistance of a slide show which will depict the old and the new, with some story boards which will indicate the actual phasing which is taking place and with color boards provided by our Interior Designer which contains samples of fabrics, tiles, and pictures of case goods we intend to use. We will get specific about your villa and talk about why the roads did not get done last year. Generally, we are able to introduce to you one or two members of our Board of Directors because they usually drop in to join us. So let's get started!"

Neither Clark nor myself are on time and she is beginning to think that she is going to be the whole show. Now, the Diva in her would be thrilled, however a sigh of relief is uttered when first Fred comes in, then Clark, myself and finally Ron. Now the show could go on just as she had planned it.

"As you can see the boys are back in town, so let me introduce ..."

Final Thought

Owners who are aware of what's going on at their home resort are a major asset to those who are charged with the responsibility of operating those resorts. For years Resorts have used Newsletters and Bulletins in an attempt to keep owners aware, however most of us have always wondered if we were actually communicating with the majority of those to whom we sent these publications. With the event of electronic means of dispensing information such as the Internet, we presume that we can be more effective. At SCR we still publish a quarterly newsletter, however it only goes to those owners who indicate that they do not have access to the Internet. For those who are attuned to the use of the Internet we encourage them to log on to any of our three sites to view all the stuff we have provided them. Are we communicating or are we just providing information? Are we just "giving out stuff", are we actually "getting through" to them? I don't know! What I do know is that those owners who attend one of Lori's Wednesday morning sessions are in a win-win situation because both those owners and the SCR staff member who participate go away enlightened.

Twenty years ago, this April, SCR came into existence and among those who attended this week's Owners Update were some who bought way back in 1982. They are good owners and deserve the best we can do. Be assured that Lori will be out the first of next week taking more pictures and when Wednesday morning rolls around she will again say:

"Good morning! Good morning, welcome, its good to see you again. Welcome Home! Please stop by the table and help yourself to any of those items on display."

"Welcome home! If you would please find a seat we will get started... Good Morning, My name is Lori Entwistle and I'm your General Manager. Welcome to our Owners’ Update Meeting."