Yacht club news

The Year 2012…

The renovations of all the 2- Bedrooms are just about complete! Early 2013 is our anticipated date of Completion. High occupancy & demand made it most challenging to allocate the six weeks of vacancy needed to renovate a 2-Bedroom Suite.

The remaining new windows and doors for the 3-bedroom townhouse have been continuously installed but at a slow pace. We were able to complete another 6 townhouses with new windows and laundry doors in the town homes and have about 7 remaining to complete.

We had unforeseen costs that were not budgeted that naturally held us off of scheduled renovations. The Bahamas has seen more than normal heavy rainfall this summer and the roofs in the townhouses needed to be completely re-tarped and retiled. We took that time as well to structurally repair the exterior walls of the townhouses and main building.

The Ballearia is still in full operation from Freeport to Ft. Lauderdale and can be booked through www.ferryexpress.com if you want an alternative to taking a plane to the island.

We were hoping to see a reduction in our electricity costs this year now that the Power company has changed over to diesel engines but alas there has been even a slight increase in power expenses. Our all term monthly high this year clocked in at almost $45,000 during a summer month!

GOALS FOR 2013

As expected, we plan to renovate the 1 bedrooms throughout the year. To be able to complete all renovations as planned for the 1- Bedrooms we need to generate $300,000. At the moment we have only collected 60% of the total costs needed as of November. Hopefully, by the end of the year the outstanding will be collected.

We will as well renovate a 3- Bedroom townhouse later in the year to determine renovation costs for the 3 bdrms and see what can be done to improve them.

As we were unable to keep up with our tight plan on renovations in 2012 we will renovate each room as they become available. The suites will be first priority to follow after with the 1-Bdr apartments. We should be able to get at least 8 rooms renovated in 2013.

The gym needs to be completed correctly and we would like to tackle that problem, but will have to start from the top. With all the rainfall we have had in 2012 it has become apparent that the flat roof there will not suffice and 2013 we will begin with placing a sloped roof on the building.

We still have the goal to make an actual laundry room to avoid having to use the laundry machines in the main building but we will only be able to determine it by the end of the year to see if we have the $30,000 remaining to purchase 2 more industrial machine sets.

Again we have plans to start a 3-Bedroom townhouse renovation to determine costs but the money was just so tight in 2012 that by the end of the year we did not even have $10,000 spare for much needed furniture for one apartment .

The renovations for 1 bedroom Suites and Apartments will start in 2013 and hopefully can be completed in 1.5 years. The 1 bedroom owners as well as points members will be assessed in 2013 for the major renovations to that room type. The 3 bedrooms will be started in 2014.

CONRAD ACCEPTANCE & UNDERSTANDING YOUR WEEKS

As many might realize in May of 2012 we have changed our collections and billing services from ES Financial in Chicago to Conrad Corporation in California.

We realize that for many owners it might be an adjustment on how you pay your bills, but if you have any questions about your billing or payments you can contact Contact Conrad directly at 1 (866) 926-6723 or you can email info@payconrad.com.

Conrad has been the primary financial & collections company for entities in the Caribbean and are used by the majority of all active timeshare resorts on Freeport, Bahamas. They are our official finance company for Ocean Reef Resort and will be sending out all mailing.

Please do not send any further payments to ES Financial and all installment & maintenance payments go exclusively to Conrad.

We would like to remind you to use your current weeks so they are not lost due to non-use. Additionally, for those of you who have bonus weeks on your membership, please remember to use them if you choose to, prior to the completion of your contract, since they are not valid once your contract has expired.

To get your best trading power we have already bulk banked 300 weeks into the RCI deposit system to give our owners the best trading power. This means that if you call in September for a week for deposit we can assign you an April week of the same year and you will get full trading power for it although you did not request it 9 months prior as we pre-deposited units.

Regardless, book early for more trading power as 300 weeks that we deposited does not cover all weeks that owners bank so if you do not plan on coming here, bank your weeks early.

HAPPENING AROUND THE ISLAND

RESORT NEWS

Mrs Dawkins has now retired from Ocean Reef and resides in the US to nurse her health. If you require any assistance with your account please contact Conrad Corporation in California or Mrs. Cindy Davis at the resort.

There are three new employees to joined Ocean Reef in 2012. Mrs. Sharon Bain is part of the front desk team and Guest Services. She used to manage an exclusive resort on the exclusive island of Cat Cay off of Bimini. Ms. Janelle Harris is our newest addition to the Front desk and adds warmth and friendliness. She comes to us from Island Seas resort here in Freeport. In the gardening department we got a lovely gentleman named Mr. Belancier Agenor from Haiti who is an absolute joy to have around.

We are all so very happy to have them join our team and hope they will be able to stay for many years to come.

Our accountant Mrs. Daviea Carroll has welcomed a little girl to her family on April 20th, 2012. Little Jaylynn Marie is the apple of her mothers eye and completes the family.