Survey Feedback

14th May 2019

Dear Members,

Firstly, the Board would like to thank each and every one of you that took the time to respond to the survey that was sent out to you all. We were very pleased with the high response rate and what this says about our club membership. We would also like to extend a special thank you to Therese Revell for creating and handling the whole process.

The Board have reviewed your responses and summarised your responses according to the way you scored each answer. These responses were then split into two general categories:

  • Lodge Upgrades
  • Lodge Management.

Lodge Upgrades

Each year, general maintenance is undertaken on the lodge in an effort to ensure the lodge condition and the comfort of members and guests remains high. Maintenance work performed in the summer of 2019 included a complete window replacement, some electrical re-wire, led light replacement, full repaint of the bedrooms and the exterior (special thanks to Clint Antilla for his painting services) along with the replacement of worn out bits and pieces throughout the lodge.

The survey results reflecting your concerns and ideas for improvement were reasonably evenly spread. That said, the survey scores ranked the various lodge upgrades in the following order of importance:

  1. Bathroom Improvements
  2. Bedroom Improvements
  3. Drying Room Improvements
  4. Kitchen Improvements

To address these results, the Board notes the following:

(i). Bathroom Upgrades

Thankfully the bathrooms are something that we are able to work on without required building

permissions, so long as we do not make structural changes. Currently Orana is placed in a modestly healthy financial position, thanks to the changes made to Orana membership conditions in recent years.

The Board hopes to get an idea of costings for either a bathroom or kitchen remodel at the end of the 2019 season. Our plan will be to complete the other the following year. The Board will ensure we keep our membership fully appraised of these updates and would be pleased to receive feedback in that regard.

(ii). Bedroom Upgrades

We do appreciate that the rooms are somewhat confined however when it comes to any major upgrades, Orana is strictly bound by both financial constraints and most importantly the building & fire code constraints that sit around lodge construction and use in Perisher Valley. The building & fire code constraints mean that we are limited in what we can undertake structurally. For example, if we were to perform any major improvements to the bedrooms i.e. moving walls to create larger spaces, we would have to bring the lodge up to current day fire codes which means as the lodge stands now, we would lose half the number of beds we currently have. Our financial position dictates therefore that we can only make modest changes to the bedrooms presently. The Board has and will always try to keep on top of lodge maintenance. As an example, this year we have had the rooms painted, replaced the lighting and bed pillows throughout, and of greatest importance had all the windows replaced. Additionally, we hope to replace the drawers this year, but it is not looking likely before the ski season starts as we have had some trouble sourcing the right type of drawer. As soon as we find a robust suitable replacement, we will purchase and install into the lodge.

(iii). Drying Room Upgrades

In terms of the drying room, we are somewhat limited again here by what we have to work with i.e. confined space and inability to change the room structurally. Remaining cognisant of the survey comments however, the Board has replaced the drying room heater with the largest wattage heater available at the time in Jindabyne, as well as repairing the door to ensure the door closes and keeps the heat in.

(iv). Kitchen Upgrades

As discussed above in the response to Bathroom upgrades, the Board will be seeking design improvement ideas and resultant quotations sometime over the next two summer seasons and hope to be able to report on any upgrade in the mid-term.

Lodge Management

Generally, the survey indicated that members of Orana felt they had enough of an understanding about the club position and the way it works. That said, the Board recognises that there could be more done to educate members. In the future we plan to update our constitution and have published club rules in place at the lodge for easy reference. We are also determined to remain open to your feedback and act in your best interests going forward.
In that regard, the Board recognises that there was some negative feedback from members around the transparency of the booking system for the lodge. The Board thinks it’s important to note that the manner in which the booking system operates is set out in our memorandum of association and those rules dictate the following:

The members are provided a priority booking period in which only ‘members’ can be booked in;

During this priority period, members can indicate where they would like to include non-members as part of their booking but others members booking rights will always hold sway over non- member requests;

If member requests exceed bed numbers in any given period, the Treasurer will contact said members and seek their flexibility in moving dates to accommodate booking requests;

Where this is not possible, the Treasurer will perform a ballot to decide which member preference is decided;

This system has been in place for many years and has predominantly worked, however the board does recognise the need to provide better transparency going forward. With the help of Daniel Djuracic (a club member with the required IT skills), we hope to begin testing an online booking system throughout this year. We imagine this system will provide a portal for members to place their booking requests onto and in so doing become aware of any booking conflicts prior to March 31 (being the current priority booking deadline).

We expect that the Treasurer will still administer the booking requests and provide the same duties in attempting to move bookings around to suit as many members as possible. If it works as we hope, we may be able to implement this for season 2020, so thank you for your continued patience.

Finally, if any members have expertise or contacts in any of the topics mentioned above that might be able to assist, please do not hesitate to notify the board, as any and all help is always welcomed.

We hope that you continue to enjoy Orana for its current great location, and family feel. We want to express to our members our desire to improve the overall amenity of the lodge for the current, but also express to you our long-term commitment to plan for the future of the lodge.

Regards The Board

2 Comments

  1. david

    This is fantastic news!

    • Daniel Djuracic

      The windows look great!

Comments are closed.