Follow the money!
A few years ago there was a discussion about redecorating the American room, a certain board member then being in the decor business offered to assist out of his good intentions and found an architect to do the job. The Club got charged a fortune, however the good samaritan failed to inform the general membership that the said architect was under contract with his own company and in fact paid him a commission on the job he got from TAC, of course all quite normal at TAC. Like the other board member that was also the supplier of food to the club...how about the recreation director that because he happened to be a veteran was buying liquor at the USA embassy at low prices and offering it to certain club members for profit. When I brought it up to the attention of the then GM, was told to take a flying f...., how about the board member that was also doing all the printing (maybe still doing it for all I know) for the club.
I am so impressed with all these GOOD samaritans supposedly looking after my personal interests in the club, maybe I should also give them my bank book and let them look after it.
Ladies and Gents, if you want to know who really gets to benefit from this project look for the contracts that have been signed by the subcontractors of the subcontractors of the subcontrators whom at the end of the line maybe a name of a person close to or even perhaps a family member of one of the individuals who happens to just be another GOOD samaritan.
If you want to know the truth, ask yourself why are members with a different opinion ostracized and treated with little respect at and after the meetings by the Good samaritans and even the foreign managerial staff of the Club whom after all are working for us?
Those managers should concentrate on the job they get paid to do. The service in the Club is horrible, the food is even worse and always we keep on seeing more and more foreign managers. The question then is, what do they all do? They walk around like gestapo around the Club, make the members feel uncomfortable, sometimes stand next to members listening to conversations. What do they all do? They should not be involved in any of the decision making regarding the go or not go ahead of the construction project.
After all, if it is such a sweet deal, why have to hire a PR company on behalf of the members to sell to the members the idea? Most of the members are managing companies in many fields and certainly are well above the average educational level of the average worker in the club. Good enough to check the facts and be able to make a decision without getting it hammered up the back side without vaseline.
I know that if I went to my HQ and suggest that we build a building while we rebuild our own and then move back into our buiding and destroy the other, well I think I would be out of a job before returning to Japan.
But then again, I am just a Portuguese man of war, what do I know?
The real question is - who REALLY benefits? (old saying "follow the money")
Take care everyone, all the best to the pros and cons of the deal.
Sincerely,
Paul Marques
posted by Unlock at 6:43 PM
13 Comments:
What good advice from Mr. Marques.
Some time ago - maybe the 2005 AGM - a question was posed from the floor about the possible redevelopment project and potential conflicts of interest [meaning brazen pecuniary interests like the redecoration matter mentioned in the main post above], to which the reply was that TAC has a full and proper process in place to guard against any such impropriety.
So here's another question or two for the Board of Governors :
1. Will you please publish in detail [in iNTOUCH or on the website] the process you employ to guard generally against conflict of interest among members of the BOG - and any other committees dealing with the proposed redevelopment project - and senior management of TAC ? If you will not, will you please explain why not ?
2. Whatever the process already in place will you agree that all members of the BOG and LRPC and other committees having to do with monetary or contractual commitments of TAC in relation to the proposed redevlopment project, as well as all senior management employees of TAC, must now sign individually and have published on the website a suitably worded declaration that they and spouses and offspring and family do not have a material interest, whether pecuniary or in kind, with any contractor or vendor connected with the proposed redevelopment project? If you will not, will you please explain why not ?
To state the obvious, this is not about location and bricks and mortar and whether the new curtains will be jolly nice, this is about the credibility and probity of those who are setting the course for the future. As the old saying goes, "if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.....".
I hasten to add that I have no reason to believe there is any impropriety of any kind, but for the good of this club those in seats of power and responsibility should have no problem in realising why it would be a good thing to be straight and up-front about this matter, and then to do something concrete about it.
No, no that kind of concrete [that's a preserve of the LDP.....].
There are published rules entitled "Business Relations Between The Club Its Members & Its Employees" in section VIII page 29 on the TAC Rules on the member area of the website. They seem to cover all situations, although the special nature of the new TAC plan maybe warrants special care if what Paul Marques says took place in the past.
Thank you Mr Marques, these issues are relevant to what is happeing now. I think we've only just scratched the surface.
Bravo Mr. Marques. It would appear that the vote is a charade since the Club has hired a PR company to present the rebuilding as a fait accompli and has hired a project manager, an architect and has already decided to move to Takanawa. This is not anything but "fiat" by dictatorship. To the barricades mes amis.
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Fellow TAC Members
Follow the money indeed!
I also believe the members have a right to greater transparency and until that happens, I, like many other contributors on this forum, am not convinced the club can manage a project as complex as the one being contemplated.
An earlier item referred to some top line numbers in making the case that the club has not dealt with some of its fundamental weaknesses and flaws, identified more than a decade ago.
Well lets take a look at some of these items.
As you may or may not know the club is divided up into departments. Let's use US Dollars at 100 for simplicity to give a general feel. Then divide the labor costs into the two categories - payroll and benefits.
Total payroll and benefits is approx USD 12m of which benefits is just under 50%.
I am using approx figures and stand to be corrected by anyone that has any access to these numbers.
A brief tour of some highlights is in order.
In the:
(i)Admin & General (the GM's office) - salaries $2m, benefits $1.7m
(ii)House & Grounds - salaries $2m, benefits $0.6m
(iii)Maintenance - salaries $1.5m, benefits $0.5m
(iv)Parking - salaries $0.6m, benefits $0.15m
Benefits in the F&B area are approx $2m and the balance is made up by some of the smaller activity groups such as library, video library etc.
So what contributes to this lack of correlation? I do not know but this may help explain the differing ratios.
Under Benefits the following are some general numbers for the above departments:
Meals (i) $350,000 (ii) $ 30,000 (iii) $20,000 (iv) $4,000
Retirement Reserve (i) $180,000 (ii) $80,000 (iii) $150,000 (iv) $20,000
Welfare & Recreation (i) 200,000 (ii) 40,000 (iii) $20,000 (iv) $10,000
Training and Self Improvement (i) $280,000 (ii) $30,000 (iii) $10,000 (iv) $6,000
Vacation Accrued (i) $360,000 (ii) $20,000 (iii) 17,000 (iv) $6,000
Bonus-Contract (i) $100,000 (ii), (iii), (iv) zero
Transportation Allowance (i) $60,000 (ii) $15,000 (iii) $7,000 (iv) $25,000
Of the total of approx USD 500,000 allocated to employee meals, the Admin and General Department eats its way thru USD350,000 in one year! Even at inflated TAC prices that's a hell of a pile of ribs.
As I say, these are rounded out figures to give a very broadbrush view, but in my mind they highlight a need for what others are calling for....
GREATER TRANSPARENCY in all financial matters at the club.
Until that happens, I will remain wary of any glossy brochures and presentations shoved under my nose....or as alluded to earlier, where the sun dont shine.
A new club should mean more than just new infrastructure...it should mean a NEW club.
And while I am on the keyboard, I have one simple question:
Why does TAC still use the archaic system of bonus dues when changes in the Japanese taxation system long ago negated any cost benefit to the club in paying bonuses and the percentage of part-time staff has increased to 50% of the total.
Yours sincerely
Tic Tac..Tic Tac..Tic Tac..Tic Tac
Tic Tac
Your comments are a bit off track as I understood the focus of this column is the redevelopment project.
But as you have raised some numbers, let me throw one more in. Some years ago I sought clarification of an item called 'Buy Out Expense' which was/is? only allocated to the Admin&General Department. from recall this was about USD 600,000 per annum. Got no answer but I have always wondered what this large sum of money was for.
There is certainly a large amount of cash washing around the club each year and I tend to agree we need more disclosure as to where it is going but lets focus on the redevelopment for the moment.
As to Mr Marques' points...lets just hope that these actions from past years are never repeated.
To the person above, this blog can cover any topic related to TAC - anything you feel is not transparent or accountable.
The focus is the relocation/redevelopment but that doesn't exclude other issues of concern.
There is a likelihood that a blog like this ends up as the depository for the disaffected, the types who instead of making active efforts to aid the decision making process of the mooted new TAC plan, instead remain anonymous and just bitch about the whole thing.
OK, so I am guilty, but I do not know a better way to raise the issue below than the way I have worded it.
There seem to be two versions of what is going on in the specific area of the proposed redevelopment in relation to contracts and sites and ownership.
The first - the benign one - says that non-expert Japanese and foreign capital companies enter into redevelopment projects of their owned properties and/or land with major Japanese development companies very frequently, and such projects go ahead without great incident and everybody ends up happy.
The second says that however well populated TAC's committees are with "experts", and no matter how much legal advice is being obtained, there is a very real risk that TAC's appointed development partner will out-negotiate the TAC amateurs and end up somehow gaining control of the Azabudai site soon or in the next few years. Which of course presupposes they would act in what sounds like a highly duplicitous manner.
Question for those in charge : which is it ? Can you put minds at rest on this ?
They may not have to out-negotiate as they have time on theor side.
All that is required is significant delays and stalling and the financial position of the club will become such that it essentially goes bankrupt.
The offsite gets stretched by a year and the club is essentially runs out of cash. Overheads but no revenue and a rapidly dwindling membership that in all likelihood would not return.
As to be a site for the dissaffected, I would rather call it a site for the dis-enfranchised.
If they have time on their side, I would welcome any member of the LRPC to comment here, it's an open forum...
Dear Mr Marques (obviously not your real name),
Thank you! It appears that a lot of the rumors are probably true.
A grateful blog fan
This blog is a great idea and I hope it serves to heighten members' awareness about the BOG's ill-conceived and underhanded redevelopment plans. Hopefully you manage to galvanize enough support to overrule the BOG's poor and unilaterally made decisions. However, re. Tic Tac's comments above: These are good points but probably a little off subject here. Besides, to be fair, I think the TAC dining facilities are reasonably priced and am not surprised the Admin and General Dept. are allocated the lion's share of the employee’s meal benefits. There are after all some very large people over there; I mean look at the Assistant General Manager - I bet he packs down a bucket of those ribs with his morning coffee alone!
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