Hello Members of Subud California,
The charter for our Property Management Committee (PMC) was ratified by the Subud California Council during our meeting at the National Gathering in September. The PMC has been active for Subud California during the past two years, helping to plan and complete projects initiated by centers, both for their physical properties and the businesses that support them. The PMC has helped several centers to improve their buildings and also helped centers to increase their actual and potential revenues.
The PMC is also tasked with reviewing loan and grant requests, lease documents and making recommendations to the council regarding approval. They have assisted in drafting and negotiating leases that are bringing significantly larger incomes to the Sonoma and LA centers.
They have researched and digested a wealth of detail doing this, thus freeing the Regional Council, Committee and staff of Subud California to focus more on items of policy and significant decision. This is enabling us to begin to think in a more long-term way about our properties so that their values to our members, our Subud organizations and our communities can be optimized in the future.
The PMC has recently devised a simplified process to assess all our buildings for immediate and long-term major maintenance and repair needs. This will be accomplished through an annual review done by the PMC working with each Center. The review will help all Centers with long-term planning, and will also offer a big picture view across the Region which will be very useful for planning and prioritizing the use of the Region’s funds.
The PMC members (currently Farah Hess (Chair), Hamilton Chaffee and Arthur Barrett) have among them the expertise to vet many aspects of property management and can assist in hiring professional advice and assistance when needed.
Members of the PMC will be reaching out to center committee chairs to initiate this process in the coming weeks.
I am personally very grateful to the PMC members who are helping make our work for Subud California less burdensome and more rewarding.
Blessings,
Robert Mertens, Subud California Chair