By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Thursday, August 8 (9:00 a.m.): There was a lot of new material to absorb, but there’s also a lot to fix with GRF’s room reservation system.

As part of an ongoing campaign to improve the process to reserve time in any of GRF’s rental rooms and other spaces, GRF’s Director of Community Services Ann Mottola, assisted by Kelsey Clyma, senior manager of resident services, led eight two-hour “Reservation Road Show” informational gatherings last week at Creekside to explain the new GRF room reservation booking process, which will go into effect Friday, Aug. 30, and to field questions about it.

About 45 people, most associated with one or more of Rossmoor’s more than 200 clubs and other organizations, sat in on the July 30 morning session, the third of eight planned two-hour Road Show sessions. All Rossmoor-based clubs and organizations will need to use the new process to book time in GRF facilities, and at least one representative of each Rossmoor club was required to attend one of these informational sessions, which were led by Mottola.

After an hour-long presentation, Mottola and Clyma fielded attendees’ questions for another hour. Questions covered everything from alcohol sales at club events, requirements for clubs’ “registered agents” and how many there can be, how club bylaws figure into the room reservation process, how far in advance room reservations should be made, what GRF custodial staff can and can’t set up, and others. Mottola said an “FAQ” document with answers to questions posed at the eight Road Show sessions will be available this week; further questions can be posed by emailing RoomReservations@Rossmoor.com

The overhaul of GRF’s Room Reservations Policy, Mottola said, was driven by a “nearly complete failure” of the old system in January, after two key employees with considerable institutional knowledge left GRF. A review of the policy was started in February, and Mottola first introduced proposed changes at the June Policy Committee meeting. The discussion has been ongoing ever since; the Policy Committee’s July 8 meeting drew 45 residents to the GRF Board Room (and via Zoom from the Fireside Room), and the Policy Committee discussion will continue Monday, Aug. 12.

The GRF Board is expected to discuss it in late August. “This is going to be a continuing conversation,” Mottola said.

The ultimate goal with the new policy, Mottola said, is to create a room reservation policy that is “consistent and equitable.” Ingredients for that include better matching facility rentals to the size and needs of each group; elimination of groups holding on to unneeded (and unused) reservations just to avoid “losing history;” elimination of groups subleasing and transferring longstanding rental dates; eliminating late departures from rented rooms and other spaces, causing both scheduling problems for GRF custodial staff and compromising subsequent users of those spaces; and trying to cut down on the number of non-residents who take part in activities booked at GRF facilities.

Mottola said clubs must have at least 20 members, must meet at least four times a year and have a maximum of 20% nonresidents as members to qualify for priority booking status.

Members of some clubs, notably dance clubs, say that nonresident limit could impede their ability to raise enough money to pay for live music. Representatives of at least three of these clubs attended the July 30 morning session.

“The only thing keeping our clubs going is that we have outside people coming in,” said Ced Ferrett, at this meeting representing the Fireside Dinner Dance Club, for which he is treasurer. “I belong to four (dance) clubs, and this would apply to all of them.”

Even if the information dispensed at these Road Show meetings wasn’t always welcome, Mottola said residents seemed to appreciate the level of transparency at these sessions.

“I think that this was the start of some great conversations around these issues,” she said.