STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
At the request of Marina management, the possibility of swapping the Marina Office with the Woodland Lounge had been raised with members and the feedback received summarised and passed back
From the VMMA Secretary – March 2017
As you requested, we canvassed views from the Members at the AGM reagrding the possibility of the Woodland Lounge and the Marina Office being switched.
Despite the large number of people attending the AGM, people were not generally in favour of a straight swap of the two rooms and their functions.
Some of the reasons given were:
- Members did not want to lose the convenience of direct access to the kitchen.
- For probably 95% of the time, there were never that many people in the lounge – so size was not a problem for the majority of the year.
- Some members thought that the current office had heating problems.
- For VMMA events, access to water (hot and cold) was needed and being to able to access it from the Woodland Lounge since the door was installed has been very beneficial and helpful.
People did appreciate the thought behind offering the swap given how crowded the Lounge gets at some of our events and there were a number of alternatives suggested. Perhaps the best thing to do would be for us to meet to talk over some of the ideas and get a feel for what would be viable – both economically and socially.
From the Marina
Please thank members for considering the proposal and for their feedback. I understand the importance of the kitchen access and appreciate the members help in installing the adjoining door last year. We believe members make a good point, the lounge is big enough for most occasions. Therefore, we will not take the plan forward and have decided instead to make better use of the office space by adding a counter to create a defined office and reception with nicer seating in the public area.
I would be happy to meet to discuss suggestions regarding how we could improve the facilities for larger events e.g. outside gazebo/canopy area etc.
From the VMMA Secretary
One suggestion that was made was to swap the office and the lounge but put a water and drainage feed to the current office underneath the decking which runs between the kitchen and the office. The suggestion was that this would enable a small sink unit to be installed. Having no plumbing experience I don’t know if this is feasible/practical but the person suggesting it implied it would be easy to do.
From the Marina
Thanks for the suggestion. However, on reflection I agree that we should keep the facilities as they are currently. I’ve gained approval from the senior team at Castle to make the alterations to the office as described below e.g. adding a counter to create a defined office and reception with nicer seating in the public area.