Aloha Fellow Owners,

Hope you are all doing well and are getting ready for the Spring Season. Here at the Waikiki Banyan, we have already started our Spring cleaning. We’ve trimmed all the trees around the property and started power-washing the driveways and open areas. We’ve also cleaned up most of the trash, left-over construction material, old tires (not sure why we had these anyway!), miscellaneous owner- discarded items, etc. We will continue this work, but the cleaner/fresher look is already being noticed. Thanks to Sterling and the crew for moving this forward.

My thanks to those of you who sent in your proxies or attended the AOAO General Meeting in person. We just squeaked by with a quorum and were able to have a very productive meeting. As we said farewell to Director’s Dick Eide and Shraga Dachner and thanked them for their service on the board; we were delighted to welcome new Directors Jeanie Philips and John Guagliardo to our board. We also elected Board officers with me as President, Michael Job as Vice President; Kini Olegario as Secretary and Lorimegan Black as Treasurer. I know we all look forward to a very productive 2017.

Prior to our 14 March Board Meeting, we held an owner’s forum. I’d like to thank those owners that attended and provided the Board their feedback, input and concerns. We will post this on the website and provide our Board/GM responses once available.

The Board Meeting was also very productive and the board minutes will be posted on our website once approved at the next BOD Meeting. Essentially we moved to provide 60-notice to the Snack Bar operator to make way for potential new operator that would remain open longer. We also approved a 3rd party review and update of our Reserve Analysis to insure we are meeting our fiduciary responsibilities as well as helping with future budgeting and fee decisions. We also agreed to not take up the leased fee purchase option offered to us by Liliuokalani Trust for about 88 units so the Trust could sell to individual owners instead.

At the board meeting I also noted the following:

  • Designated Employee Parking took effect 1 March with all employees required to park in the sub-level parking on the first floor. . This is the first step of more planned changes to the parking facilities.
  • New staff communication radios have been received and implemented. So staff use of personal radios, music devices, cell phones, headphones and related are no longer permitted while working.
  • New signs have been ordered for the facility to provide updated info, standardizing the signage for enhanced property appeal, and to add new signs related to restricted access and private property for registered Guests/Owners use only.

We are also working on our cost savings projects (LED lighting), revenue generating projects (updated parking access & fees system), and continuous improvements plans in the Operations, HR, and Staffing areas. The GM continues to review, update and re-negotiate service contracts, including our trash hauling contract which will save us over $24,000 per year.

On behalf of the Board of Directors let me say thanks to Sterling Paulos for his tremendous efforts and leadership with the staff and support of the BOD actions; and to our staff for their continued hard work and support during this transition period. It’s been a great start to the New Year and we look forward to continued improvements and savings.

Also, On behalf of the Board of Directors and the GM, let me say “Mahalo” to all our owners for your continued support, feedback and suggestions. It is much appreciated.

Best regards,

Bob Bob Ivanoff
President, Board of Directors
AOAO of Waikiki Banyan, Inc.