(Photo by Ann Marie Shambaugh/Current Publishing)
A local publication looked into the case of a former member of Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Ind., who resigned in July 2021 and was seeking a return of the more than $6,000 he paid for ownership certificates when joining the club more than 20 years earlier. The member was expecting a quick refund because the club has had a waiting list for five years, but Woodland’s current President said that certificate model had been phased out and those holding them could only be paid based on available cash flow. An attorney specializing in private clubs told the publication “There are clubs whose certificates are never to be refunded, because the conditions will likely never be realized.”
Current Publishing of Carmel, Ind. recently looked into the question of whether refunds for ownership certificates are now being issued more quickly to members who resign from clubs that have seen their waiting lists grow in recent years.
Current Publishing’s article described the case of Greg Evans, who resigned his membership from Carmel’s Woodland Country Club in July 2021. Evans expected to soon be refunded more than $6,000 he paid for ownership certificates when he joined the club more than 20 years ago, Current Publishing reported.
Instead, Evans learned that it could be a decade or more until he receives the funds, which, according to an attorney who specializes in private clubs, isn’t unusual for organizations with model’s like Woodland’s, Current Publishing reported.
Woodland CC discontinued issuing optional ownership certificates, which helped fund major projects and purchases, soon after Evans joined, Current Publishing reported. So after resigning, Evans discovered he was No. 198 in line to get his money back.
Evans told Current Publishing that he was originally given the impression he’d receive his refund at the time of his resignation and was shocked to learn that those near the front of the waiting list had been on it for more than 12 years. The situation “smells to high heaven,” he said.
“There’s something wrong there, big time,” Evans said. “They’ve had that club full where there’s a waiting list to get in for over five years now.”
Tim Miller, Woodland’s President, told Current Publishing that each year, the Woodland Board decides how many of the older optional certificates to refund based on available cash flow at the time. The process is outlined by the club’s bylaws, Miller said.
Woodland CC phased out its optional ownership certificate model in the early 2000s, and since then it has issued assessments to cover major project costs, Miller added. Now, all club members are issued a $500 ownership certificate when they join, and after leaving the club that amount is refunded once a new member joins.
“It’s a very strict process, and we never vary from it,” Miller said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 97 years old and you retire today—[if] you’re the last person to resign from the club, you go in that line.”
Evans has been the only former club member to raise concerns about the refund process during his tenure as President, Miller told Current Publishing. He added that he wasn’t sure how long other former club members had been on the refund waiting list.
But another former club member, who said he didn’t believe that Woodland was doing anything “underhanded,” confirmed to Current Publishing that he had been waiting for more than 13 years for his refund.
Fred Somers, an Atlanta-based attorney whose specialties include advising private clubs, told Current Publishing that it’s not unusual for former club members to be disappointed by the process of receiving a refund.
“There is no ‘normal’ to these refund schemes,” Somers said. “The ‘waiting periods’ vary, depending on the terms of the certificate, the plan, bylaws, resolution adopting their issuance, the club’s financial condition at the time certificates are presented for refund, and the good faith of the club management and Board.”
It’s not an “anomaly” to wait more than a decade for a refund, Somers added.
“There are clubs whose refundable certificates are never to be refunded, because the refund conditions will likely never be realized,” he said.
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