The State College Elks Lodge hosted a special meeting of its members Thursday night to address what its president called its “untenable” financial situation.
The lodge owns and operates the 18- hole golf course at the State College Elks Country Club at 100 Elks Club Road just outside Boalsburg.
One option under discussion involves liquidation of the club’s assets, according to an email to members sent on Jan. 14 by the lodge’s exalted ruler, Chuck Pavloski, and signed by Pavloski and State College Elks Club President J. Mark Doyle.
In the email, Pavloski and Doyle call for members to attend the meeting to discuss and vote on the financial and logistical future of the State College Elks Country Club and the long-term viability of the State College Elks Lodge.
“Our current financial arrangement is untenable and needs a drastic change in direction,” Pavloski wrote. “The proposal to change this situation will likely include the liquidation of Elks Club assets.”
A vote of the lodge’s membership was required to empower the club’s board and the lodge’s trustees to act on any proposal that will alleviate the financial hardships facing the club, according to the email. The email outlined the lodge’s conditions
for an acceptable proposal: it must allow it to continue to function “as it presently does in the current facility” and will “include continuing the golf course operations and retention of golf membership under new management.”
Fees already paid by members for the 2012 golf season are being held in escrow and will only be used to operate the golf course, the email made clear.
Pavloski and Doyle did not return calls for comment Thursday. A call to the club was answered by a man who would not give his name said the club would have no comment until Friday.
Pavloski first announced the meeting in the lodge’s January newsletter.
“2011 was an awfully turbulent year with the club finances, and I salute our current club board and lodge trustees for their significant efforts with respect to keeping our club operations intact,” he said. The meeting, Pavloski wrote, would “present to the membership the plan they worked so hard to prepare that should allow the State College Elks Lodge to remain viable for the long term and generations to come.”
Cliff White can be reached at 235-3928.
