Big Changes in the Clair Tappaan Lodge Committee (CTL Com)

By Olivia Diaz

July 2006 marked the beginning of Ernie Malamud’s term as Chair of the CTL Com. He assumed direction of the Committee at a time when the Clair Tappaan Lodge (CTL) was under threat of being sold by the Sierra Club because of continuing large annual deficits. At the end of his first half year, the deficit was $106,000.

Ernie aggressively built the CTL Committee from its previous small membership to its present membership of thirty-eight. The focus moved from CTL’s traditional role simply as a “snow lodge” to a year-round lodge with opportunities for educational programming for school children. The new members of the CTL Committee have been marketing and pursuing all possibilities they could to increase occupancy, including making small improvements to make moving around the lodge easier, and making Hutchinson Lodge safe and warmer with a more appealing and functional kitchen.

After a year and a half of Ernie’s leadership, the 2007 budget was $60,000 short, the lowest deficit in over 10 years

Three bold initiatives in the direction of the paradigm shift of “snow lodge to all-year lodge” are bearing fruit in the drive to make CTL break even by the Board of Directors’ deadline of September 30, 2008. The appeal to schools to bring their students for environmental education, recreation and science programs continues to grow. A new relationship was established with Elder Hostel and while the initial offerings faltered, the three 2008 summer inter-generational programs are filling up. We entered into a contract with the Global Distribution system (GDS) to get CTL mentioned on hundreds of web sites that offer lodging in the Lake Tahoe area. Bookings from that source are promising.

The Lodge has announced an Outings program and is recruiting Outings Leaders to become certified CTL Outings Leaders to supplement CTL staff’s weekly outings. Staff is currently leading snow outings - snowshoe, cross country and backcountry ski tours. A full moon snowshoe trek is scheduled on March 21. For details, see the web site at http://ctl.sierraclub.org/outings/lodges/ctl/contact.asp. With the series of huge winter storms hitting the Sierra, our CTL Lodge is showing that, while it is beautiful all year long and has other uses, it still is a great place to experience the snow.

Last year Ernie spearheaded the Committee to produce a comprehensive and professionally produced Five-Year Strategic Plan, which was published in August 2007. A few copies are still available at $22.50.

At its November 10 quarterly meeting, the CTL Committee started to implement the steps outlined in the Strategic Plan by setting priorities. They agreed that the highest priority for increasing occupancy was to improve the path to the South entrance. A group of committee members has been researching various possibilities that would make the approach less intimidating to guests. Each possibility must be researched for financial data to help us decide the next step. The committee could use help in this phase and also later when we begin to make the changes to improve the pathway. We will need general and construction volunteers, donated supplies and loaned equipment. Will you help us?

At the end of that meeting, Ernie announced his resignation as the Chair effective at the end of 2007 to turn his attention to other professional commitments. The CTL Committee proposed three long-time supporters Diane Boyer, Olivia Diaz and Liz Wise, acting together, to take over the functions of leading the committee. Please see the article introducing the three new members of the Troika.