We are heard!A journalist for the Today newspaper from MediaCorp came by to the club yesterday to look around and interview some members. The article is in today's edition on page 6. "The Legends Town Club. New building, new problems". The online version is here; I also put it below for easy reading.
She quoted me a few times in the article, but I feel she sensationalized it a bit. Getting the juicy parts. I guess this means my family and I will likely be booted from the club, and our membership will be summarily dismissed.
Wait!!! My wife says that they quoted a "John Nguyen" and not me (Joe Nguyen). There are lots of Nguyens around - half of the population of Vietnam are Nguyens. Must be another member. I am innocent. Don't kick me out!
Then again.. I could use "John Nguyen" as my alias... It kinda sounds like "John Wayne".Too bad, they did not give the URL of the blog. I hope this spreads the word, but from my experience, word of mouth works better - so please get other members on this site.
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New building, new problems
Plan for hotel draws ire of some members
Thursday • October 9, 2008
Ong Dai Lin (dailin@mediacorp.com.sg)
A TOWN club set amid the lush landscape of Fort Canning Park will be turned into a luxury boutique hotel as part of a multi-million dollar revamp — but some club members are unhappy about the change.
Mr John Nguyen, a member of The Legends Fort Canning Park, said: “We will lose the feeling of being in a spacious, colonial setting. We will lose the ambience and charm of the place.”
The building was built by the British in 1926 and housed the British Far East Command Centre during World War II.
Under the $70-million renovation plan, the club building will be converted into a boutique hotel, while the club itself will be housed in a three-storey glass building constructed on the space that the present tennis court currently occupies.
Mr Nguyen added: “If the hotel is built here, we (club members) will become second-class citizens.”
The 37-year-old was “quite upset” — enough to set up a blog about the renovations after attending a members’ briefing session on Monday.
“I set up the blog after the meetingbecause I wanted to get members of the club together and use it as a forum of discussion to see how other people felt and for the management to see it,” said Mr Nguyen.
Some members were also unhappy about the suddenness of the announcement. Mr Ken Low, director of a trading company, said: “We are not happy to be rushed into a deal that they planned — a lot of things are hanging in the air and we want to know more about our rights as members.”
Ms Amy Cheong, director of marketing of The Legends Fort Canning Park, said the club knows about Mr Nguyen’s blog and is replying to its members’ queries and is considering their comments.
Ms Cheong said the club had to revamp its business model because it is making losses. “The club was built for 10,000 members but right now we only have 1,200. There is not enough economic use of the space.”
When asked about the short notice given to club members, she said: “Since January, we have informed members in our bi-monthly newsletter that there will be renovations to the club, although no details were given.”
For now, Mr Nguyen hopes to get enough support from the club members to have a conference “to decide what we want, like maybe a petition and have a dialogue with the management”.
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2 comments:
Hippy!! I was happy when I read the article this morning....In fact, after the Monday's meeting, I was mentioning maybe it is worth to bring the issue on newspaper. Guess my tots are read.
I had explained to the management (through Amy) that the basis upon which we had subscribed as members to the club has changed and management should consider a buy-back scheme. Her reply was that management is not offering any buy-back scheme for the time being.
I am aghast firstly at the short notice given to members and secondly the fact that members are not consulted on the upgrading process. There is no survey done recently on the facilities which members would like to be retained and there are no updates given to members. It appears that management will go ahead with renovations whether members like it or not. In that case, I would think it reasonable that management considers a reasonable buy-back scheme for members who no longer want to be part of this so called “exclusive” club.
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