DCTraveler

Are there any other boards or resources out there for PE or UE members? I am so surprised that given the recent announcements that there aren't more members participating here (or at least somewhere). The only other thing I see is the Yahoo Groups, but it looks like it never took off.

PEmembergroup : Messages : 1-3 of 3

Does anyone have any ideas? UE has now cancelled the promised Town Hall meetings -- I guess they really don't want to have a dialogue.

smtravelor

Is it possible to set up a private forum for UE members only? More people may be inclined to post about the "upgrade" if the posts are not public.

Kagehitokiri

agreed..

members who are already on here should use any opportunity they might have to let other members know about this forum.

did they give any reason? what are they doing?

its impossible to verify... i presume the forums of ER (and HCC?) are behind the members login on their websites.

DC4MS

It is possible to add private sub-forums, but I "prefer" to keep the discussions open and transparent.

If there is a groundswell of requests, I will add "private" member only forums, but how do I make sure that a specific user is really a member of a specific club?

That is one benefit of using a screen name....there is a certain level of anonymity versus using your real name.

TarheelTraveler

Probably not when the dialogue is controversial or potentially negative. No matter what, it's wrong to say you're going to do one and then not do one. The members need to have faith that what is promised will in fact be done (and in the time frame stated).

A&K has done a few of these as part of the Crescendo acquisition and A&K Club updates. I thought they were very informative. Sure you've got some tough questions thrown at management by members (particularly the first Q&A related to the original acquisition of Crescendo by A&K), but management needs to be able to provide answers to the tough questions, particularly if you're a membership organization like a DC.

Maybe UE can implement a private forum like ER to prevent this from being discussed in the open.

Kagehitokiri

hmm, maybe there are more people who have joined multiple clubs. in that case, if ER(/HCC?) members posted about this forum on their club forums, some more members of UE might be reached.

Desties

There are probably far more lurkers here than participants. It's the nature of most discussion boards, and I imagine it's even greater here given the sensitive subject matter.

I can't believe that the town hall meeting is being called off, replaced by a series of one-way audio responses to the most e-mailed in questions. I'm guessing that the initial responses have been as heated as we've seen here, and Rich has realized that these town hall discussions won't be pretty if some of the more frustrated members begin accusing PE of selling them down the river in this deal.

The move will backfire, of course, because lurkers here who figured they would be more comfortable in voicing their concerns during the town hall meeting may either come here to vent in public or fume privately (which is the LAST thing that any club needs).

Kagehitokiri

and of course they could skip any "tough" questions..

DCTraveler

To all PE Legacy LURKERS: please post your thoughts so that we know we have some critical mass as to what would be a fair and equitable trade-in of a legacy PE plan versus a UE plan. We can't be the only ones with good ideas! It's going to take everyone being on roughly the same page and making a fuss to get a fair shake.

Kagehitokiri

perhaps in this thread > "Upgrade" and other paperwork >

Tedpilot

Kage - HCC does not have any private forums behind the member login area.

willmyclubmakeit

I know they handled the T&H and other member queries quite when when Jim had town hall meetings in the past. They actually reassured me which is difficult to do. He had 1 hour of prepared comments and an hour of open mike so they could not avoid questions. He did great and showed that UE (UR at the time) had an insightful and passionate leader. As we know they monitor this forum, I hope they take this nudge to continue the town hall forums/conference calls.

Very Generous One

Think we're all caught more than just a little off guard here. The consensus thinking seemed to be that we would treated equitably in the new arrangement and not feel like red-headed stepchildren.

Seems that Rich negotiated his comp/equity before he negotiated how the members were to be treated in the process.

Anyone who joined in the last year-please PM me? Think that lawyers will need to get involved here to create equitable solution or rescission rights. There are certainly enough lawyers who do class action work who are looking for cases.

What would be fair here? Hmm-some sort of actual incentive or discount versus list prices to upgrade if that is your choice, and being grandfathered at the dues level at the time you joined PE not UE current list dues. The hotel access is just a little lame, thanks.

The escalator clauses in these contract are the real killers. If they increase dues at CPI+4% and we assume CPI is just 3.5%-That will just more than double your dues at the Elite Platinum level in a decade from $32,000 to $65,593. PE's old model of a fixed amount of dues plus a nightly fee that would go up based on CPI+4, means that your total cost would go up at a much slower pace. Ran the number for PE Pinnacle membership on a 10 year basis using the same inflation factor and 42 nights-Your total costs went from $30,148 in year 1 to $38,793 in year 10.

Enough angst for now-let someone else pick up the hatchet where I left off....

Kagehitokiri

welcome to the forum Very Generous One.

Bourne

Like DC4MS, I personally am not for private forums be it ER, UE, QN, HCC or AK.

Think about this. Any post made on this forum is either ways anonymous. As Desties rightly put it, there are always more lurkers on a forum than active members. A private forum will limit the discussion to few and not allow existing lurkers to post their opinion and share their experiences.

__________________
The Nile is a river in Egypt......

governor

I thought old annual dues also went up by some CPI-linked measure and not just nightly fees. Either way, the real issue is financial transparency. Whenver there's low transparency, there will be some concern about the viability of the company providing services and ultimately providing liquidity in the future. I think every club needs to move away eventually from a 3 in and 1 out model. While they might think this helps maintain stability, I think in reality it hurts member growth. Propsective member's want the perception of liquidity even though they won't actually exercise it. So eventually when reaching a scalable level (i.e. 1,500 members) I think the club should allow 1 in and 1 out. If 5% of members resign you're only talking about backfilling 75 which is 50 more than under 3 in and 1 out. Do you think 50 more people would sign up with this favorable liquidity? I do. I wish the clubs with scale would recognize this and start throwing their weight around.

Further, people have no problem paying a non-refundable deposit for a country club even if it costs 25 - 150k in places like NYC, San Francisco, etc. They're ok with it so long as they can benefit for 25-40 years. If you were about viability you're annoyed at just losing that money and benefiting for an unknown amount of time.