# Destination Club Association - Model Act?



## Elsway (Jun 17, 2007)

The Destination Club Association (DCA) was formed following the Tanner & Haley bankruptcy with the expressed purpose of assuring/guaranteeing consumers that their member deposits are safe.  It has been nearly a year since the DCA raised the idea of a "Model Act" which would require compliance on each of the associatins members.

http://www.heliumreport.com/destina...-club-association-needs-to-step-up-000439.php

In September 2006, the ARDA suggested predicted a new sense of urgency in developing a regulatory model for the DC industry (which would eventually lead to legislation).

http://www.arda.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Last_Word_September_2006

What happened to the DCA and the Model Act?  Their project seems to have stalled...

Personally, I think consumers will feel better about DCs if they were governed by a strong industry oversight association, and/or government legislation.  Agree?


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## PerryM (Jun 18, 2007)

*Competition is the solution...*

Personally, I’d love to see a heavyweight timeshare organization come in and dominate the industry.  I’d assume that they would just implement safeguards that are norm in the timeshare industry.

Deeds in the name of the members would do a lot.

1 in/1 out would do a lot.

CPA audits my major accounting firms with 6 month follow-up audits would do a lot.

Backing up the refundable portion of the membership fee with something would do a lot.

Wind down clauses that are reasonable and common sense would do a lot.

I’d rather have competition implement sweeping procedures which will solve most of the concerns members have, rather than big brother or big organization do it.


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## travelguy (Jun 18, 2007)

Elsway said:


> The Destination Club Association (DCA) was formed following the Tanner & Haley bankruptcy with the expressed purpose of assuring/guaranteeing consumers that their member deposits are safe.  It has been nearly a year since the DCA raised the idea of a "Model Act" which would require compliance on each of the associatins members.
> 
> http://www.heliumreport.com/destina...-club-association-needs-to-step-up-000439.php
> 
> ...



My brief understanding of the DCA is that it is alive and well.  The founding members have established the auditing procedures and are in the final process of the audited financials and audited Net Asset Test.  The Net Asset test is "the club’s ability to repay all debt and member obligations".

I believe that the time taken to establish all the various requirements for inclusion in the DCA and then the implementation of these requirements is very reasonable so far.  Remember that these are very competitive companies that have come together with a unanimous agreement on how to measure and regulate their businesses.  I don't believe that most industries would be able to come to that type of consensus, let alone implement it.

It's understandable that the DC industry would want to establish strict requirements of accountability with the DCA as a preemptive to government oversight.  As any of us that have been in business can attest, it's better to regulate your own industry than have, as Perry calls it, Big Brother legislate it.

I only follow HCC at this point and know that they have finished their audits in accordance with DCA and GAAP requirements and meet the Net Asset Test (and then some).  More info on this is available from Dan Moorhead, High Country Club CFO.


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## travelguy (Jun 18, 2007)

This thread got me interested in the current status of the DCA so I decided to do as I tell others to do .... I sent an e-mail to Dan Moorhead, the CFO at HCC and asked for some current information on the DCA and HCC.  I'll summarize some of what he told me that is not in my previous post:

1. The DCA was working on regulating the DC industry long before the T&H bankruptcy.  I believe that may be because other DCs saw the T&H situation coming due to the T&H wacky business practices.

2. The DCA is finalizing it's business practices and making sure that they can monitor DC compliance.  We talk alot about the tests and audits but forget that the DCA then has to make sure that the member DCs remain compliant.

Most importantly, the following quote from High Country Club best answers the original question posed in this thread: " It may take years to get these (DCA) best practices adopted by the states (due to the lengthy process) so we are working on a way to self-regulate the industry."  In other words, the DC industry is working hard and being proactive to prove their financial viability to members and potential members, not running away from regulation and accountability.


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## Elsway (Jun 18, 2007)

travelguy said:


> This thread got me interested in the current status of the DCA so I decided to do as I tell others to do .... I sent an e-mail to Dan Moorhead, the CFO at HCC and asked for some current information on the DCA and HCC.  I'll summarize some of what he told me that is not in my previous post:
> 
> 1. The DCA was working on regulating the DC industry long before the T&H bankruptcy.  I believe that may be because other DCs saw the T&H situation coming due to the T&H wacky business practices.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the quality info - although I am disappointed to learn that there is probably nothing imminent in terms of a best practices accord with teeth.  The most unfortunate outcome, in my opinion, would be to have the individual States put together their own regulations without uniform guidelines.


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