MROP (ORE/VRI)Special Assessment!

[brg850]

I think we really need to find a member that is going to the meeting and is going to vote against the special assessment and then appoint that person as our proxy. Any ideas on how to accomplish this?

You can select the board or put Mr. Noel Hyde's name on it since he will be at the meeting. If you put " No to the special assessment" as voting instruction, this will them to cast "NO" vote.

But if they don't play by the rules, that's another story.

 

[JudyS]

I own two MROP contracts, so I am following this situation with interest. I am hoping that the MROP board just made a mistake (or rather, several mistakes), rather than deliberately trying to cheat the owners. However, I don't like how the vote on the Special Assessment is being handled, so I'm not sure if the Special Assessment was an innocent mistake or not.

As my profile says, I own lots of VRI managed weeks, including some that used to be managed by ORE, and some that were never part of ORE. I wasn't happy when VRI bought ORE -- I think VRI is a good management company, but they are a for-profit organization, and ORE was a non-profit. Still, I always felt that MROP was a good, owner-run organization, and I hadn't expected them to be affected much by the puchase of ORE by VRI. I'm not sure what to think at this point.

In March 2006 we went to a TS presentation at the Snow Canyon Villas and made the mistake of purchasing 108,000 RCI points for $18,000. We were told at the time that this would be our home resort and many other things that have turned out to be untrue. We are owners and part of MROP and have not received any letter regarding a special assessment. Maybe the owners who already paid a large chunk of money flor Snow Canyon are not included in the SA, but it that would also seem to go against the by-laws of the association.

We actually live in St George. I am going to go to Snow Canyon Villas and see if I can get any additional info. I do not trust the sales people there at all, but I will see what I can find out.

Lynn, do you have a deed for your timeshare? Or, perhaps a MROP share certificate? I am wondering what it is that you actually own. I'm not aware of any type of MROP that would be worth 108,000 RCI Points (unless maybe you own several shares.)

Lynnray's experience with Wroman concerns me, too. Actually, the main thing I don't like about VRI is that they encourage resorts to bring Wroman in to do RCI Points conversions. As a result, Points conversions of VRI weeks are way overpriced -- I believe the price is $2500 to convert a week, plus $500 to convert additional weeks. Someone posted on this thread that Wroman is no longer doing RCI Points conversions for MROP. If so, that's a good things. Does anyone know if MROP weeks can no longer be converted to RCI Points, or is someone else now doing the conversion?

 

[brg850]

Report this to Utah Attorney General

The proxy/ballot form for the special meeting MROP sent out last week is incomplete, misleading and lack of clear instructions. It will have adverse impact on the voting process, which is unfair to the owners. It is illegal!

The MORP Board has decided on their own to purchase additional St. George 3-bedroom condo units for the purpose of selling them. Now they can not get the funding, therefore they are forcing are us to pay for it through the special assessment.

According to the bylaws,
"Section 7.02. Purpose of Assessments. Assessments shall be used exclusively to promote the recreation, health, and safety of the Members and to pay for the improvement, operation and maintenance of the Timeshare Units owned, leased or managed by the Association for the benefit of its Members, for the administration of the Timeshare Program, reimbursement of expenses and other expenditures incurred by the Association in the performance of its duties as set forth in these Bylaw."

No matter what the outcome of the special assessment vote will be, the assessment can not be used for the expenses of acquiring, marketing and selling the St. George 3-bedroom condos. It's violating the bylaws. Then what will happen next?

At this point, I think we better start reporting all this to Utah Attorney General.

http://www.dcp.utah.gov/enforcement/complaint.html

http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/fraud.html

 

[RayH]

Looks like MROP is trying to discourage the owners from voting. I wonder if we should send our proxy/ballots registered mail. I'm afraid some of our so called ballots may get "LOST".

 

[mtrottier]

I live in SLC and will attend Feb 6

I live in North Salt Lake and will be happy to cast a Proxy vote for anyone AGAINST ANY ASSESSMENT in person at the meeting on Feb 6th.

Even if there were a valid reason for this assessment the manner in which they are trying to collect it is completely inappropriate!

Please feel free to contact me by email or phone.
mrtrott@yahoo.com
801 557-8368

 

[shagnut]

Sent you an email for you to vote NO!! for me. shaggy

 

[ausman]

Great. Appreciate the offer.

Could you send me your full name so I can fill out the proxy. I'll email you back so you know whose proxy you have.

 

[Carlsbadguy]

Can you also send me your full name to vote against.

 

[teepeeca]

I sent you an e-mail to be my proxy and to vote against the special assessment. THANK YOU !!!

Tony

 

[bart12]

Complaint to Department of Consumer Protection or AG

The proxy/ballot form for the special meeting MROP sent out last week is incomplete, misleading and lack of clear instructions. It will have adverse impact on the voting process, which is unfair to the owners. It is illegal!

The MORP Board has decided on their own to purchase additional St. George 3-bedroom condo units for the purpose of selling them. Now they can not get the funding, therefore they are forcing are us to pay for it through the special assessment.

According to the bylaws,
"Section 7.02. Purpose of Assessments. Assessments shall be used exclusively to promote the recreation, health, and safety of the Members and to pay for the improvement, operation and maintenance of the Timeshare Units owned, leased or managed by the Association for the benefit of its Members, for the administration of the Timeshare Program, reimbursement of expenses and other expenditures incurred by the Association in the performance of its duties as set forth in these Bylaw."

No matter what the outcome of the special assessment vote will be, the assessment can not be used for the expenses of acquiring, marketing and selling the St. George 3-bedroom condos. It's violating the bylaws. Then what will happen next?

At this point, I think we better start reporting all this to Utah Attorney General.

http://www.dcp.utah.gov/enforcement/complaint.html

http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/fraud.html

Hello brg850,

Did you file a complaint with either agency? Any feedback from either one?

 

[brg850]

Filing Complaints

It will probably be a few weeks before they will get back to us. We need more owners filing complaints so they will look into this matter promptly.

The complaint form is a Adobe PDF form down load from available at
http://www.dcp.utah.gov/downloads/complaintform.pdf

We need to stop MROP from using the special assessment fund for purposes not permitted by the bylaws. Else even if we all vote "no" to the special assessment, the MROP board can still send us another special assessment bill within the 25% limitation, and bill us the remaining portion again in the next coming year.

I am sending my complaint form out by next Wednesday. Please send me a email at mrop_special@yahoo.com if I can put down your name in as additional reference information or we can share info if you want to file additional complaints.

p.s.

I just noticed "The MROP Members Only web site is currently unavailable while maintenance is being performed". By the time the site is back up again, most of the linked member documents will probably be relocated. If you still have the supplemental budget, please contact me through the new email address. Thanks.

(The site just went back online, the documents are now located under members folder links. Here's the part of the note I received from the MROP Members Forum Administrator: If MROP owners wish to view these documents, then they should log onto the MROP Owners Only section of the multi-resorts.com web site.)

 

[lynnray]

I own two MROP contracts, so I am following this situation with interest. I am hoping that the MROP board just made a mistake (or rather, several mistakes), rather than deliberately trying to cheat the owners. However, I don't like how the vote on the Special Assessment is being handled, so I'm not sure if the Special Assessment was an innocent mistake or not.

As my profile says, I own lots of VRI managed weeks, including some that used to be managed by ORE, and some that were never part of ORE. I wasn't happy when VRI bought ORE -- I think VRI is a good management company, but they are a for-profit organization, and ORE was a non-profit. Still, I always felt that MROP was a good, owner-run organization, and I hadn't expected them to be affected much by the puchase of ORE by VRI. I'm not sure what to think at this point.

Lynn, do you have a deed for your timeshare? Or, perhaps a MROP share certificate? I am wondering what it is that you actually own. I'm not aware of any type of MROP that would be worth 108,000 RCI Points (unless maybe you own several shares.)

Lynnray's experience with Wroman concerns me, too. Actually, the main thing I don't like about VRI is that they encourage resorts to bring Wroman in to do RCI Points conversions. As a result, Points conversions of VRI weeks are way overpriced -- I believe the price is $2500 to convert a week, plus $500 to convert additional weeks. Someone posted on this thread that Wroman is no longer doing RCI Points conversions for MROP. If so, that's a good things. Does anyone know if MROP weeks can no longer be converted to RCI Points, or is someone else now doing the conversion?

Judy - when we purchased our points from Snow Canyon Villas, we were told we would have a "deed". As it turns out, we have a "MROP share certificate". MROP holds the deeds to the properties. I have also found out that the Snow Canyon Villas project is dead and the replacement project is the one that needs the special assessment. Also, Wroman is definitely out of the picture, which is a good thing. I don't "own" anything - all I have is RCI points - I am part of the MROP family and supposedly can get great nightly rate at their properties, but so far none have ever been available.

Another thing is we never got a notice of the special assessment of of the meeting coming up. It appears because we only have points, we are treated differently.

 

[Carlsbadguy]

re;vote

I was wondering what people have figured out to do with the ballot to vote no?

 

[mtrottier]

Send Proxie for no Vote to:

If you want to send me your proxie fill it out and send it to:


Trottier Family Trust, Robert O & Janette P


163 North 550 East
North Salt Lake UT, 84054

 

[KevJan]

Just sent an E-mail to mrtrott@yahoo.com.

 

[w879jr1]

Proxy Form

To allow for postal delays etc. I have decided to post my proxy form from the UK now. This means that it will be in the postal system on Monday 28th January and I hope that it will arrive in Salt Lake City before the special meeting.

I have appointed the Board of Trustees as my proxy to vote "at this first instance, AGAINST the special assessment". I added words to that effect on the proxy form which states that "The holder(s) of this proxy is/are hereby directed to vote on all business rightfully brought before the membership, and to vote specifically regarding the Special Assessment as I/we have instructed"

I gather from previous postings in forums that the board, (and I think of Noel Hyde in particular), are members of MROP just like me, and that they are not attempting to rush their plans onto the membership, so I hope that they will allow an initial no vote to give all options a free airing. I guess that an initial SA within limits allowed by MROP rules would have to be accepted.

I agree with a poster on the MROP forum that the special assessment may have some merit, but would wish that majority membership approval is a pre-requisite. I only want to see a 'good value' association continue to prosper.

 

[bogey21]

I wasn't happy when VRI bought ORE -- I think VRI is a good management company, but they are a for-profit organization, and ORE was a non-profit. Still, I always felt that MROP was a good, owner-run organization, and I hadn't expected them to be affected much by the puchase of ORE by VRI. I'm not sure what to think at this point.

I also was a very satisfied ORE/MROP owner when they were ORE/MROP. After they sold I was apprehensive. Before I had time to see how it all played out VRI dumped my resort (Sweetwater Lift Lodge in Park City, UT). When it ended up being managed by Trading Places I punted and gave my Week to charity. Nothing against Trading Places. I know nothing about them but I got tired of the musical chairs.

GEORGE

 

[CharlesS]

I also was a very satisfied ORE/MROP owner when they were ORE/MROP. After they sold I was apprehensive. Before I had time to see how it all played out VRI dumped my resort (Sweetwater Lift Lodge in Park City, UT). When it ended up being managed by Trading Places I punted and gave my Week to charity. Nothing against Trading Places. I know nothing about them but I got tired of the musical chairs.

GEORGE

I own at a VRI managed resort and therefore have an interest in VRI since I can trade into VRI resorts.


You say VRI "dumped" your resort. I assume there was a reason why your resort was "dumped". Perhaps your resort did not meet VRI standards and was not willing to meet them. Maybe the HOA was hostile to VRI. Maybe the resort is too small to afford the VRI management fee. Do you have any feeling for the reason?

Charles

 

[gravityrules]

2006 Annual Meeting minutes

By request and since the link to the 2006 meeting minutes no longer works, here is the text of that meeting.

DRAFT
Multi Resort Ownership Plan, Inc. (MROP)
2006 Annual Meeting Minutes

DATE: Saturday, April 29, 2006
TIME: 11:00 a.m.
PLACE: Red Lion Hotel

161 W. 600 S.
SLC, UT 84101

Attending:
I. Welcome & Determination of Quorum
Chris Fonnesbeck, President, called the meeting to order at 11:04 a.m. There were 2,096 members represented in person or by proxy. The quorum requirement was 1,134 members (10% of total membership). A legal quorum was thus achieved.

II. Introductions
Chris Fonnesbeck introduced all of the MROP Board Members and ORE Staff members in attendance. He also welcomed all members in attendance.

III. Approval of Minutes from the 2005 Annual Meeting
The minutes from the 2005 Annual Meeting were reviewed.
Motion: Merle Andersen moved to approve the minutes from the 2005 Annual Meeting as written. Denise Thomas seconded. The motion passed unanimously.

IV. President’s Report
Chris Fonnesbeck spoke about the benefits of owning a MROP Membership by telling the Members stories about the fun things that his family has done and places his family has vacationed in the many years that they have owned their MROP weeks. He also reported on some of the new and exciting changes with MROP.

V. Managing Agent Report – ORE Terry Bricco reported that the merger with Resorts West has been completed and former Resorts West owners are beginning to use the MROP system. He also mentioned the renovations at Bonaparte’s Quarters, Puente Vista and See the Sea.

Colleen Freeman reported to the membership on the Growth and Expansion of MROP.

There will always be a 1:1 ratio in the Association. This means there will always be a week of use for each week sold.

The MROP board chooses to sell additional memberships and purchase additional inventory for the following reasons:
1) It allows owners to have new resorts to use.
2) It subsidizes the operating budget.
3) The Owners have 60 plus locations to use without the cost of External exchange companies.

4) In order to defray additional costs to ALL of the Owners, a “User” fee was initiated in a few high cost, high demand locations.

The Board only allows growth as long as it can recover the costs without any impact on the existing owners maintenance fees.

MROP is currently looking at resort properties in Maine and is currently adding locations in Southern California, Las Vegas and San Antonio, TX. Suggestions from owners for new locations are always welcome.

Colleen reported on the Snow Canyon Villas project in St. George as well as information regarding Wroman, the Master Broker of RCI Points and the interest the Owners have expressed in points programs over the past 3 years.

VI. Elections – Vote to fill 5 seats on the Board of Trustees

Gerald Thompson, Secretary/Treasurer, conducted the election. There were 5 trustees to be elected. Four incumbent trustees were seeking re*election: Chris Fonnesbeck, Bud Machin, Dave Racker and Gerald Thompson were up for election. In addition to the incumbents, the following 6 members declared candidacy for the Board: L.C. Thomas, Joe Wood, Nellie Christensen, Steven Christensen, and Norm Sammis. There were no nominations from the floor. All candidates in attendance were given a few minutes to speak.
Ballots were collected and votes tabulated by the ORE staff and member volunteers.
Gerald Thompson announced Chris Fonnesbeck, Bud Machin, Dave Racker, Gerald Thompson and Steven Christensen were elected to the board.

VII. Treasurer’s Report

A. 2005*2006 Budget & 9/30/05 Year End Audited

Brad Gillies, ORE Vice President of Finance, reviewed the 2005*2006 Budget as well as the 9/30/05 year end audited Financial Statement.

B. Financial Resolutions

Resolution 1: Resolution to ratify the 2005*2006 Fiscal Year Budget and authorize the funding of a Capital Reserve account in the amount of $200,000.
Motion: Leone Rogers moved to ratify the 2005*2006 Fiscal Year Budget and authorize the funding of a Capital Reserve account in the amount of $200,000. The motion was seconded by Sid Johnson. The motion passed unanimously.

Resolution 2: Resolution to designate the Board of Trustees as the Agent of the Owners in assessing, collecting, and allocating Capital Reserve funds.

Resolution 3: Resolution to ratify the 9/30/05 Fiscal Year End Financial Statement, and to ratify the actions and decisions of the Board of Trustees since the prior annual meeting.
Motion: Frank May moved to designate the Board of Trustees as the Agent of the Owners in assessing, collecting, and allocating Capital Reserve funds. He also moved to ratify the 9/30/05 Fiscal Year End Financial Statement, and to ratify the actions and decisions of the Board of Trustees since the prior annual meeting. Nancy Larsen seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.

VIII. New Business

Lyn Larsen gave a visual presentation on the new MROP website. She also demonstrated how to use the ORE website to make online reservations.
Owner questions were addressed.

IX. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 p.m.

 

[Park]

Maybe MROP will report at the meeting information on the reservation change that has been made to the VRI web site and what it means.

What protection will be given to MROP owners of specific property vs fully floating ownerships when inventory is managed by RCI.

Are we to be at the mercy if people (VRI/RCI) who are looking out for the bottom line and not really for the interest of owners? Owners have little or no visibility of what is happening and must rely on the fact that the board is spending adequate time to insure the owners interest is cared for. Right now I am a little short on trust.

 

[gravityrules]

The MROP vacation handbook says all MROP memberships are 'floating' with title held by MROP membership. It's really a perpetual Right to Use within a pool of resorts-weeks owned by MROP itself, not the MROP members. Your MROP membership can have a higher priority than other MROP members into a specific resort.

I think you are dealing with a RCI points membership within MROP and in that case reservations are made through RCI rather than through MROP directly. I suspect that has something to do with your difficulties with the web based reservation system.

I've not seen the RCI points membership within MROP fully explained. What I can tell is that you get a certain number of RCI points based on an MROP membership. I suppose that you have 'priority' into your home resort (in RCI points speak) so you can use the assigned amount of RCI points to go to that resort or you can use RCI points (how many?) for other MROP resort-weeks. I expect that you could get another MROP week without paying a RCI exchange fee.

The handbook says RCI points conversion values are 38,000 for a MROP Red week, 24,000 for a White or Rotating week, and 15,000 for a Blue week. Then it says "all other point values are determined by purchase contract". So I suppose you may get considerably more points for a new MROP membership based on this new St. George resort (for example) than an existing MROP member would get for a conversion. So does it take 38,000 or 24,000 or 15,000 RCI points to get existing MROP resort-weeks?

VRI does the 'managing' for MROP. VRI took over this function through their purchase of ORE, a non-profit organization that previously provided management for MROP. VRI is a 'for profit' organization but MROP itself it still a non-profit.

Tonight is the special meeting night. I'd like to hear details from anyone able to attend.

 

[mtrottier]

Special Assessment Meeting Results

I attended the Special Assessment Meeting last night and the “Official” results are that the Assessment was approved!

The entire meeting was a sham! The president began the meeting saying that the board had the power to change the by-laws at anytime to remove provisions like the 25% limitations. Ultimately he was saying that regardless of the outcome of this vote members will be assessed what ever amount the board felt necessary. He also stated that the board had already evaluated all options and there were no other options so they are moving forward with the strategy as presented irregardless any objects by the members.

I personally feel that the “Official results” are not valid. Of the total membership of over 10,000 members there were a little over 2000 votes. I do not believe anyone in attendance voted in favor of the assessment so I believe what happened was that the proxy ballets that were mailed to MROP without a clear indication of voting preferences were counted as “Yes” votes. I feel the proxies were misleading and did not provide clear instructions on how to indicate a vote. I feel there needs to be a full accounting of the vote to determine the actual intent of those who mailed their proxy votes to MROP!

I don’t know what legal recourse we have at this point. One thing that did become very clear was that this situation has occurred because of the gross mismanagement of the association by the board and its’ officers. It also has become very clear that the board and officers have not acted in good faith and with full discloser.

 

[Dean]

I attended the Special Assessment Meeting last night and the “Official” results are that the Assessment was approved!

The entire meeting was a sham! The president began the meeting saying that the board had the power to change the by-laws at anytime to remove provisions like the 25% limitations. Ultimately he was saying that regardless of the outcome of this vote members will be assessed what ever amount the board felt necessary. He also stated that the board had already evaluated all options and there were no other options so they are moving forward with the strategy as presented irregardless any objects by the members.

I personally feel that the “Official results” are not valid. Of the total membership of over 10,000 members there were a little over 2000 votes. I do not believe anyone in attendance voted in favor of the assessment so I believe what happened was that the proxy ballets that were mailed to MROP without a clear indication of voting preferences were counted as “Yes” votes. I feel the proxies were misleading and did not provide clear instructions on how to indicate a vote. I feel there needs to be a full accounting of the vote to determine the actual intent of those who mailed their proxy votes to MROP!

I don’t know what legal recourse we have at this point. One thing that did become very clear was that this situation has occurred because of the gross mismanagement of the association by the board and its’ officers. It also has become very clear that the board and officers have not acted in good faith and with full discloser.

Unfortunately it was predictable.

 

[rkconnor]

Vri What is going on?

I tried yesterday to go on VRI to schedule and exchange and there was no website. I called an MROP number and was connected to a VRI representative who told me she didn't know why the website was gone but she could help me with scheduling. When I persisted with my question about the website she said she didn't know and there was no one she could refer me to but she thought it was temporary. This is on the heals of hearing that I am to be assessed $500 for my two week that I have owned for less than a month. The fact that the website just went away with no warning and the rep tells me there is no one that can give me an explanation makes me wonder about the stability of VRI/MROP. What is your take on it? Ron

 

[rkconnor]

I Paniced

I foun the web site that explains why the web site is down so feel better about what is happening.