Loch Rannoch Highland Club Forums

Back in June, we decided to see what the Unofficial Forum was like, because we were feeling out of touch with other Members/Owners. I tried on several occasions to Register, but it seemed that the site would not accept my application. Then earlier this month we tried again using a different email address (we don't like to be beaten!) and after an email to the Webmaster who 'made a few adjustments', I was accepted!!
I have never read such negative Posts in my life and sadly, much of it is personal and aimed at past and current Committee Members: Owners who have given up so much of their time to move the Club forward and have achieved much, despite Covid Lockdowns. The overall impression is that these Owners are determined to undermine the Committee, get a Management Company in place instead or sell/give the Resort to the Hotel Consortium. Sadly, there are some major contributors to the Unofficial Forum whose motives are questionable and certainly do not have the best interests of LRHC in mind.
I do not know if any of the Committee have access to the Unofficial Forum, but we found the extremely negative Posts and sentiments, so-called 'factual' information being shared, discussion of a 'fighting fund', slurring of Committee Members and plotting to change the future of the LRHC by skewing information extremely worrying. The Unofficial Forum is very inflammatory and the negativity is bounced between those using it, including ex Members of staff, those living in the community, ex Committee Members and some Owners who have other business interests which seem to be driving their motives. But of course Owners who visit the site are obviously reading this and we are very perturbed about the damage it could do to LRHC. We consider that some of the material being made available by previous employees should not have been removed from LRHC and been shared on the unofficial Forum.
If the LRHC Committee Secretary wishes to get in touch with us to discuss this Post, we believe it would be beneficial to the Committee.

Sorry , we forgot to say that we do not intend returning to the Unofficial Forum, although perhaps it would be wise to find out what is happening/ being said on there and by whom.

Good evening,
Perhaps like myself you have owned a HL at Rannoch since it was merely a Time Share concept on a set of Plans, and having bought into the Resort saw that initial Dream Holiday materialise in no little part due to the excellent relationship the Club had with the Loch Rannoch Hotel owned by Barratt and managed at that time by Nick Pattie. Nick organised family BBQs; Tennis Tournaments; Splash Hour for families in the Swimming Pool. Who could forget the great atmosphere of the Family Ceilidhs at the Hotel in the evening following a marvellous meal with all of the family in one of the Hotels Restaurants. Sadly over the following decades with the Hotel being sold and the loss of Nick Pattie; the amenities were greatly reduced until finally we lost access to the Hotel and the Pool. I wont go into details of the TMSL vs LRHC Court Case, suffice to say LRHC Lost and we as owners had to pay out in excess of £500,000! Can you imagine how many Apartments/Lodges could have been refurbished with that sum of money back then? This Court Case made many owners question our Club being run by a group of volunteers many of whom had absolutely no experience in the Hospitality Industry, but we continued down the same path.
Like you, I do believe most Owners volunteer to be on the Committee with a genuine desire to improve matters at the Club, however it is only when actually voted into place do they realise the amount of personal time required to do the job properly and many fall by the wayside; whilst others carry on regardless with little if any experience or indeed business acumen, and then there are the others, the Egotists as happened with some on the Committee voted into place at the 2019 AGM.
Many owners, including myself, are now counting the cost in the suffering of OTHERS, having voted this person into the Chair by swallowing hook; line and sinker her promises of Openness and A new start for the Club, not quite appreciating she obviously did not fully understand her role as Chairperson, resulting in the following months with most of the original Office bearers stepping back from the Committee due to the considerable stress being created within the Club by the Chairwoman as long serving staff were made redundant without discussion and refused Union representation, their posts being immediately filled with Contract Workers who then walked off the site as they would not accept the bullying from the Chair.
Local villagers protested about the Chairwoman moving up from the south of England with her husband and three dogs and into Glenrannoch House during a full Government Lockdown when the Locals were attempting to shield the very elderly within the Community, but their protests were silenced by the Chair who advised that they should not discuss Club business or indeed Village matters with Owners, on pain of what? With many Locals still working at the Club, villagers became too afraid to even be seen talking with owners lest the Chair construed it as them enlightening Owners. I thought it strange during visits to Rannoch that villagers would not even pass the time of day unless in a secluded area of the village and then they told all! With Newspaper headlines leading “Bullying at Loch Rannoch Highland Timeshare Club; a long-term employee sacked for being off sick following a Stroke; the local Primary Care Practice alarmed at the number of local residents having to be treated for Anxiety and Depression, John Swinney, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, contacted the Clubs Solicitor to raise his concerns (is Mr Swinney considered a disgruntled owner or a genuinely concerned MSP?). I think any decent human being, never mind an actual OWNER of the Club, would have been unable to just stand by and watch the lives of a great many of our now former employees decimated at the whim of an egotistical Chairperson during a Covid Pandemic, particularly in a rural community with few prospects of other Jobs being readily available. If it had been absolutely necessary for those posts to have been reduced, there are Employment Law Legislations in place that have to be adhered to, and post would NOT have been immediately filled by Contract Workers; nor would local residents have been warned NOT to raise matters with visiting Owners.
The Chairwoman having been inundated with emails resigned from the Chair co-opted a NEW OWNER onto the Committee and installed him as the new Chairman, totally against the Club`s Constitution. The now former Chairwoman, without any Qualification; knowledge of Employment Law Legislation or indeed any HR experience, took on the Role of salaried LRHC HR Consultant and remained at Glenrannoch House!
It was only after a great many concerned Owners protested that they were being refused a Virtual AGM; Accounts had not been sent out; emails; letters and phone calls all went unanswered and with possible mounting Litigations heading in our direction, one member of the Committee had enough gumption to actually stand up and face the increasingly outrageous former Chair and now HR Consultant and ask her to leave the Club immediately! Shortly thereafter with the new Chairman, and IT Developer in charge of the Club, we had the Data Breach, initially denied by the Chairman, but resulted in ALL Owners details being on an open web page and up for grabs with many owners taking actual copies to prove to the Chairman the site was wideopen, but too late as some Owners were already being called by Time Share Touts offering to Sell their Weeks! Meanwhile the new Chairman continued to deny the data breach until he was contacted by the relevant Regulation Authorities, when he too resigned. So how can ANYONE construe this WHOLE DEBACLE as a result of disgruntled Owners hounding the Committee? … It beggars belief!

We as OWNERS have to stand back and take a long hard look at ourselves and ask the obvious question –
“Can I continue to convince myself, in order to justify my peaceful week at Rannoch, that such bullying behaviour couldn`t possibly have taken place at Rannoch in MY name as an LRHC Owner. That every single present and past employee; local resident; Contractor working on site; Primary Care Worker and even the Deputy First Minister of Scotland made it all up?”
Sometimes in life, you cannot just sit and watch from the Fence, all you will get from that is a skelf in the backside! I, like many other owners who stood up to be counted, are not interested in positions on the Committee or have anything to personally gain from raising awareness of Bullying and lack of Professionalism within the Club, in fact it is rather insulting to each Owner who did protest about such matters to even make such a suggestion. What we are interested in is ensuring that NO ONE IS BULLIED IN OUR NAME AS OWNERS AT LRHC and that LRHC can reinstate it`s reputation which was tarnished by the behaviour of some on the COMMITTEE, surely that is the very least any half decent Owner would wish?
Mr R. Robertson

Mr. Robertson,

I am in total agreement with your comments above, no doubt aimed at Mr & Mrs. R. Atkinson. I notice on the 'unofficial' Forum there is very similar comment [not word for word] posted by Greyhound Fan. Could it be the same person[s] under a different guise? It is unfortunate that Mr & Mrs. R. Atkinson have decided not to return to the 'unofficial Forum - they may learn a lot more home truths!

Unfortunately, far too many LRHC members have been prepared to sit on their backsides and soak up everything spewed out as gospel by previous committees, including past chairpersons, and were quite content to agree with all the lies that had been told, but without caring as to what was really happening to our precious LRHC. I wonder how many of them will bother attending the Zoom AGM in March - possibly very few.

Ian Taylor

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the long story above and the information that is in fact quite correct. The "new" committee are now a selection of 4 business people who know how to run a business, and we are hopefully going to get three more helpful owners onto the committee shortly. But that is all the willing people that have applied. No one else is willing to stand up and help. As already stated, this is nearly a full time job with all the correspondence and meetings and decisions to make. So most people can't afford the time. I don't blame them - but please don't just criticize us - help us - we are doing our best, and this "new" committee have made in roads already and have saved the club thousands in over heads. The "old" committee is done and gone - so lets move on. There has been big problems and issues in the last 2-3 years that have been well stated, but we will get that reversed. We have only been going for about 4 weeks so give us a chance. I am excited about the future and the possibilities that are in front of us. With the fabulous development going on at the "new" 4 star hotel you will be delighted at what you will find the next time you arrive. The new hotel facilities are going to extensive and open to all. I am very lucky to own and have two great businesses behind me so I can afford to spend the time to get the LRHC back on it's feet again. I have been coming to Rannoch for over 40 years and I own 6 lodges. So I do care about the Club and want it to prosper. I want it to be the place to go/visit/own. When it does, your investment will increase in value - and not decrease has it has done in the past. All the best for the New Year to all. Norman Laidlaw, Chairman.

Good evening,
Thank you Ian and Norman as our new Chairman for posting confirming the concerns raised by myself and so many others on both the Alternative Forum and this Forum as being true, it will hopefully help remove the scales from some owner`s eyes.

As we clear out the Ashes of 2020 I am tentatively hopeful that 2021 will bring with it the New beginning we ALL are searching for at LRHC. Whilst I totally empathise with you on the lack of volunteers for posts on the Committee, perhaps that is also a good sign that many Owners now realise the responsibility and personal time such a Committee post demands and are not so willing to throw their hat into the ring only to try and grab it back after a few months due to the pressure of work. Maybe now we will have fully committed Owners prepared to offer a year to get this once great club back on track. My major concern as ever is that the Egotistical owners who manage to convince many to vote them onto the Committee, including myself who was also fully taken in first time around by them, will have another attempt at posts on the Committee and then hoist themselves aloft to Lord over their Fiefdom at the first opportunity and once again gain control of the reins! I dont think the Club could survive a year similar to that we have just experienced. So what is the way forward from this point? Rather having a Committee Managing the day to day affairs of the Club, which tales up so much personal time, perhaps we could discuss a Management Contract with Nick Pattie, the new owner of the Loch Rannoch Hotel, who could oversee the daily running of LRHC and with a long history of experience within the Hospitality Industry, he may be able to cut some of our overheads down and keep the Club on track to complete the Refurbishment Programme a lot quicker than we envisaged. He would have direct responsibility to a LRHC Business Committee who could hold meetings via zoom rather than having to visit Rannoch each weekend or even monthly. A new Accountant should be engaged, one who will flag up discrepancies as soon as they appear and a separate Auditing Company could review the Accounts, refusing to sign them off if he/she sees something not quite right within them. For too long now they have been simply signed off and even the most basic of Book Keepers could see that things didnt quite add up! A new and highly experienced Administrator could perhaps have control of the Rentals/Sales Department of the Club. We must ensure that recent mistakes are never ever repeated as LRHC can no longer afford the payouts for mistakes incurred by a self made HR Consultant, or the damage to reputation of our Club. Surly one of the first things the Committee needs to do is replace the Solicitor with one that undertakes to make the LRHC his first priority and NOT second to that of the Committee Members, and who has a full understanding of the Clubs Constitution and adheres to it!

Finally, I am sorry Norman that age and health issues prevent me from volunteering to join you in your search for a New Dawn at the Club, but I do wish you and the rest of the Committee the very best of luck in your endeavors.
Ronnie Robertson

Well my apologies once again for the red type face, I have absolutely no idea why this should happen on this site as I don`t appear to have such a problem on other sites or indeed the other forum. If anyone knows how to resolve it please enlighten me!
Ronnie Robetson

We hope that the current Committee is given the opportunity and time to demonstrate that they too have the best interests of LRHC at heart. We have been coming to Rannoch for almost 20 years on an annual basis, sometimes twice and own 5 weeks, so we are well aware of the past history of the Club . We have also introduced 7 other families to LRHC, 6 of who have bought Lodges and always support village enterprises and events when visiting. We chat with several locals and staff too, and believe in thanking the staff at the end of each visit because they work so hard to make our Club a great place to be.
Like you, when new Committee Members are elected, we hope that they will bring appropriate skills and knowledge to the Team and place our votes based on their stated experience and skills. We are retired professionals ourselves and have watched and been disappointed over the years as some previous Committee members have clearly not been fulfilling their promise. We have then voted accordingly to remove them at the next AGM. But some Committee Members do a good job and work very hard, as we're sure you would agree? Norman Laidlaw appears to have the Club's well being at the forefront of his focus and we agree with him that the "old" Committee has gone and the new Members should be given the chance to prove themselves and move on in "the new dawn".
It's great to see the Hotel being refurbished and loved once more after years of neglect and we look forward to being able to enjoy what it has to offer - it will enhance LRHC. We're delighted that the Lodges are being updated and hope that the Committee will be able to move the Programme forward as quickly as finance allows. If the Lodges aren't open, income for the village and surrounding area is severely reduced and staff jobs are at risk, so it is essential that LRHC opens as soon as possible. Hopefully with Covid vaccinations started, the future is looking more optimistic and predictable.
We cannot change the past, but we can have a positive impact of the future. So please, let's give the current Committee that Norman describes a chance to prove themselves and make LRHC what we all want it to be. A very happy New Year to everyone.

Hi you Guys,
Thanks for your vocal support - it is appreciated.
Ronnie - I am with you as far as the committee does not run the club - that is not what the committee does. It is there to help, advise, check and make sure that the person employed to do that does their job. I am glad to have you, with all your experience and knowledge, in the background to offer your thoughts and suggestions.
Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson - I also appreciate your input and vocal support. I have suggested to the committee that we send out more Newsletters to keep the owners in tune with the latest developments and the news. It will also show the amount of work, meetings and decision we have to do to help keep this club going. This company will be changed to be a properly run business with the help of my fellow committee members.
I also show my photo here to show I am not hiding behind a nick name, or blank space, as I am not ashamed to show who I am and be recognized.
2021 will be a year of exciting new developments and progress. Watch this place.................

I have a face that would fail to launch a 1000 ships so I'll have a blank expression for now lol.

I hope Norman that things will improve and be more transparent and under your stewardship and with John Hirst involved, I believe they will.
You both care passionately abouts the overall picture including staff, village and the owners.
My jury is still out on the other existing committee members and with good reason.
If others have applied I believe they will also have the best interests of all at heart.

I agree the past cannot be changed, but we can learn from it and the starting point is to admit failure, but that is down to owners and committee alike.
Norman, you have done this and it would be great to see an admittance of blind faith by others which has cost the club greatly. We cannot afford any more false dawns which were highlighted and ridiculed.

I look forward to what the hotel has to offer the club and to improve relations.
If a partnership improves the overall experience and future of the club, then increases in some aspects may be expected.

As I have stated before I am unable to apply for committee due to the work I do, but I am willing to assist in supporting those on committee I trust, if required.

Hello Norman and Ronnie, this is indeed encouraging news and I'm heartened to learn that at last the voices of reason are being heard. Heaven knows why your text is changing half way through Ronnie, that's technology for you!
I have been following events since learning from one of the staff last year about what was happening at LRHC. I was really troubled about what was transpiring and the member of staff told me to go to the alternative website to keep abreast of events. He was not wrong, though was scared that his job was on the line for talking to me. I had got to know him from previous visits to LRHC when he helped my party up to one of the highland lodges overlooking the back of the hotel. He was obviously used to carrying luggage up there! I do hope the staff will not feel threatened ever again.
Ronnie your idea of an overseeing committee with a management company carrying out day-to-day running of the resort is a sound idea. I look back to the time when we owned two weeks in Regency Palms which was part of Club Marbella back in the '90's. Do either of you remember an outfit called Club Riviera? Cutting a long story short, CR were both developers and owners of several resorts round Calahonda and fell into disrepute because of that. They were not spending any money on maintenance and it became evident that they were trousering the management fees of circa 20,000 owners, no accounts were produced initially. Litigation from the Concerned Owners Group ensued followed by counter-litigations by CR. It got really messy, but the outcome was a good one and we wrestled ownership from Club Riviera, we called ourselves Crown Resorts, keeping the initials CR!
It was decided by the committee to employ Vacation Care International to carry out the running of the resorts and things started to improve. The committee had a good mix of people drawn from a cross section of building maintenance, property management, decor and furnishing specialists too as well as bean counters! They decided on policy and VC did there bidding so to speak.

I don't know anything about Nick Pattie but he sounds like a good proposition, especially as he knows LRHC from halcyon days!

When we joined LRHC we decided to take out 5 year and 3 year leases rather than become full members, at our advancing years we didn't want to be tied to 'in perpetuity', so cannot put my name forward for joining the committee. I am on the board of a community transport service down here in D&G and am heavily involved with them.

Whilst mentioning 'in perpetuity' Norman, I think it is an issue that has to be resolved as many members are in the same position as my wife and I found ourselves with Crown Resorts, no one interested in taking on a financial burden. It appears it has been an issue for quite some time, maybe a change in the constitution somehow to release members and convert to long term leases, I don't know the complexities involved, it's just an idea, but shouldn't be swept under the carpet.

I'm looking forward to 2021 with eager anticipation and wish you well, Happy New Year to you both.

Regards
Erik Jensen

Hello Erik,
The name Club Riviera does ring a bell and may have been one of the many resorts my brother owned at, where all to often the Management Fees, as you said, were never actually spent on the maintenance of the properties.

It is good to hear like minded Owners such as yourself wishing Norman Laidlaw well in his endeavours to get the Club back on track after such an awful year. It is also nice to have an owner confirming to the naysayers that the debacles at Rannoch during 2020 were of some on the Committees making and NOT that ofOwners with their own agenda!`

Ronnie Robertson