Word: joining
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...Hariri plunked down half a million dollars two years ago to join Distinctive Retreats, one of a growing number of destination clubs that offer members plush vacation homes for up to 60 days a year in exotic locations around the world. But his thrill quickly turned to chill. Hariri, 46, who heads a biotechnology firm based in northern New Jersey, ran into problems booking the properties he wanted and says he was disappointed with the quality of the homes. "I felt I was being overpromised and undersold," says Hariri, who quit the club just months later...
Destination clubs have enjoyed robust growth, fueled by affluent baby boomers, who are opting to join clubs that give them a choice of world getaways rather than buying the traditional second home. The clubs have been around only since the late 1990s, when Tanner & Haley pioneered the concept. There are now 18 in the U.S., each with about 30 properties. Members pay an average $230,000 to join and $15,000 in annual dues, says Dick Ragatz, president of Ragatz Associates, a resort-industry consultant in Eugene, Ore. Some clubs are doubling their membership each year and have been unable...
...race to generate enough distinctive inventory in jet-set markets," says Scott Berman, a leisure-industry consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. The general rule is 1 property for every 6 members. But many clubs have fallen behind. They are working to rectify the problems, but in the meantime, if you join, you may not get all that's promised. At any destination club, it can be difficult to lock up the property you want over a holiday or if you book fewer than 90 days in advance. "They're oversold," says Bob Jones, consultant with OneTravel Holdings, an Atlanta online-travel agency...
...firms that want to trade emissions must join the Chicago Climate Exchange, a voluntary but legally binding bourse whose members, according to founder Richard Sandor, account for 8% of the greenhouse emissions from stationary sources in the U.S. "If we were a country," he says, "we'd be roughly the size of Britain." Members of the Chicago exchange, including Ford Motor Co. and DuPont, have pledged to cut their emissions 4% by the end of this year from the levels they averaged from 1998 to 2000. They have already taken tens of millions of tons of greenhouse gases...
...Olmert is acting standoffish, declaring that he would never invite Lieberman - or anyone else who isn't willing to withdraw from large parts of the West Bank - to join his future coalition. Olmert's plans for dealing with the Palestinians, which he inherited from Sharon, center on withdrawing many, though not all, Jewish settlements from the West Bank within four years, while maintaining military outposts near the Jordanian border and the West Bank separation barrier built in recent years to prevent suicide bombers from entering the country...