October 29, 2010 — In June, 2010, Inside the Gate addressed the issue of Independent Contractor Status vs Employee Status for timeshare sales people in a Hot Cuppa Joe column titled IC vs Employee Status: And the Winner Is… .

The case, WHITEHEAD ET AL VS VACATION CHARTERS LTD., involves a class action lawsuit filed in 2008 contending that Vacation Charters had misclassified its salespersons as independent contractors when in fact they should have had employee status.

October 6, 2010 — A panel at the 12th Annual Vacation Ownership Investment Conference, currently being held in Orlando, FL, yesterday presented current performance statistics and relevant research on the U.S. vacation ownership and lodging industries to create a snapshot and predict future trends.

Probably surprising no one, economic surveys show timeshare sales have fallen from a peak of $10.6 billion in 2007 to $6.3 billion last year [...]

-by Bharat Book Bureau
In 2008, UK outbound tourism expenditure (excluding expenditure on travel fares to and from the UK) totalled £36.52bn, a 4.3% increase compared with 2007. Expenditure on domestic tourism (excluding day trips) stood at £21.11bn, which represented a 0.6% reduction on 2007. Combined, the total UK resident tourism market rose by 2.5% [...]

-by Maurice Friedman
June 27, 2010– One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve [...]

-by TS Newshound

June 14, 2010– ARDA’s small army of lobbyists and attorneys won a pair of victories over the last year that might have gone unnoticed by the general public– and even timeshare sales reps– but both are very important and both have a direct impact not only on consumers and HOAs but also timeshare developers. Interestingly enough, both victories came in Florida, the timeshare capital of the world. And both occurred following years of effort by ARDA.

-by TS Newshound
June 7, 2010– The June 5 edition of Woody’s Roadkill Cafe addressed the case of  WHITEHEAD ETAL VS VACATION CHARTERS LTD., a lawsuit filed in 2008 contending that Vacation Charters had misclassified its salespersons as independent contractors when in fact they should have had employee status. On June 4, 2010 in Pennsylvania, [...]

May 19, 2010– A certain fan heckled an NBA referee to the point that the ref totally lost his cool and got aggressive. He approached the fan and threw a basketball at him. The fan caught it just before it would have hit him in the face, immediately tossed it back at the referee and continued shouting at him. And who WAS that fan? …

May 4, 2010– Seasoned industry sales pros are well aware that when management starts jacking around with the commission structure it generally means one of two things: A) The company has been taken over by bean counters who know nothing about sales or sales people or B) The company is facing financial issues. Either way, it’s not a good indication for the future.

April 21, 2010– I’ve been in the sales profession all of my working life. In that time, let’s say 40 years, I’ve come to understand that marketing or advertising is the key most of the time for a company and its sales people’s successes. That is especially true in these trying times.

-by TS Newshound
Here’s a good one, along the same line as the group of atheists who are offering to care for the pets of fundamentalist Christians after the believers have been raptured up to Jesus in the “Last Days”. (See “After the Rapture” in Woody’s Weekend VPG, Feb. 20)
Robert Vicino, who built a real [...]