are hoping to meet with Premier Pamela Gordon sometime today.

"We want to...make sure that people don't get ripped off,'' timeshare owner Robert Eaglet said. "We are appealing for help from Ms Gordon.'' The timeshare owners had originally planned a demonstration outside the Cabinet Building but called that off when they discovered they would need a permit since there would be more than five protesters.

Ms Gordon said last night that she would try to meet with the timeshare owners sometime this afternoon, but not until Tourism Minister David Dodwell returned to the Island from overseas at noon.

Ms Gordon said she has only a limited role with the timeshare operation since she became premier in March. She began working at the St. George's Club in 1983, starting as a sales accountant and working her way up to controller.

Mr. Dodwell is meeting today with Club President and developer Alistair Woolf and timeshare members' representative Richard Lawrence to try and arbitrate the issue.

Mr. Eaglet said timeshare members currently staying at the Club wanted to show their concern over the fee increases even though Mr. Dodwell was attempting to deal with the matter.

"I told them they I would try to organise a late afternoon meeting,'' said Ms Gordon. "But I first want to find out what the situation is from the Minister.'' "We'll be gone in a week,'' Mr. Eaglet said. "While we are here we want people to know we are concerned.'' In a newsletter Mr. Woolf informed the Club's 2,900 members that due to a "cash flow crisis'' members would have pay an extra fee this month to cover current total operating deficit. He also proposed that the members' annual maintenence fee would have to be hiked by up to 55 percent to cover the losses. Timeshare owners oppose the increases.

Mr. Woolf also told members he was in the process of negotiating selling the Club to US-timeshare developer Great Vacations Resorts.

Mr. Eaglet claimed that when he bought into the timeshare operation three years ago Mr. Woolf informed him there would be no fee increases. He recently bought extra timeshare allotments based on a promise from Mr. Woolf the annual fee would be lowered next year.

He claimed when he first bought into the Club details about the operating deficit were not revealed to him.

"They did not disclose the situation,'' Mr. Eaglet said. "They said everything was fine. I am very upset. An increase at this time is absolutely unreasonable.'' He said a regular weekly meeting on Monday with the Club's management turned "caustic'' when members staying at the resort began asking questions about the increases.

"Mr. Woolf is claiming that the increases in the maintenence fee is to reimburse him for out of pocket costs but there has been no accounting for those costs,'' Mr. Eaglet said. "If he had spent the money on our behalf I would expect better accounting.'' In the newsletter Mr. Woolf said his company Real Estate Development Co.

voluntary advanced about $1.1 million to the timeshare's operations to cover the cash flow needs over the past few years.

Members maintenence fees and other income are meant to cover the timeshare's operation budget while the company is responsible for development, sales and marketing.

The St. George's Club operations side is projected to lose about $820,000 this year, with accumulated deficits since 1991 adding up to a projected $2.9 million in the 1997 budget.

TOURISM TOU