Philip, I seem to remember from your profile on the O/S site also said you were a Groundhogs fan, one of my favourites from the late 60's & early 70's.

Dave

Philip,

Some hurt and bewildered people will always want to point the finger of blame somewhere. Those of us who know you well have no doubt as to your integrity whatsoever.

Graham (ex Sylph)

Phil,I think it very unfair that you are being castigated for not blowing the whistle on what was going on at Ownerships. frankly,I cannnot see how you could have done anyhing other than you did. I remember meeting you at Stockton when we were looking to join - you were most helpful. I also met you later
after you had left,you came to one of the shows at Braunston. i asked you if you would consider coming back,as I could see that you were sorely missed.Your reply was unequivocal - "No way" - but you didn't elaborate.I think we had a drink together.

Keep it up.,and best of luck.Those of us who know you are on your side.
regards.

Philip,

I would have hoped to "meet" you again under more "normal" circumstances!

OwnerShips is to blame for helping Trish and I realise our own dream of owning, and living on, our own 70 footer since 2001. For that we are grateful. To hear of what is going down now has been sad for us because, as you and others have said, we liked Allen and his up front honesty when dealing with customers.

The concept of shared ownership worked for us as it is still doing for 600 Owners. I really hope that the core of the operation will continue because not everyone can or wants to sell up and live like us on the cut; the alternative is to pay stupid money to hire a boat.

Allen should have stuck with the original concept and remembered the acronym KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

With Regards

Kevin & Trish McNiff
OBERON/ENDEAVOUR, 1990-2000 and
one time winter maintenance organiser

Thanks for the explanation Phillip, we are just catching up on the continuing Ownerships saga. When you left Ownerships my wife and I agreed that it was probably because of "something funny going on". I have to say that we were always cautious about AM; for a number of reasons. First and probably most important is that we came at it from the political left, where we had developed a healthy scepticism of small businesses and the people who own and run them, and their obsession with control and secrecy in many areas, and a general level of incompetence. That was based on personal experience.

I also worked with someone who had personal characterists very similar to Matthews, and the story of his previous spat's with Ed Rimmer mirrored exactly the way my former colleague behaved. You too were acutely aware that AM would respond in a similar manner against you had you tried to make owners and others aware. I have always thought that people like that suffer a good deal of paranoia, and part of that was their objection to being so described. Another feature of that particular diagnosis is the constant presence of enemies - once the external ones have been defeated, the search commences for those inside the organisation - The Enemy Within as Margaret Thatcher described the miners in 1984. And there's another story....

Matthew's always faced the people whose money he was mis-appropriating with jokes, justifications and reasonable assurances - so do all such swindlers; remember Maxwell and more recently Bernie Madoff.

I have also worked for a not-for-profit employer, a very good and principled one, so understand exactly the concept. It is not what many people would believe it to be, but it looks good and socially responsible. If there is any surplus at the end of the year, my employer shares it between the staff - as it is we who generate the income by our efforts, and, being in the voluntary sector, are not over-generously rewarded. In the wrong circumstances, it could as easily go into an indivdual pocket without any questions being asked. It's sad that you had to leave that element of job satisfaction, Phillip, you cannot put a price on that, and the service you delivered to owners was beyond anything they could have expected.

And of course you were right to divine that there is nothing you can do - the balance of power lies heavily with the one who controls access to the communications and the victims, compounded as always by Matthews's plausibilty and the "fan club" he generated around himself, another important shield against exposure.

As someone has already commented - had he kept it small and simple it would still be working, and we'd still be in it, and no-one would have lost their money. (We fortunately sold our share in Spring Dew at the show in 2007, just in time) But sadly, many people are not aware of their own level of incompetence, and because a modest project goes well, think it is all down to them, and they then persuade themselves they can develop into something larger and more complex, especially when they have access to someone else's money.

Everyone handing their money over to someone else in circumstances where what they get in return is nebulous and conceptual rather than concrete and practical should always remember the mantra of caution: "If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is".

We will always be grateful that Ownerships gave us many years of happy boating that was reasonably priced, and allowed us to develop our skills and the confidence to go it alone. Let's hope that something positive can be found to replace it that is based on principles of self-organisation and the provision of a service for use and utility, and really not-for-profit.

Yet you shared non of this with anyone until it was all over.A bit late like so many other people.

A bit unfair Dave, others worked it out (probably not the facts, but knew something was wrong) And if Phil had spoken up, who would have listened? Allen Matthews fooled a lot of people and no one would listen when people like Phil, Elaine, Peter Scott and Chris etc tried to tell them. I'm afraid to most people they just came across as spiteful ex employees. They stood no chance!