We spent more time on the phone this week with Joyce Kohn and Chris Frost, two of the three founders of My Global Playground, and have a much better picture of their plans and progress so far. First off, here are some details of their membership and real estate plans:

• charter memberships are being sold at $490K, with annual dues at $30K (will be raised to $35K for the next non-charter members). They did not tell us how many charter members there are going to be, but they expect to complete the sale of those memberships within the next 30 days.
• charter members will receive a reward for their early commitment to the club in the form of a return of their member deposit in years 3, 4 and 5 of their membership.
• members have immediate access to four homes that are in the final stages of being acquired, in the following locations: Puerta Vallarta, Miami, Maui and St. Thomas. Next destinations could include Scottsdale, Telluride, NYC, Cabo or St Barts, based on member and prospective member feedback.
• target home values of $4-6M, with a minimum of four bedrooms, so that they can accommodate larger families, or two families traveling together.

One of the founders, Chris Frost, was an early employee at A&K Destinations and then at Tanner & Haley (eventually becoming a senior executive at the firm). Her six years of experience there clearly informed the strategy at My Global Playground. In particular:

• entering the destination club market at the high end, where they feel there is demand for more luxury and consistency in the delivery of the homes and the service. In particular MGP feels that some prospective members will want homes that cannot be purchased for $2-4M, the typical price range of most clubs, particularly in locations such as Hawaii, Cabo and Aspen, where real estate prices have been steadily climbing. By setting a target of $4-6M, the club feels it will be able to acquire large, luxury homes in the right locations.
• offering prospective members full access to the club’s financial plan before joining. We have said before that financial transparency is critical for both new and existing clubs, to convince members of their financial viability- and MGP seem to understand this. For example, they disclosed to us that the level of debt on each house will be no more than 35%.
• limiting the initial club to 200 members, which will probably mean about 35 homes, perhaps spread across 15+ locations.

My Global Playground are saying some the things we like to hear: keeping overhead low and efficient, charging annual dues that reflect the true cost of operating homes and the head office, targeting a segment of the market that others may be overlooking, and financial transparency. We will check back with them over the next few months to track their progress, and how it compares to some of the other new clubs that have been launched in the past few months.