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Gren owns the Virtual Scottish Highlands sims although he is not often found in-world. He resides in the USA but is a regular visitor to the real Highlands..
Rez date: 27th December 2008
LauraClaire is resident in Scotland in real life. She takes over the CEO from Gerald Wylie in June 2011. She is Estate Manager and also responsible for the Loch Ness Inn social networking area as Innkeeper.
Lauraclaire first arrived in SL and joined the staff of Ally B's Nightclub on 1 April 2007. She then moved in June 2007 to Hostess at La Vista. She became one of the managers there before moving to Club Shiva, Coral Reef Ballroom then, in March 2008 found her home in the Virtual Scottish Highlands.
She has been one of the Estate Managers since April 2009 just after the move to the new sims, and is also a Second Life Minister. You can contact her via IM any time of the day.
LauraClaire also runs a couple of shops in the Virtual Scottish Highlands, is an authorised SL Minister and organises in-world marriages.
Founder Member of "The Hooleygans" alongside Lesley, Monti, Ripley, Liz, Velvet, Remius and Helen.
Rez date: 28th February 2007
Gerald ran the Virtual Scottish Highlands as CEO until the end of May 2011 when he stepped down to concentrate on building and games. Much of what you see in-world is his work. In real life, lives in a croft on the side of the real Loch Ness. Also in real life he is a Loch Ness and Scottish History author, chair of the local chamber of commerce and a director of the Loch Ness Destination Management Organisation.
The sims were his concept and began with
the creation of a Loch Ness
exhibition in a rented mainland sim. Although well-received, this is not
what Second Life residents wanted primarily.
He watched, listened and learned what was popular in this 3D world. There was a lot of fantasy and a number of simple games. This set him wondering as to whether his award-winning, but business failure of a board game, Nessie Hunt could be revitalised in this environment. He bought a ¼ sim on the Linden mainland, learned how to program in the Linden Scripting Language (LSL) and in March 2008 he launched the virtual game. Suddenly the sim was busy and it was too much for him to cope with on his own, particularly the social and networking aspects. Fortuitously this is when he met LauraClaire Benelli who went on to PA for him in Second Life and build a social network within the Loch Ness Inn in the sim.
As 2008 ended that early team was exploring the possibility of buying private regions to make a much more realistic Virtual Scottish Highlands. With the involvement of Gren Mocha and his US citizen status there was a way forward. This group, the Highlands of Scotland had been growing rapidly and soon reached many hundreds. Feelers were extended and it was decided that the new sims could be financed by the members of the group in the early period while profitability was sought.
In February 2009 the group moved to its new sims, three of them, and it now comprises nearly two thousand active members.
Profitability took a year to achieve, the losses being covered by the senior group members, and in February 2010 a fourth sim, Loch Oich, was added and the Virtual Scottish Highlands now has ambitions to spread out, coast to coast and represent the whole of the real Highlands.
Almost everything on the sims has been built by Gerald Wylie and Monti Messmer with assistance from LauraClaire Benelli, Flash Lefevre and helpers.
Rez date 30th October 2007
Monti started his first SL job on 29 August 2007 as dancer alongside Elizbeth and Ripley. He was also one of the DJ's but did his last DJ event on 28 September 2007 once he was promoted to Club Manager on 26 September 2007.
On leaving the 'nightclub' scene, we have been fortunate to gain Monti here in the Virtual Scottish Highlands where, since 23 May 2008 he runs 2 events as DJ for the Loch Ness Inn. He is a founder member of "The Hooleygans" virtual show band.
In addition to his social activities, Monti has a growing knowledge of LSL and is now chief engineer of the Virtual Scottish Highlands. One of his latest projects has been to make the Jacobite Spirit sponsored cruise on Loch Ness and to allow variations of the cruise through the Caledonian Canal into Loch Oich using virtual swing bridges and working locks he has created.
Rez date: 30th January 2007
Another real-life resident of Scotland. Elizbeth joined SL on 31st March and started as a dancer on 1 April 2007. She became Dance Team Leader in May 2007 and one of four Managers (Ripley, Rebakah, Ladybug and LauraClaire) in June 2007. She moved to the Coral Reef Ballroom on 16 December 2008 where she still Manages, but also became an Estate Deputy Manager here in the Highlands In April 2009. She is also PA to LauraClaire Benelli
Elizbeth is also a member of the "Hooleygans".
Rez date: 31st March 2007
Estate Deputy. Poily is one of Gerald's game assistants and is currently working on the Heritage Game. Poily also keeps an eye on prim usage in the sims and occasionally clears inactive members out of the groups.
Rez date: 2nd December 2007
Estate & Game Assistant. Jeri does not get in-world very often which means that she is ideal for testing games and noticing anything which is wrong in the sims.
Rez date: 2nd January 2008