# WM Owners Alert:  Shocking Revelations.



## BocaBum99 (Apr 19, 2007)

Dear Fellow WorldMark Owner: 
In this alert:

Wyndham already campaigning for proxies for WM Board of Directors 
WorldMark maintenance fees increase again 
Credits required to book new resorts increase significantly 
Dave Herrick, Wyndham exec, appointed to WM Board of Directors 
WM Board of Directors announces NEW criteria for BOD candidates 
Trendwest name retired 

ATTENTION: WorldMark Owners have begun to receive letters from David Herrick, a senior Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) executive, asking that you assign your proxies for the 2007 WorldMark election to the Board of Directors. The reason he gives for soliciting proxies is to ensure that a quorum is reached as is required to conduct club business. While we, as owners, understand the need to reach the quorum we feel that assigning your proxies to the current Board of Directors (consisting of 80% current or former Wyndham/Trendwest executives) is the equivalent of allowing the fox to guard the henhouse. There is a better way! 
If you decide to assign your proxies to another rather than to cast your votes personally, please consider assigning them to a fellow owner that shares your same vacation interests, not to profit-driven Wyndham executives who control the board. Click here to learn how to make your proxies work FOR you, not AGAINST you. Keep reading for examples of what the Wyndham-controlled Board of Directors has done recently.



Increased Credit Values: Credit costs for new resorts are increasing. San Diego (downtown), San Diego (Mission Valley), Canmore Alberta Canada, West Yellowstone, and Red River New Mexico will all cost you SIGNIFICANTLY (as much as 56%) more credits per week than the 10,000 2 bedroom / 8,000 1 bedroom which has been WorldMark's standard.


  Oceanside Indio NEW RESORT
Mission Valley Angel's Camp NEW RESORT
West Yellowstone 
Studio 7,000 7,000 n/a n/a 10,000 
1-bdrm 8,000 9,000 12,500 8,000 11,000 
2-bdrm 10,000 11,000 15,000 10,000 13,500 
3-bdrm 12,000 13,000 n/a 12,000 15,500 
3-bdrm penthouse 18,000 18,000 n/a 18,000 n/a 
3 or 4-bdrm presidential n/a 30,000 n/a n/a 30,000 

Note: Sizes listed below are for unit comparison:
* Presidential units in Indio have 4 bedrooms and range from 2,589 to 2,678 square feet
* Presidential units in West Yellowstone have 3 bedrooms and are 2,141 square feet., substantially smaller than Indio units

Read more about these rising credit values and the associated problems here: 
Link: New resorts have MUCH higher credit allocation
Link: Credit Dilution? Is it affecting your ability to find availability?



Increased Maintenance Fees: Your WorldMark Board of Directors has once again announced a 5% increase, the maximum allowed under the bylaws, effective June 2007. The new fee schedule was published in the April 2007 Destinations magazine, and is also available at https://www.worldmarktheclub.com/destinations/archive/DESTapr2007.pdf
As a reminder: Housekeeping fees have recently increased by 27% to 37% depending on the type of unit reserved.
Link: Housekeeping Fees - effective 1/1/2007



McConnell resigns from Board, Herrick appointed: In a surprising move, Jack McConnell, newly reelected Director of the WM Board of Directors, resigned from the BOD only two (2) months after his term started. Dave Herrick, a senior Wyndham executive, was appointed to replace Jack McConnell. You may find it interesting to know that more than 57% of owners who voted for a specific candidate in the last election cast their votes for independent candidates. The members of the BOD, instead of selecting one of the candidates who ran in the recent election, chose to appoint Dave Herrick, who has never run for the position of Director.


Candidate Owner vote Proxies assigned Total votes 
John Henley 21,927 16,567 37,584 
Jack McConnell 15,383 15,657 31,040 
Philip Abdouch 13,050 0 13,050 
Jim Pappas 11,681 2,016 13,697 
Trudy Hu 8,823 3,133 11,956 
Gil Bellamy 6,018 13,781 19,799 
Allen Strong 4,232 11,881 16,113 
Greg Patchen 3,668 7,515 11,183 
Ferrell Hill 2,665 5,010 7,675 
TOTAL 87,447 64,650 152,097 

NOTE: Independent candidates Jim Pappas and Philip Abdouch did not receive ANY proxy votes from the Board. The few proxies indicated for Jim Pappas were ALL proxies assigned to either Philip Abdouch and/or Jim Pappas by individual owners, and pooled by those independent candidates. NO NON-INCUMBENT CANDIDATE HAS EVER BEEN ELECTED TO OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS BY OWNER VOTES. Every Director who has ever served has been appointed by the Board of Directors, or won due to unequal distribution of Board proxies, then retained the seat as an incumbent. 

Official BOD announcement on appointment
Official BOD announcement on election results



New screening process for BOD candidates: The WM BOD has also announced new requirements for those who wish to become candidates for the Board in the 2007 election. Many believe that this unprecedented move by the developer-controlled BOD is an effort to eliminate candidates who would look out for the interests of WM owners over those of Wyndham, the developer. Of most concern is the fifth of the criteria listed, which reads: 
5. The nominee's understanding of the unique contracted and implied relationship between the developer and WorldMark, and the importance of a highly collaborative relationship that must exist for the long-term success of both the developer and WorldMark. 

Here is the link to the official announcement: 
WM Board Nominations Open



Trendwest no more: Do you know that the name Trendwest is going away? You will still see WorldMark by Trendwest in a number of places, but it is slowly being replaced with WorldMark by Wyndham. 
As part of the name change, there have also been some consolidations. The finance department at Trendwest will be moving to Florida, where Fairfield is. Both WorldMark, owned by over 250,000 individuals, and Fairfield, owned by Wyndham, will be managed together by Wyndham. WorldMark has a strong tradition of excellent customer service ... does Fairfield? Who will influence whom?



This email was created and sent to you by www.WMOwners.com, an independent, owner-run website dedicated to: 
Supporting Owner Advocacy 
Providing Education 
Encouraging Open Communication 
Creating Community 
The purpose of this communication is to keep you, as an interested WorldMark owner, aware of and involved in the changes affecting your club. Thank you to all the WorldMark owners that have helped us reach out and touch other owners by providing us contact information. Another great example of what makes this club so great, owners helping owners! For more information on any of the issues mentioned in this message, visit us at www.WMOwners.com.

WM Owners is not in any way responsible for, nor does it have any influence on the actions of WVO (Wyndham Vacation Ownership) or the WorldMark Board of Directors.




Disclaimer: Information contained within OWNER ALERTS is obtained from various sources including but not limited to: public forums, web sites, email solicitations, WorldMark owners and non-WorldMark owners. Neither wmowners.com nor its Principals are responsible for the accuracy of the statements and information contained within OWNER ALERTS. If you would like to stop receiving such messages, please log in to the discussion forum at www.wmowners.com/forum, select the Profile link and choose not to receive periodic owner alerts any longer. If you received this e-mail and are NOT registered on the forum, your e-mail address was provided by a forum member and you can reply to this e-mail with "OPT OUT" as the subject and further alerts will not be sent. All recipients are encouraged to be responsible consumers and fully investigate the information contained herein for themselves.

©2007, WM Owners - www.wmowners.com. All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.


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## PA- (Apr 19, 2007)

BB, nice of you to post that email here.  But, it doesn't do it justice.  I can't believe how slick it looked.  The guys who put those things together are all normal owners, but it looked as professional as anything RCI or II or anybody sends out.


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## LisaH (Apr 20, 2007)

What can we do? We certainly tried hard last time by designating proxy to Phil. What can we do better? How many WMOwners can this email reach? I'm totally frustrated to the point that I just want to sell my membership...


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## rickandcindy23 (Apr 20, 2007)

Owners can start having conversations with other owners at the pools and in the hot tubs of the resorts they visit.  If every owner that voted for Philip could convince a few other owners that owner control is best, you could change the results next time, if Philip is willing to try again.  It takes those conversations, one on one, to make that difference with those who feel the status quo is just fine. 

I have convinced several people in hot tubs at Orlando resorts to rescind their purchase contracts.  It is a great place for conversation.  You just have to include that in the next proxy letter.  Perhaps just the mention of such conversations would spur the concept.  Owners need to talk!


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