This is a bit long, so pardon me for that.
I just got back from my normally scheduled, fixed vacation week at The Harborside Inn in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard. Boy, did I need to decompress. It seems funny to say that being in Kaua'i left me somewhat stressed.
But in any case, thanks SO much for your partnership, Karen. We did work a lot on this project and we all, meaning those of you reading this as well as those owners who have yet to be part of this blog, have a lot to do. We need to get the number of owners who vote way up, and that will be a job that could take years.
That being said, we clearly made them nervous. Some of us were quite angry regarding the rules for the Owner Forum part of the annual meeting that were laid down by the majority Wyndham faction. For one, Trish Harrington didn't even get then until the morning of, partly due to her email being down, but they were only sent out the previous day, if I understand correctly.
Secondly, the rules were just handed out with a packet of stuff for the owners to read just a short while before the meeting was to start. Who reads everything??!? But the rules were asked to be agreed upon and were adopted unless there was any objection.
One of the written Rules included a 2 minute time limit for a comment and no time for rebuttal. Think about that for a minute.
After the owners forum had started (and this was after the vote was taken and tallied, with winners announced), we were arbitrarily told that we would have to put our questions in writing. Requiring questions in advance in writing has never been required before to my knowledge and it was certainly not the case last year. Then the lawyer present, after discussion with the Linda Kolstad, the board President, decided that any questions pertaining to Wyndham would be dealt with after the meeting was over. Karen and I, along with several others (Charles Twardzicki and Jack Goodstein, to name a few) were outraged. One of the questions I was going to ask was "What is Wyndham planning to do with the 1100+ deeds they have in their possession?". A fair question that should be heard by all, right? They ended the Owners Forum precisely at the time for the owners Mai Tai Social held at the KBV pool, where a raffle would be held for some free stuff like a free week at a Grand Pacific resort. Just about everyone left. Even Trish left. She didn't hear that Wyndham questions would be only answered when after the meeting was officially over.
The lawyer excused himself. There were just a few of us. And just about every answer that had anything to do with Wyndham was answered by Linda Kolstad with "I don't know. I don't know anything about that part of Wyndham." There was no "I don't know, but I'll find out." It was "If you want to know, you can call Wyndham yourself." She said that she shouldn't have to be responsible for answering those questions. I responded by saying that ANY member of the IOA board should be able to respond to pertinent questions, even if they don't have the answer at the tip of their tongue. They are the ones who should be answering to us and getting our questions answered. Fortunately, Sherri Weeks, VP of Development for Grand Pacific was listening and urged Linda to find out the answers to anything she doesn't know. For cripe's sake, what the hell is the President of our KBV board saying "I know nothing, I see nothing!" She's Sergeant Schultz of Hogan's Heroes.
But wait, there's MORE! During the first part of the meeting where the agenda of the annual meeting was discussed, Linda discussed our sources of income and costs (in a very general, generic way). She had a board and marker. She wrote down that $4,500,000 comes in from individual owner maintenance fees. She then wrote down that $1,500,000 comes in from "BULK", a corporate ownership. "BULK"??? I spoke out, "Who happens to be the "bulk" corporate interest, Linda?" She replied, "I really don't want to say right now." Really. That's what she said. I shouted out, "That's Wyndham, in case anyone is wondering!"
Well, the vote happened and we know how it came out. But one comment at the Owners Forum from an owner was particularly astonishing and sort of summed up the cost of lack of transparency. "Linda, we voted for you because we have seen the resort get better in the last 2 years." (Linda smiled eagerly and said "Thank you."). "But", he said, "Why didn't you say in your Candidate Statement that you worked for Wyndham, that you had no personal ownership at Kauai Beach Villas?!? I own at some Wyndham properties. I don't like how they run things. I don't like how they ran KBV. If I had known that you worked for Wyndham, I wouldn't have voted for you!"
How about that?!
She responded that she didn't have to disclose she worked for Wyndham. (Really?!?). But she then went on to say that she happily works for Wyndham and represents their interests on the board. Nice, huh?
So you can imagine that a bunch of us were pretty furious.
We finally got out of there and got to the Mai Tai Social (I needed a couple in order to calm down). And I won 2 free nights at a Grand Pacific Resort!
As a complete aside, I met Charles Twardzicki at an Owners Update. He's a straight shooter. And we bonded. We didn't always see eye to eye, but he's concerned about Wyndham's presence as well. On the other hand, he thinks Larry Warner is neutral, not pro-Wyndham. But Warner was a jerk at the afterward part of the meeting and I know he has privately suggested that Trish should be removed from the board.
The kicker was meeting Lou Columbo. We ran into each other on the beach much later in the week. We must have talked for at least an hour. And we not only seem to get along really well, but we seem to see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. The thing is, he was totally unaware (and I believed him) about the Wyndham crap. He was not aware of Wyndham's Smoking Gun. He had not read anything in either the TUG or this forum (although I had admittedly kicked him out when he was being nasty toward me about using an owners list to promote particular candidates).
So I fault him for not educating himself, particularly after being on the IOA board. But I will give him a LOT of credit. After seeing me in action this week and hearing where I am and was coming from (and my frustration with his sole concentration on whether I was making an honest use of the list), Lou sincerely apologized for interacting with me the way he had last year. And then he told me that he wished he had known me a few years ago instead of just getting to meet me now. I tell you, my heart fell. That was one of the most sincere, honest, and moving apologies I have ever heard.
I told Lou about the Wyndham's Smoking Gun document. He seemed to be astonished to hear about it. I told him to not only read it, but to print it out. In fact, I ask that ALL of you print out a copy. I sincerely wish that I had thought to print out a copy (or, in fact, to print out LOTS of copies and hand them out at the meeting prior to the vote). I would have LOVED to have confronted the board about it publicly. Of course, I would have been admonished for speaking out, and/or it would have been relegated to the time after the owners meeting.
But I want everyone to have a physical copy and bring it with them to show Wyndham people at the resort. And bring it if you're coming to an IOA meeting. And show it to anyone you know who is an owner at KBV.
I'm very tired, so I'm going to bed right now, but there's some very good stuff to share. We saw plans for unit upgrades. I went up to the Makai Club and saw their's that had actually been implemented. VERY impressed. By midsummer there should be a model unit to see as part of the owners update.
And we are VERY, VERY close to having an agreement between the hotel and our resort for the use of their pools (with no added cost to our maintenance fees). This would be only for KBV owners and RCI exchangers. Renters would have to pay a resort fee.
thanks for attacking me jeff and questioning my integrity, now that the elections are over and you have succeeded in removing me i will answer any and all questions. and yes i was not sympathetic with your efforts. i have a few questions that i will be bringing up in the near future
Now, Lou, I'm not sure if your true colors are showing through or not. What you say about "free trips" and whatnot -- Everyone who gets on the board gets that benefit. It would be unfair to ask members to pay their own way to Hawaii twice per year to serve on the board. And it's not like it's a week of playtime, I'm sure. For the week, board members were in meetings from Wednesday through Saturday, and long days. And as far as using Trish Harrington's owners list to help promote her candidacy as well as the general information about what Wyndham was doing, it was perfectly legal. This was checked with counsel. That you're being indignant now is making me question your motives all over again, and makes me think it was the right thing to get you off the board. Believe me, after meeting you on the beach, I had some second thoughts. If I were you, I wouldn't ruin that. And what do you think my ulterior motives are? Do you think this all was really about you?
The Wyndham's Smoking Gun document, something I didn't even know about until the last couple of months, only affirmed my suspicions and all the work I started last year. There were conclusions I came to due to circumstantial evidence, along with discussion with a couple of board members over the years. And then there were the personal experiences of interactions with Wyndham personnel at the owners update. There was the lowering of standards at the resort along with the raising of maintenance fees. There was the lackadaisical interactions with services at KBV. Then I stayed at the Coronado Beach Resort in San Diego, and the service was fanTAStic. A night and day difference between what I was experiencing at KBV and there. I checked out a couple of other GP resorts and saw the same high standards and service. I discovered that there were better alternatives to timeshare resort management than Wyndham. That discovery was part of what led to Wyndham's contract ending at KBV in the IOA. And the AOAO was heading in the same direction before Wyndham enacted a hostile takeover, successfully implementing what you see in the Wyndham's Smoking Gun memo.
Meanwhile, Jack and Trish were far more aware of the shenanigans that Wyndham has been pulling. If you're not aware, Lou, then you're not doing your job to represent us owners, and that's the reason that you're off the IOA board. We need people like Karen, myself, and Jack on the board, and we need more of them. We need to work on being able to get a majority of strong individual owners onto the board again. We have to be persistant. It may take a while - years even, but we need to keep working at it. I'm sorry you may feel hurt, Lou. I do. But, as Michael Corleone said in The Godfather when they plotted to kill Solozzo and the corrupt police captain, "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business."
Aloha,
Jeff
I'm glad that all your hard work to get on the Board has resulted in a positive outcome. As a KBV owner, I look forward to the positive changes that you will bring to the Board and the resort.