WSJ VGV Vote (due Feb 21) - 2016 Annual Meeting
Hey fellow VGV Owners...
An important VGV vote is coming up and proxies have been sent out (received mine by email with password access) - so make sure you vote by Feb 21, 2016.
For myself - I am happy with how our 2 Owner-elected HOA BOD members (Robert Werbel and Phillip Schrag) have been handling their duties and well-represented the HOA.
So... I choose Robert Werbel for General and Limited Powers to vote in my behalf.
Also, there is a HOA BOD position open which I voted for Phillip Schrag as he is a great representative to protect our (VGV HOA) interests. I know Phil personally, and I am partly to blame (his words) for him getting on the VGV HOA BOD in the 1st place (refer to original WSJ thread).
So... make sure you vote! No complaining about the VGV HOA if you do not vote. Not voting is akin to allowing SVO call the shots for our HOA.
Philip Schrag
Philip G. Schrag is a law professor at Georgetown University. He has been an owner-elected member of the Virgin Grand Board of Directors for the last 5 1⁄2 years. He has a deep background in consumer protection. He served as the first official Consumer Advocate of the City of New York, and two of his fifteen books are on consumer protection. He has been an owner since 2001. He owns four unit-weeks at the resort and has never rented them. He seeks re- election to the Board based on his having looked out for the interests of owners by working for improvements to the property while reducing maintenance fees. His initiatives have included the freecycle shed, the earmarked fund to pay the insurance policy deductible in the event of a destructive hurricane, the online owner exchange bulletin board, the sail shades at the hillside pools, the water coolers that will be installed at those pools next year, and many others. He has attended every Board meeting and budget workshop during his service as a director, and he and fellow elected director Robert Werbel have written reports to owners after each Board meeting.

He wants to serve on the Board for another term because Virgin Grand is on the verge of three transitions: Starwood’s spinoff of Starwood Vacation Ownership as a new, separate corporation, and the acquisition of that corporation by another time share management company; the acquisition of Starwood by Marriott; and the closing of the Westin hotel and the conversion of its rooms into time share units. Without the hotel’s leadership, some new institutional mechanism will be needed for owners to have any voice in financial and programmatic decisions affecting common areas such as the pool, fitness center, and tennis courts. In the past, Starwood has made decisions regarding those areas without consulting the Virgin Grand Board, with the needs of hotel guests paramount. Mr. Schrag aspires to help to design an appropriate process or institutional mechanism for consultation about common concerns among the boards of what will soon be four different time share associations on the property. He will continue to propose low- cost improvements and to resist increases in maintenance fees.
