VWL Annual Meeting-Observations
On another thread titled OKW Annual Meeting-Report, WebmasterDoc gives an excellent report on the Old Key West annual meeting. I would recommend reading it, for most of what he reports is true for the VWL meeting as well. My wife and I attended the VWL annual meeting on Tuesday, and I would like to pass on a few observations that might be of interest to members who have never been to an annual meeting. We arrived at Disney's BoardWalk Conference Center 30 minutes early and were greeted warmly in the lobby and directed to the registration table and then to another table with an assortment of hot and cold drinks. While we waited in the lobby, we had a nice conversation with Tom, the Chief Engineer at WL, who had come up and introduced himself. Several other members of the Wilderness Lodge administrative staff attended the meeting as well. Also attending the meeting were the official Board members, the Member's representative, as well as several people representing DVC and Members Services. The Disney people came close to outnumbering the estimated 30 members who attended, so there were lots of empty seats in the meeting room.
Mr. George Aguel, Senior Vice President of the Disney Vacation Club Management Corporation, ran the meeting. He did an excellent job of explaining the format of the three different meetings that were held that morning, and in particular he interpreted for us the three resolutions that were voted upon by the Board of Directors. The board meeting itself was very short (8 minutes). It was obvious that the board members were very familiar with the issues and how they were going to vote; so to me it was like watching a very well-rehearsed play with the board members being the actors. As the motions were read they listened attentively and then voted "aye" on que. There were no impromptu discussions. It was all very efficient. The members meeting that followed was in a more educational format with explanations of what was happening with dues and why along with information about the new Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa and about improvements to be made at VWL next year. I learned that like OKW, most of the dues increase could be traced to uncontrolled factors like rising property insurance. I got the impression that DVC management was committed to holding down the controllable costs. I also learned that if next years expenses turned out larger than expected in the 2003 budget, the developer and not the members would pick up the difference. The last part of the meeting was opened for questions from the members. There were only a few. The one I remember was someone who at the annual meeting last year had brought up a problem with too few towel racks in the studios at VWL. Apparently a commitment was made to look into the problem, and he wanted to know what happened. Someone from the WL administration got up and talked about studies that were being conducted on the problem. The member responded that he would be back with the same question next year at which point Mr. Aguel interjected that the problem would be resolved before the next meeting. In all I got the impression that they were sincerely interested in our concerns.
After the meeting broke up I enjoyed talking informally with various members of the Disney team. For me a major benefit of attending the meeting was the opportunity to meet the people who are responsible for making DVC possible. For example I enjoyed spotting Jackie on a nametag and finding that she is the Jackie that everyone on these boards says to contact when things are not going right. I also learned that the boards are monitored from time to time to see what kinds of problems the members are discussing. It was an interesting experience; however, I probably would not make the effort to attend another one unless there were some pressing problem.
On another thread titled OKW Annual Meeting-Report, WebmasterDoc gives an excellent report on the Old Key West annual meeting. I would recommend reading it, for most of what he reports is true for the VWL meeting as well. My wife and I attended the VWL annual meeting on Tuesday, and I would like to pass on a few observations that might be of interest to members who have never been to an annual meeting. We arrived at Disney's BoardWalk Conference Center 30 minutes early and were greeted warmly in the lobby and directed to the registration table and then to another table with an assortment of hot and cold drinks. While we waited in the lobby, we had a nice conversation with Tom, the Chief Engineer at WL, who had come up and introduced himself. Several other members of the Wilderness Lodge administrative staff attended the meeting as well. Also attending the meeting were the official Board members, the Member's representative, as well as several people representing DVC and Members Services. The Disney people came close to outnumbering the estimated 30 members who attended, so there were lots of empty seats in the meeting room.
Mr. George Aguel, Senior Vice President of the Disney Vacation Club Management Corporation, ran the meeting. He did an excellent job of explaining the format of the three different meetings that were held that morning, and in particular he interpreted for us the three resolutions that were voted upon by the Board of Directors. The board meeting itself was very short (8 minutes). It was obvious that the board members were very familiar with the issues and how they were going to vote; so to me it was like watching a very well-rehearsed play with the board members being the actors. As the motions were read they listened attentively and then voted "aye" on que. There were no impromptu discussions. It was all very efficient. The members meeting that followed was in a more educational format with explanations of what was happening with dues and why along with information about the new Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa and about improvements to be made at VWL next year. I learned that like OKW, most of the dues increase could be traced to uncontrolled factors like rising property insurance. I got the impression that DVC management was committed to holding down the controllable costs. I also learned that if next years expenses turned out larger than expected in the 2003 budget, the developer and not the members would pick up the difference. The last part of the meeting was opened for questions from the members. There were only a few. The one I remember was someone who at the annual meeting last year had brought up a problem with too few towel racks in the studios at VWL. Apparently a commitment was made to look into the problem, and he wanted to know what happened. Someone from the WL administration got up and talked about studies that were being conducted on the problem. The member responded that he would be back with the same question next year at which point Mr. Aguel interjected that the problem would be resolved before the next meeting. In all I got the impression that they were sincerely interested in our concerns.
After the meeting broke up I enjoyed talking informally with various members of the Disney team. For me a major benefit of attending the meeting was the opportunity to meet the people who are responsible for making DVC possible. For example I enjoyed spotting Jackie on a nametag and finding that she is the Jackie that everyone on these boards says to contact when things are not going right. I also learned that the boards are monitored from time to time to see what kinds of problems the members are discussing. It was an interesting experience; however, I probably would not make the effort to attend another one unless there were some pressing problem.
