There are two seats open on the Wintergreen Property Owners Association board of directors this year. Any property owner interested in running for election can find a link to a PDF application here on the WPOA website.
It’s not the same form used for the last ten years.
Also new, the application deadline this year is August 15. It was extended from the usual August 1 as the board didn’t finalize the new application until June 27.
Last winter, WPOA Board President L. Allen Bennett appointed a committee of board members to take “a close look at the process for nominations,” according to the approved minutes of the February 2025 board meeting.
Bennett said he wanted Wintergreen property owners to have more information than most of the board's candidates had been providing.
The previous application asked for name and contact information and asked, “Please list current or previous involvements within the Wintergreen community, if any.” Then, the application told potential candidates, “On a separate page, explain why you wish to serve on the WPOA Board of Directors and what you feel you could contribute to the organization’s operation."
In addition to name, contact information, and other information, the new 2025 application asks four questions. Two of the questions are similar to what has been used, asking about involvement in the Wintergreen community and why the candidate is interested in serving on the board.
The other two questions seek to identify board candidates’ specific experience or expertise that might be useful to the board of directors or WPOA managers.
• “Please describe how your experience in one or two other non-Wintergreen situations — volunteer work, jobs, other boards — have informed how you might be an effective WPOA board member. (It would be particularly important to include related experience on boards, executive committees, or other property owners associations).”
and
• “What are two or three knowledge areas, skills, or abilities you possess that would help our WPOA Board continue to operate effectively and meet the evolving needs of our community?”
The information from candidates’ applications had always fit on one side of a page of paper, often less. Board members were concerned that those filling out the new application might provide too much information, so while asking for more details, the new application also states, “Please try to limit your total response to two pages, and do not include a resume.”
Property owners see the candidate’s bios via a packet with ballots mailed out in early fall, along with an annual report and financial reports that are also available online. See mailings sent in the past here.
The WPOA bylaws allow any property owner to apply to be a candidate for the board. However, the ballots property owners receive in September show the candidates whose applications have been reviewed and approved by the WPOA board’s nominating committee. Theresa S. Harris, the long-serving Finance and Human Resources Director at WPOA, says she doesn't recall any property owner's application ever being denied.
-Charles Batchelor
The WPOA board discussed what is called “The Roger Mudd Question.”
As Roger Mudd’s 2021 obituary noted, the CBS News reporter became best known for his 1979 interview with Senator Ted Kennedy, who was preparing to run for president. The candidate “came off as flummoxed when Mudd posed a simple, straightforward question: ‘Why do you want to be president?’ The senator's halting, rambling reply was later seen as pivotal to dooming his presidential prospects.”
At the board meeting last Friday, which WBB’s two editors attended as observing property owners, some board members questioned the need for what is now the last question on the new WPOA application for potential board members.
Jay Gamble, one of the two directors appointed by the resort to the WPOA board, insisted on this type of question for board candidates. Gamble shared his first-hand experience on other boards when hiring chief executives, and said answers to that question revealed unsuitable candidates with otherwise strong resumes.
WPOA’s Executive Director, Jay Roberts, noted that some property owners have mistakenly assumed Wintergreen’s property owners association is “just like that HOA board they served on in Florida. As you know, WPOA is a lot more complicated than most people realize,” Roberts told his directors. “It is helpful to know what the candidates’ goals are.”
