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Brink of Disaster to a Model of Sustainability
How Board President Lance Douglas and Capital Vacations Helped Save the Maverick Resort
By Shep Altshuler, Publisher
here’ s a particular kind of person who, when everything is falling apart around them, leans in rather than walks away. Lance Douglas is that kind of person. As Board President of the Maverick Resort in Ormond Beach, Florida, Douglas has spent the better part of a decade navigating everything from aging infrastructure and skyrocketing delinquency rates to back-to-back hurricanes and a three-year closure that pushed the property to the very edge of bankruptcy. Through it all, he never stopped believing the Maverick was worth saving. We sat down recently to talk about the resort’ s remarkable comeback story.
Lance Douglas, Board President
Roots in Ormond Beach
Douglas grew up in Ocala, Florida, about an hour from the Maverick, and has a connection to the resort that goes back to his childhood. His mother was one of the original owners, having purchased her week back in the eighties when the resort was still offering tours.“ It was always our spot to go to the beach,” he says warmly.“ Through my middle school and high school years, the Maverick was just where we went.”
He and his wife, Gayla, who works in real estate, eventually purchased a couple of weeks for themselves, following in his mother’ s footsteps. With three children and now a brand-new granddaughter, the Maverick became the family’ s anchor.“ I have pictures of my kids every single year in that little wading pool,” Douglas says with a laugh.“ You can watch them grow up, year by year, right there at the same resort.” Over time, relatives caught the same bug.
They bought their own weeks, and before long, the Maverick had become something of a family headquarters— the site of birthday parties, cookouts, and even a beach wedding that Douglas and his fellow owners pulled off with lights, decorations, and a transformed pool deck.“ Those were good friends of ours,” he says.“ It was really special to be able to do that for them.”
A Seat At The Table
Douglas didn’ t set out to lead the board. He was having breakfast at the resort when he overheard board members at a table behind him discussing resort operations.“ I thought, this is pretty interesting— I’ d like to be involved in some of these decisions,” he recalls. His IT background had already made him quietly frustrated with the resort’ s outdated website and aging presentation. He ran for the board on a quiet platform of technology improvements and better programming for families with young children.
He won his first election and was immediately named Vice President—“ not really what I was expecting,” he admits— and within a year had moved into the President’ s role. Now in his third three-year term, Douglas has served on the board for nine years. The board itself consists of seven members, with elections staggered on a rotating basis to preserve continuity— two seats up one year, two the next, three the year after.
He is candid about the challenges of volunteer governance in the timeshare sector.“ It almost seemed a disservice to the consumer the way a lot of volunteer boards were working,” he says.“ They weren’ t electing people with business acumen. They were winning popularity contests.” And before Capital came in, I didn’ t have anybody to ask for help.”