The Island County Fair Association is growing and has new, yet familiar leadership.

Jason Kalk, a longtime fair association and fair board member, was voted in as the president of the eight-director board recently. He succeeds Diane Divelbess, who was the fair association president for eight years.

The annual fair board vote last week was preceded by a large spike in membership. Kalk said the fair association had between 20 and 30 members for the past few years. By the time of the vote, however, there were 107 eligible voters, though not nearly that many showed up to vote. Also, due to association membership schedules, both members of the 2013-14 and 2014-15 calendars were allowed to participate — some in the previous year elected not to continue serving this year.

The fair association’s fiscal year ends in September, while the group’s organizational year is yet to be in line with the fiscal calendar, said Fair Administrator and board Treasurer Sandey Brandon.

New members may represent a shift in the direction of the group responsible for putting on the annual fair. Many of the new members were not well known to Kalk, but he hoped they would continue to be involved in fair association matters.

Two of the newer fair association members were elected to the fair board. Wendy Sundquist is the new vice president and Virginia Keck was voted in as a fair board director. Both were part of the informal group Friends of the Fair, which strongly opposed the fair association-requested, county-financed, Island County Economic Development Council-created 10-year plan to overhaul the fairgrounds. That plan was rolled out to the public in February, but was met with widespread criticism and opposition, and has since fallen by the wayside. Sundquist, whose main duty is to take care of the fair association membership, said the association’s growth was likely a response to that failed proposal.

“It inspired me to rejoin,” said Sundquist, who left the fair association some years ago until returning this spring.

“I think there were a lot of people who were concerned about the fair board’s decisions about what to do with the property last winter … and didn’t want to see any decisions like that in the future,” she added.

Her main hope as vice president is to see association members included in more meaningful tasks and better informed about fair board business. Emphasizing committees, such as the one in charge of fair entertainment, was an easy way she envisioned to get previously disillusioned or new members engaged with fair business.

“The goal is to try to get those people who came to get involved with the fair,” Sundquist said.

“That’s one of the reasons I quit, I really didn’t feel like I had a role in the association,” she added.

Kalk said he has no plans to radically change the annual fair, other than to work toward its continued improvement. Many of the Island County Fair Association’s long-running traditions will remain. The association produces the annual Whidbey Island Area Fair, formerly the Island County Fair, and manages the county-owned fairgrounds in Langley, but the contract to manage the property expires in April. At the request of the Island County commissioners, the Port of South Whidbey is poised to run it as a try out, freeing up the fair association to focus solely on putting on events, such as the upcoming Country Christmas at the Fair and Easter egg hunt.

Other fair board members include Secretary Megan Williams, Treasurer and Fair Administrator Sandey Brandon, Marilyn Gabelein, Dan Ollis, and 4-H representative George Lawson, whose position is not voted on by the fair association but by 4-H members.