As members of the Ocean Pines Association begin to receive their ballots for this year’s board of directors election, the two questions they will have to answer for themselves is whether the current board has been doing a good job and, if it has, can it be made even better by replacing the two incumbents up for reelection this year.

In short, yes and no.

Yes, this board has done a fine job overall. Its low-key and business-minded approach has served the community well. In its current configuration, the board’s members are grownups at the table. They don’t get bogged down in the personality clashes or operational minutiae that in the past have hobbled management’s ability to do its job.

As to the second question, no, replacing Rick Farr and Jeff Heavner, the two incumbents seeking reelection, with two of the challengers would not make a good board even better.

This is not to slight any of the challengers or to question their abilities, but is simply a matter of recognizing that transforming a good board into a superlative one is an unlikely proposition no matter who’s running.

Further, with the candidates’ performance last Thursday suggesting that they generally agree on the community’s goals and its direction as well as the administration’s ability to deliver the desired results, seeking change for the sake of change would be pointless at best.

Although the board has been criticized for its frequent unanimity, that is more the product of business-like deliberation by reasonable people than it is the absence of independent thought.

After all, just because people arrive at the same destination doesn’t mean they took same route to get there … or that they even arrived at the same time.

Considering how well the association has been functioning under its current leadership, shaking things up in the hope that something better will emerge is not the wisest course to take. It’s like betting against a sure thing in favor of a possibility that probably doesn’t exist