MRAA's Young Leaders begin work

reported by Boating Industry
Friday December 11, 2009


BOCA GRANDE, Fla. — The Marine Retailers Association of America’s newly formed Young Leaders Advisory Council met for the first time Nov. 16 during the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo and will meet again via conference call on Dec. 16, according to a release from the MRAA.

During the group's first meeting, Carly Poole of Canadian dealership Buckeye Marine was elected chairperson, and Ryan Hebert of Texas Marine was elected secretary.
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The council also voted to place several proposals in front of the MRAA Board of Directors, established three committees to work on group goals and selected members to serve on two MRAA Board committees.

Other YLAC members include: Brad Parker, Parker Boats of Daytona; Alex Russo, Russo Marine; Luke Kujawa, Crystal-Pierz Marine; Billy McKee, Utah WaterSports; Matt Lodder, Lodder Marine; Eric Smith, Colorado Boat Center; Jeff Haradine, WakeSide Marine; Thalia Chase, Castaway Marine; Lauren Woodard-Splatt, Woodard Marine; Martin Boyer, Austin Boats & Motors; and Liz Walz of Boating Industry.

The new committees are Marketing (Hebert, Parker, Poole and Boyer), Industry Relations (Russo, Walz and Poole) and Benefits (McKee, Haradine and Lodder). In addition, two members were selected to sit on the MRAA Membership Committee (Smith and Chase), and three were named to the association’s newly created Long Term Planning Committee (Walz, Smith and Woodard-Splatt).

The Young Leaders Advisory Council was established earlier this year to provide fresh perspectives to the MRAA Board of Directors as well as to improve and grow the MRAA and boating industry. The group is headed up by MRAA Board Members Nancy Smith and Paul Nickel.

“MRAA has great confidence in the future of this council," MRAA Director Nancy Smith said in the release. "We’re very excited about the possibilities for growth within MRAA and the boating industry.”

Council members, who are required to be under 40 years of age and an MRAA member, were chosen based on the results of a call for nominations issued this summer. They were elected to serve a two-year-term.