After holding its first meeting during the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo, the group is already working toward the first set of goals it has established.

BOCA GRANDE, FL — The Marine Retailers Association of America's (MRAA) newly formed Young Leaders Advisory Council (YLAC) met for the first time on Monday, Nov. 16 during the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo in Orlando last month.

During the meeting, Carly Poole of Canadian dealership Buckeye Marine was elected YLAC chairperson, and Ryan Hebert of Texas Marine was elected YLAC secretary.

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, Boating Industry magazine.

Before the meeting came to a close, the council voted to place several proposals in front of the MRAA Board of Directors, established three committees to work on group goals and selected YLAC members to serve on two MRAA Board committees. Initial goals formulated by the group included an emphasis on marketing and communications, industry partnership and membership.

"After experiencing the passion and determination of this group to positively impact the boating business and MRAA members in particular, I'm convinced that the YLAC members are not only leaders within their own companies but are soon to be seen as leaders within the industry at large," says Poole.

The new YLAC committees are Marketing (Hebert, Parker, Poole and Boyer), Industry Relations (Russo, Walz and Poole) and Benefits (McKee, Haradine and Lodder). In addition, two YLAC 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).

YLAC's second meeting is scheduled to take place via conference call on Dec. 16.

New council created to offer a fresh perspective

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," says MRAA Director Nancy Smith. "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.