By lowering membership dues, we are hoping to help attract new individuals to the organization and grow our presence in the bike market, said Debbie Motz, Executive Director of EORA. We also wanted to ease the burden on reps paying dues to multiple rep groups. Our Board members and our staff hear this concern a lot, so we wanted to do what we could to help make EORA as accessible as possible.

Other meeting highlights included planning new web site functionality to assist reps and retailers, creation of a bike-focused committee to improve the presence of this category at EORA tradeshows, and the approval of thirteen new reps into the organizations membership. The Board also finalized the six recipients of EORAs Outdoor Opportunity Grant Program.

EORA held its annual meeting in Asheville, NC. The nine board members from New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Southeast will meet again during the Outdoor Retailer Show in January 2015.

Eastern Outdoor Reps Association (EORA) is a not-for-profit association that produces 11 regional tradeshows bringing together over 500 sales reps and 2,200 retailers each year in the Eastern US. The organization was initially focused on traditional specialty outdoor but has expanded its tradeshows to encompass a wide array of retail categories, including lifestyle, specialty run, bike, resort, paddle sports, and much more. EORA was founded in 1979 and has grown from a handful of original participants to an annual membership of over 500.

The EORA Board of Directors: Front row: Natalie Darmohraj, John Phaneuf, Allison Frazier, Michael Schmidt (Board President)
Middle Row: Debbie Motz (EORA Executive Director), Bill Keys, Kevin Brew, Phil Flamand, Chris Hayes
Back Row: Paul Jordan, Stacey Gellert, Terry Wilson