Bill Lockwood of the Mid-Atlantic region Ferrand Associates was elected unanimously by the EORA board of directors to service as the association's new president. Outgoing President Al Diamond had served as the association president for the past two years.


At the regional membership meeting Andy Molter was elected to serve from the Mid Atlantic region, Mike Lamb was elected to serve from the southeast region and Bill Pelkey was elected from the northeast region. Outgoing board were Al Diamond from the Mid Atlantic, Chuck Joy from the Northeast and Jeff Weathersbee from southeast both serving as regional vice presidents for the last two years.    


New regional Vice Presidents are Ty Wivell of the Stoner Andrews group from the Northeast region, Kevin Carnes of North Branch Traders from the Mid Atlantic regional and Allyn Morton of Eastern Outdoor Sales from the Southeast region.


In August EORA hosted its three primary regional shows. New locations were in Oaks, PA serving the Mid Atlantic region and Killington VT serving the northeast region. The southeast was hosted in the long standing location of Greenville, SC.


Oaks, PA was a new location for the Mid Atlantic region that provide an easy central location for retailers to view products.   


Both the Oaks and Killington locations were sold out and had a waiting list of exhibitors wishing to exhibit.


Killington was held Aug. 23-26, 2011. Despite the rain and early autumn weather, an excellent number of retailers attend the show to view the 2011 summer products being offered by a record number of exhibitors. With the on-site lake, retailers were offered the ability to test paddle, canoes, kayaks and SUP throughout the length of the show. There was a large variety of tents displayed outside the base lodge and throughout the show. 


Greenville, SC once again offered southeast retailers a wide array of product to view and for the first time EORA hosted a morning paddle demo on the second day of the show. A shuttle service was provided between Oak Grove Lake and the Carolina First Center taking only 10 minutes. This provided retailers a convenient service. We plan another paddle demo for the August 2011 show.   

EORA will continue to host Early Bird shows the end of June 2011 in the Northeast and Southeast and a early July show in Parsippany, NJ. Primary shows dates will be confirmed in November after the Board of Directors meeting.