Time to say “Goodbye”

After 10 years at the helm, I am going to say “Goodbye” at the end of this month and George Harris will take over on July1. During that time, I have written almost 120 columns for Water Life and each time I have spoken from my heart about something I thought was important for you to know.

It is ironic that in some respects, writing this final column is probably the hardest one I have ever written because there are so many people to thank, so many things we have accomplished as a team and so many success stories that it is hard to know where to start.

Ten summers ago, five Board Members interviewed me and made a decision to offer me this job. Thank you: Larry Carpenter, Kevin Roggenbuck, Ron Wright, Orin Nelson and Denny Roehl. Their decision changed the course of my life for a decade.

When I arrived on the job, there was much to do. Among the biggest challenge was eliminating a $1M debt from the association health care plan that had failed. Other challenges included increasing the membership, energizing the volunteer base and growing the boat shows.

Before long, we made progress on lots of fronts with a great staff and Board Members who endorsed change and wanted to create a new culture for the organization. We reduced the mission statement to three-words: “Grow Recreational Boating” and set about to serve all members equally.

Along the way we managed to grow the association revenues, retire the health care plan debt, increase the size and attendance at the Seattle Boat Show, add a show in Everett and launch a regional Grow Boating Program. Then there were the promotions. We found someone to build a Chris Craft replica from Lego bricks and some crazy high divers to entertain attendees at the Shilshole Boat Show. We got a dozen “boat nuts” to stand in water-skis 24 hours a day at the Seattle Boat Show in order to win a ski-boat and flew in a couple of sand castle builders from Chicago to construct the largest indoor sand sculpture in North America. Then somehow we managed to get people on the turf at Qwest Field kicking field-goals to win a boat and on and on…

In Olympia, we built coalitions with other boating organizations and led the effort to create a Mandatory Boater Education Program in our state. Hopefully that will make boating safer and more popular in the years ahead.

Everything we accomplished was a team effort: Great staff, dozens of Board Members, hundreds of volunteers and help from outside partners like our lobbyist - Cliff Webster, attorney - Jay Hereford, media buyer – The Media Place and our advertising agency – Tip Top Creative.

Key members of the team were the five people who chaired the Board while I was here: Larry Carpenter, John Wedeberg, Bill Baker, Alan Bohling and Dwight Jones. All of them spent hundreds of hours volunteering for the good of the industry and the association while holding down their day jobs. Thanks to all of you.

Finally, I would like to congratulate George Harris on being named the new president of the association. There were 60 applicants. At the end of the day, the Board decided that George was the man. I couldn’t agree more. Over the last ten years, George has been at my side making it all happen. It has been one of those partnerships between two people that just clicked. Thank you George. I could not have done it without you and I know that you will take the organization from good to great in the years ahead.

Debbie and I will be spending as much time as possible this summer on board our sailboat, Butterscotch. I hope we will see many of you on the water because I still believe “Life Just Gets Better on a Boat.”

With warm regards,

Michael Campbell
President
michael@nmta.net