Congress Returns from Independence Day Recess

Congress returned Monday, July 8, to potentially incendiary fights over nominations, unresolved disputes over student loans and the farm bill, and the uncertainty of whether lawmakers have the political will to rewrite the immigration laws.

Two Cabinet-rank choices, Tom Perez as Labor Secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the USEPA, are on the agenda in the Senate. In addition, the GOP has challenged several judicial nominees. The Senate is changing longstanding rules in this regard, which require a three-fifths majority, in an attempt to make consent an easier process. The cooperation between Senate Democrats and Republicans in passage of the Farm Bill may soon be wiped out tries to make this rule change.

The Immigration Bill passed the Senate but now faces a challenge in the House. The outlays for farm subsidies in the Farm Bill have caused considerable debate in the House where passage is doubtful.

These immediate actions in the House and Senate set the stage for consideration of issues facing marine retailers, like a tax reform bill. Many on Capitol Hill believed the likelihood of a tax reform bill was very high for later this Summer and Winter. But with a strong anti-tax sentiment and newly fueled issues on contention, likelihood is becoming remote for this year.

In addition, negotiations of the re-authorization of the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund are set to begin later this Summer. MRAA expects a simple passage of the same programs in effect today at the same level of funding. The Trust Fund has been attached to the Highway Bill in prior years, which may be under the radar screen of the House where some Members want to increase gas taxes to pay for road and bridge construction and other watchful of the deficit and tax increases want to keep expenditures as they are.

– Larry Innis, Legislative Affairs

Temporary Deficit Reduction

The following link is a report from the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis on the Congressional Budget Office budget projections. As you will see the budget deficit is going down in large part to an increase in revenues (a sign of an improving economy). However, the budget deficit is so large that it is still considered high by most standards.

• Temporary Deficit Reduction

– Larry Innis, Legislative Affairs

Luxury Tax on Boats Dies

The luxury tax on boats bill has died in Connecticut. Legislation was successfully passed to repeal the luxury tax on boats costing more than $100,00 (Sections 77-78, E-Cert. HB 6704, Budget/Tax Bill), effective July 1, 2013. Rep. Pat Widlitz was a lead advocate to energize the boating industry in Connecticut. The Governor signed the budget/tax bill, now Public Act 13-184, into law on June 19th, 2013.

– Larry Innis, Legislative Affairs

Lighthouse Media Solutions named Official Marketing Partner of the MDCE

MINNEAPOLIS – Lighthouse Media Solutions has been named the Official Marketing Partner of the 2013 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo.

As the Official Marketing Partner, Lighthouse Media Solutions, Boston, Mass., will create and produce all of the digital advertising and marketing components for the annual dealer conference, including email templates, advertisements, PowerPoint templates for the educational sessions, and more. Additionally, Lighthouse Media Solutions will use its expertise in digital video to create multiple videos to help promote the annual MDCE.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with our friends at Lighthouse Media Solutions to now include the MDCE,” explains Matt Gruhn, President of the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, who co-produces the MDCE along with Boating Industry. “Lighthouse has done a phenomenal job in helping us at the MRAA rebrand our programs, events and other offerings, and we look forward to watching what they have in store for the 2013 MDCE.”

Lighthouse Media Solutions is the preferred marketing partner of the MRAA and has been for several years. The marketing services provider helped to redesign the MRAA website and newsletters, as well as its promotional materials, which helped the MRAA to achieve significant growth in 2012. Its work with the MDCE will also include artwork for signage, promotional materials, banners and other materials used to support the MDCE.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to team up with the MDCE and support all of the marketing efforts for this year’s event,” says Mike Alleva, Vice President of Marketing and Client Strategy for Lighthouse Media Solutions. “MDCE is the best resource for dealers to receive first-class education from leaders from both inside and outside our industry. Working with the MRAA over the past couple of years has been a wonderful experience. We share the same passion and common goal and that is we want to help dealers succeed. We at Lighthouse look forward to contributing to what looks to be the best MDCE yet!”

The MDCE offers more than 20 core educational sessions to help dealers gather ideas and best practices for improving their businesses. For those dealers that want to dig even deeper into the factors that will most impact their businesses in the year ahead, the newly added MDCE Pre-Conference Workshops on Monday morning will enable them to construct a plan in areas like dealership management, boat show sales, service menus, search engine marketing, and the customer experience. Over the following days, individual sessions in the MDCE’s three educational tracks will help attendees enhance their plans for 2014.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 17-20, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007, and this year, the event attracted more than 250 registrants prior to the May 1, a record for the event. The most registrants MDCE had ever accumulated prior to May 1 was 92 in 2012.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo

The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE features an in-depth line-up of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall, and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by the MRAA and Boating Industry, and it offers pre-conference workshops, a keynote presentation, three tracks of educational content, and more than 20 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 17-20 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Learn more at www.mraa.com/event/MDCE.

Nominations are Open for Young Leaders Advisory Council


MINNEAPOLIS — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas is accepting nominations and applications for its Young Leaders Advisory Council.

“YLAC has been an incredible benefit to the MRAA,” says Matt Gruhn, President of MRAA. “Not only does this group bring a new level of energy to the association, but its members also add a new perspective and a longer-term approach to our thinking, which helps us better fill the needs of all of our members in addition to attracting and fostering a new generation of leadership within the marine dealer body.”

The MRAA created YLAC as an advisory group to represent the needs and the thinking of the next generation of marine retailers and to provide additional insight and direction to the MRAA Board of Directors. The council’s creation was based on a desire to help develop future leaders to aid in the progress and growth of the boating industry.

Since its inception, YLAC has successfully infused the MRAA with new ideas and insights. One initiative YLAC recently launched is the Young Leaders community, a networking group for MRAA members. This group is growing with conversation surrounding the industry’s hottest topics.

In order to continue YLAC’s successful momentum, the association is looking to add new members to this vibrant group. Applications can be submitted by anyone interested in joining the group, and individual nominations of potential YLAC candidates can be submitted directly to the MRAA who will then contact each nominee.

Applicants or nominees should be willing to meet face-to-face with the group twice a year and provide their ideas and insights, in addition to working jointly with other council and MRAA board of directors members on subcommittees. Applicants or nominees for this group must be under 40 years of age, must hold a position of significance in a dealership, and must have a minimum of 5 years of marine industry experience.

Nominations must be submitted by July 15th, 2013:

Applications must be submitted by July 31st, 2013:

Please contact Matt Gruhn, MRAA President, at matt@mraa.com or 763-315-8043 or Ryan Hebert, YLAC Chairman, at ryan@texasmarine.com or 409/898-7632 for more information.

About Marine Retailers Association of the Americas

At the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, we believe that for the marine industry to thrive, the companies that interact with the boater in their community must thrive. Those businesses determine the boater’s experience and are the leading factor in the industry’s success. The MRAA works to create a strong and healthy boating industry by uniting those businesses, providing them with opportunities for improvement and growth, and representing them with a powerful voice. For more information, visit

MDCE event brochure now available

MINNEAPOLIS – The event and informational brochure for the 2013 Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is now available in both printed and digital formats.

The MDCE Brochure provides detailed insight into all of the annual dealer conference’s scheduled events. It features overviews on each of the more-than-20 educational sessions, all of the newly introduced workshops, and the highly anticipated keynote presentation by Jeffrey Gitomer. It showcases each of the many takeaways attendees can use to improve their business in 2014, as well as five tips for making the most from this year’s event.

“Every year we are excited to produce this promotional piece because it features all of the great opportunities that this event offers dealers,” explains Jonathan Sweet, editor in chief of Boating Industry, who co-produces the MDCE along with the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “This year, though, we had so much information and so many more sessions that we had to print a larger brochure just to allow us fit it all in.”

More than 80,000 brochures were printed in all, and many of them can be found inserted into the July issues of both Boating Industry and Soundings Trade Only. Digital versions of the brochure can be downloaded here.

The MDCE offers more than 20 core educational sessions to help dealers gather ideas and best practices for improving their businesses. For those dealers that want to dig even deeper into the factors that will most impact their businesses in the year ahead, the newly added MDCE Pre-Conference Workshops on Monday morning will enable them to construct a plan in areas like dealership management, boat show sales, service menus, search engine marketing, and the customer experience. Over the following days, individual sessions in the MDCE’s three educational tracks will help attendees enhance their plans for 2014.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 17-20, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007, and this year, the event attracted more than 250 registrants prior to the May 1, a record for the event. The most registrants MDCE had ever accumulated prior to May 1 was 92 in 2012.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo

The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth line-up of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall, and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by the MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features pre-conference workshops, a keynote presentation, three tracks of educational content, and more than 20 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 17-20 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Learn more at www.mraa.com/event/MDCE.

MDCE to Kick Off With Pool-Side Fiesta

MINNEAPOLIS – The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo announced today that it will kick off the 2013 MDCE on Nov. 17th with a pool-side networking reception that features a Mexican Fiesta theme.

Sponsored by Boat Trader, the MDCE Opening Night Reception will be held at the Rosen Plaza Hotel, the event’s host hotel, which is just next door to the Orange County Convention Center hall where the MDCE will be held. The event will begin at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17th and is free to all MDCE registrants.

“This pool-side event is the perfect way to open up the MDCE and to welcome this year’s MDCE attendees to Orlando,” says Courtney Chalmers, Director of Marketing for Boat Trader. “With a relaxed atmosphere, music and a networking opportunity like no other, we are excited to partner with the MDCE to make this evening possible.”

The MDCE’s opening night networking reception will feature a mariachi band, as well as Tex-Mex hors d’oeuvres, and a hosted beer, wine and margarita bar. It will be the first of three networking receptions that will take place at this year’s MDCE and it will be the only event to be held on the pool deck.

“The networking component of the MDCE is one of three critical benefits that this event offers,” explains Amy Collins, publisher of Boating Industry, which produces the MDCE with the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas. “The relaxed atmosphere that this pool-side venue offers was a huge hit for us at the 2010 MDCE, and we’re looking forward to hosting a pool deck full of marine industry professionals once again.”

The MDCE offers more than 20 core educational sessions to help dealers gather ideas and best practices for improving their businesses. For those dealers that want to dig even deeper into the factors that will most impact their businesses in the year ahead, the newly added MDCE Pre-Conference Workshops on Monday morning will enable them to construct a plan in areas like dealership management, boat show sales, service menus, search engine marketing, and the customer experience. Over the following days, individual sessions in the MDCE’s three educational tracks will help attendees enhance their plans for 2014.

The MDCE is scheduled for Nov. 17-20, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. It has attracted an increasing number of dealers every year since 2007, and this year, the event attracted more than 250 registrants prior to the May 1, a record for the event. The most registrants MDCE had ever accumulated prior to May 1 was 92 in 2012.

About the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo

The Marine Dealer Conference & Expo is the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas’ annual conference and member meeting. As the marine industry’s only dealer-specific educational conference, the MDCE offers an in-depth line-up of educational topics, a full-featured expo hall, and a series of fixed networking opportunities, all of which are designed to help marine dealers connect with and learn from others who can foster their success. The MDCE is co-produced by the MRAA and Boating Industry, and it features pre-conference workshops, a keynote presentation, three tracks of educational content, and more than 20 sessions in all. It will be held Nov. 17-20 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. Learn more at www.mraa.com/event/MDCE.

MRAA to manage and administer Marine Five Star Dealership Certification

MINNEAPOLIS — The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas announced today that it will assume the management, administration and promotional responsibilities for Grow Boating’s Marine Five Star Dealership Certification Program (MFSDC), effective immediately.

Launched in 2005, the MFSDC program has served as one of several pillars of the boating industry’s Grow Boating efforts. The Dealership Certification arm of Grow Boating is designed to offer dealerships methods for continuous improvement through the adoption of processes and systems that make the dealership and its employees more efficient, more professional and more profitable.

“This focus on quality and continuous improvement provides Certified Dealerships the tools to identify their shortcomings and to fix them by implementing processes and effectively working with their employees to prevent the issues from reoccurring,” says Bob Williams, President & CEO of Five Star Solutions, the third party firm that helped to create and now implements the MFSDC Program. “The investment these dealerships make in their businesses strengthens their stature in their markets and provides tools to better service their customers. “

The MRAA will manage, administer and promote the Dealership Certification program, working closely with Five Star Solutions to continually enhance MFSDC as a program that not only remains pertinent to today’s dealerships but also gives them forward-thinking ideas and strategies that they can implement on an ongoing basis. For example, MRAA recently hosted a meeting of Certified Dealers, dealers who are not Certified, and manufacturers to discuss how the program could better serve the needs of today’s dealers.

“We are looking forward to jumping in and evolving the Dealership Certification Program,” says Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “This program has an incredibly strong foundation, a working committee dedicated to keeping it relevant, a facilitator with a keen eye for dealership excellence, and an internal team of employees who are focused on serving dealers every single day. That’s a combination that will help ignite this program and make it a critical link to the success of individual dealerships and the marine industry as a whole.”

About the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas
The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas is the only North American association dedicated to furthering the interests of boat and engine dealers and other marine-related retailers throughout North America. Under the umbrella of MRAA Rewards, the MRAA offers a host of cost-saving, revenue-generating, business-improvement, and professional-development benefits exclusively for its members. MRAA is the united voice of marine retailers. For more information, visit MRAA.com.

CFPB looking to further regulate dealers

The Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which passed Congress in 2010, authorized the creation of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, and now the CFPB wants to regulate the banks that make consumer loans, the dealers that refer them, and the service providers that broker them.

The CFPB has been tasked by the Dodd-Frank law with, among other things, enforcing the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits lending practices that discriminate against borrowers based on criteria such as gender or ethnicity.

The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas worked closely with the National Automobile Dealers Association and Robert Fisher, a New York City lawyer, to exempt marine, RV, and auto dealers from the jurisdiction of the CFPB when the Dodd-Frank legislation was in the House-Senate conference. The Bureau has since been lobbying Congress asking why it allowed this exemption. The Bureau clearly wants to further regulate boat dealers in the same way as it does when it regulates financial institutions. When asked during the lobby campaign, Rep. Frank (D-MA) said there was no intent to include dealers because dealers were not the cause of the financial meltdown in 2008.

MRAA understands some lending institutions have already told dealers that the Bureau can enforce fair lending laws to prohibit intentional and unintentional lending discrimination. Banks now suggest that they want to pass the additional compliance costs on to the consumer through higher interest rates or by placing limits on their financing programs. These additional costs would be charged because the CFPB believes there is discrimination in the lending process. That is the angle it appears to be using to regulate dealers, since dealers are clearly exempt from regulatory compliance under Dodd-Frank.

Banks may also look at other changes to consumer financing by either exiting the indirect marine lending business in favor of a direct-to-consumer model.

MRAA is closely watching these developments and is working to retain the dealer exemption to reduce the cost of compliance to Dodd-Frank but also wants to retain direct and indirect financing models at low competitive rates to encourage boat sales.

It is becoming clear that the CFPB wants to eliminate the indirect dealer/broker participation programs and regulate dealers by making indirect financing models cumbersome and costly for consumers, dealers, and banks or by placing banks in the position of overseeing the actions of dealers.

The entire issue has become more complicated by a recent Obama Administration executive order that says agencies cannot discuss rules and regulations with interested parties or groups that may be impacted by a rule during the drafting stage and not until a rule has been published in the Federal Register.

Regulatory Accountability Act Introduced In House and Senate

The Regulatory Accountability Act of 2013 was re-introduced last week in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 2122) with a companion bill in the Senate (S. 1029). These bipartisan bills would update the process by which federal agencies promulgate regulations. It has been a process that has not been updated in more than 66 years.

The bills would seek to improve accountability and the integrity of the process by amending the Administrative Procedure Act. Specifically, they would: 1.) codify the duty to analyze the costs and benefits of new regulations; 2.) open the regulatory process to greater transparency and 3.) require agencies to follow a more evidence-based approach in crafting rules that will cost more than $1 billion annually.

MRAA is extremely pleased that both bills have substantial support. MRAA has long supported regulatory reform and works with many other industries.

“We applaud the sponsors of H.R. 2122 and S. 1029, including those who are original co-sponsors for their strong leadership on this very important issue,” said Matt Gruhn, MRAA President. “MRAA looks forward to working with Congress to move this legislation forward.”

The MRAA recognizes the following Senators, including Bob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bill Nelson (D-FL), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kelly Ayotte (R- N.H.), Angus King I-ME), and Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and six other Members of Congress for their efforts and support.