Hans Wilson
Hans Wilson & Assoc.
SWFMIA President
From the Helm – Finally! 2014 is here! Not that 2013 was THAT bad, but let’s just say I am glad to see it in my wake. The beginning of the new year is always full of promise. New beginnings, an opportunity to alter bad habits, a recognition of change particularly within ourselves. I have been working hard with John and Laura to try and seek options to keep our Association growing and thriving, bringing value to our membership, and advancing our boating agenda.
It is a pretty simple agenda: service the needs of our membership; get more people on the water; make it easy for them to do it; and work on projects that involve the next generation of boaters. If we don’t get them on the water at an early age, to appreciate the beauty, the value of resource, the variability of nature, then we are not doing our job of advancing boating,
Our GoBoatingFlorida.com website has been a great resource for many of our boating public. The website has made it more attractive to go boating with fishing reports, personal anecdotes, how-to articles, and adventure stories about boating. It is an opportunity for the novice boater to get a taste of what boating is about.
It is now time for us to pump up our industry website for more effective communications on the political winds and how they affect our industry. So along with increasing our membership locally and up the coast into Tampa and St. Petersburg, we will be working on how the Association can bring value to our members with workshops, political representation on important issues affecting boating, and special events to attract new boaters to the lifestyle. Stay tuned! 2014 should be a hoot!
-Hans