Dealers to get serious about agreements?

OAK PARK, Ill. – With dealer meetings now visible on the horizon, the Marine Retailers Association of America is urging its members to request advance copies of their 2007 Dealer Agreements so that they – and their legal teams – can review them ahead of time.

While this is always good advice, the reason for the call to action this year goes back to commitments made by boat builders in prior years.

In May of 2005, the NMMA Dealer Manufacturer Agreement Task Force presented the guidelines and contract language that were intended to be the basis for standard issue of dealer agreements, MRAA explained in a recent statement. The Board of Directors for the NMMA Boat Manufacturers Division unanimously endorsed these guidelines and suggested their members use them.

Since that time a number of manufacturers have indicated they will use the language in their 2007 agreements. It is now time to see if those statements are being honored, MRAA stated. It also hopes “corrections of the open ended statements and exhibits that exist in the proposed language have been put in place and that new language will be used.”

Back in 2005, MRAA Chairman Glenn Mazzella declared, “The guidelines and contract language we have seen thus far seems to represent and address a large majority of the issues the MRAA membership has requested for more than 20 years. Having said that, there still remains work to do to make it a fair and equitable document. MRAA believes that ultimately all the pertinent issues will be addressed. MRAA is excited to see these positive steps and NMMA can expect our full support once the final re-worked document is in place and actually being used by NMMA members.”

In a statement today, MRAA pointed out that now is a time for unity between dealers and boat builders.

“As our industry draws closer together thru the new initiatives such as Discover Boating, Dealer certification, and Product certification, it is imperative that we come together on the bedrock of our relationships – the Dealer/Manufacturer Agreement,” stated the association.

Copies of the proposed language can be obtained by contacting the MRAA office at 708-763-9210 or mraa@mraa.com.

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