What if they held a boat show and nobody came? That's the way we were beginning to 
feel on day 5 of this years' Toronto International Boat Show.

It's not that nobody was there, but those that were didn't show much interest in water 
skiing. We had prepared the booth in the time honoured manner: non-stop videos, new 
merchandise and resources to display, free copies of Ontario Water Skier, a free draw 
for about $ 500 worth of prizes and a members' draw for thousands of dollars worth of 
skis, boards, wetsuits, lessons and so on...but by the middle of the show, we had sold 
about 30% fewer memberships than normal.

Things bounced back toward the end of the show: we only finished about 20% down on 
membership sales. We sure hope those lost members will catch up with the Association 
in the next few weeks. And there were good results, too- we sold out of OWSA hats, 
gave out nearly all our copies of Ontario Water Skier (you could pick one up at 7 
different places around the show), and had strong interest in the Pro Clinic program. We 
collected about 1100 ballots through the free draw, as well. 

Thanks, again, to NMMA Canada (the show organizers) and to all our corporate 
sponsors who donated product for the draws. We'll announce the winners after the 
Cottage Life Show in March- check the next issue of the magazine for names. Thanks, 
too, to all our volunteers who helped out at the OWSA booth, putting in nearly 110 hours 
in addition to my 95 over the 10 days: Dave Ellis, Cam Johnson, Gary Lehmann, Chris 
Martin, Bill Mason, Nicole Mauer, Katie and Tim Mills, Mike Spence, Tom and Jim Stacy, 
Steve Thompson, Greg Whilsmith.