2016 MAAST President and VP

[Justin]

It is that time of the year again for us to choose the President and Vice President for the 2016 Board of Directors (BOD). Each position is for the 2016 Calendar Year

REQUIREMENTS :
Nominees must currently be on the BOD or have served previously on the BOD per MAAST By-laws.

Please feel free to nominate yourself or anyone else that you feel MAAST will benefit from their talents.
Nominees are to submit a post that he/she accepts as well as submit a small bio explaining why they would like to hold above said position and or what special qualities they have that can be beneficial to the club.

We will close this thread on Wednesday December 2nd so that the election polls can begin shortly there after..

OPEN POSITIONS:

PRESIDENT:
Zack Guevara (Zack)
Serving 1st year of 1 year term
Expires 12-31-15

VICE PRESIDENT:
Kevin Kiel (Kkiel02 )
Serving 1st year of 1 year term
Expires 12-31-15

Thank you to all for your participation: Justin-

Nominations are:

President:
Zack- 2nd and accepted
Alton- Declined
Justin - Declined

Vice President:
Justin - Accepted
Kkiel02 - Declined

[Paul28]

I nominate Zack for President

[Dean]

I nominate Alton and Justin for President and Kkiel02 for Vice President.

[Zack]

Thank you Paul, I humbly accept the nomination for President.

A little bit about me, I'm a Texas State graduate with a bachelors in Exercise Sports Science with a concentration in Physical Therapy. This past June I was lucky enough to marry my beautiful wife Victoria and we're currently planning our next tank build once we finish moving into our apartment.

I've been a MAAST lurker since 2009, when my Physics teacher (technomex) introduced me to the forum. I was a sophomore and for my National Honors society hours, I spent several hours a week assisting him with dosing, water changes, and skimmer cleanings. Somehow I feel like it was a really good deal for him lol..

I formally joined in 2011 under the 'nanoreefer11' moniker. I started my first year as a web member, and then a charter member. In 2012-2013 I served on the MAAST moderation team alongside several great moderators. In late 2013 I was nominated by former President Ben Rainey for a Board of Director position. My first year on the bod went well and at the end of that year I was nominated for President. Unfortunately I did not win as president but I was appointed Secretary by Eve. 2015 was an interesting one which saw me go from Secretary to Vice President and then to President. I believe that seeing how MAAST works from almost every position within the club has given me a great perspective of how the club works.

In my time as a board member and officer, I've Chaired the Sponsorship committee as well as helped Justin with the marketing committee. I've also been the de-facto head of the meetings committee.

My three proudest accomplishments while on the BOD have been my meeting presentations (All Stings Considered, Unwanted Guests, Tank Crashes), the MAAST FB, and also helping plan the Lonestar Marine Aquarist Rally alongside the 2015 Board of Directors.

When I started my term as an officer this year, I was a terrible public speaker. I believe I've improved both in the quality of the presentations I've made as well as in my delivery over the course of my term. For the Facebook, when I was given admin status on the page in February, we had 111 members. We now have almost 200 members, almost all of which have made Maast accounts and many of which have become new charter members. In regards to LMAR, we hosted over 300 people from over Texas with 16 vendors and it all went incredibly well.

I'm also learning to use both adobe illustrator as well as photoshop. Both of these have been present on several of the MAAST marketing documents this year with my favorite piece of work being the redesigned LMAR logo.

I appreciate the nomination and I hope to be back serving MAAST for 2016.

[ST3PH3N]

I second the nomination of Zack for president.

In a time where it's hard for the hobby to keep its fan base, Zack has gone above and beyond in promoting and following through with great results. He's the breath of fresh air that the group will need to continue in its growth. The "game" is evolving and we need someone on the cutting edge to continue to propel Maast in the right direct. I personally know how hard Zack works, and how much pride he takes in his roll for our organization. He's the right man for the job and over the last year I feel like he has proven that we are heading in a new brighter direction.

Thanks again Zack for all you do sir!

[alton]

I nominate Alton and Justin for President and Kkiel02 for Vice President.

Dean thank you for the nomination, but at this time I am going to decline.

[Zack]

Thank you Stephen, that means a lot coming from an accomplished aquarist such as yourself.

I would like to nominate our current secretary Justin for Vice President. Justin and myself have built up a great rapport as hobbyists, officers, and friends. We've spent many an evening with marketing meetings, ride alongs to sponsors, and cold calls to potential new sponsors. He brings a lot to the table with his expert knowledge of marketing as well as the hobby and I believe he would make an incredible Vice President

[Justin]

Thank you for the nomination for VP Zack and I accept the nomination for Vice President. To give everyone a little information about myself:

I grew up in Sunny Southern California and graduated from USC with a degree in business. I found myself in Texas after taking on a position with Kraft to run the Nabisco business at HEB. While managing the business at HEB, I was involved with various marketing and sales strategies to grow the various brands under the Nabisco banners such as Oreo, Chips Ahoy, Ritz and Premium to name a few. I currently work from home and for a different company that manages the businesses of several small companies that are either trying to get into HEB or currently in distribution and need to grow their business.

Over the years I have had the privilege of being a member of various groups and also help lead the following groups:

Member of the business Fraternity AKPsi, President of pledge class and became the VP of Membership twice for the group as well as President
Toastmaster- Help rejuvenate my local work group and also became the president of the group
Member of my local martial Art group- Capuraginga- Also a teacher for the kids program for over a year

I have been in the aquarium hobby for almost 20+ years ( I was like 12 or so). It started when I had my first set of tetras in my first 10 gallon tank. From their the fever/obsession grew to planted tanks where I first got my feet wet with hardcore aquarium practices like CO2 and dosing fertilizer. My fascination with Nature World Aquarium and Planted tank grew until I moved out here to Texas back in 2008ish where I decided to give up the hobby and focus on work and other boring things, lol. After talking to my childhood friends Mike and Eric, who founded RapidLed, they got me hooked again on aquariums..but this time on Saltwater. I've been addicted to the salt life since, and currently have a 185 system that I humbly presented to the group during one of our previous meetings.

As VP, I would like to take my experience in both work and life and use them to help grow our great community. Some of my accomplishments for the group so far are:


Help plan and organize the recent LMAR event with Zack, which brought in an unprecedented flow of traffic to our swap and consequently our group
Working with our Sponsors and building a rapport with them to help grow the foundation points of MAAST
One of three Judges for the Coral Grow Out Contest
Successfully setup RapidLED as a sponsor for 2016
Worked with Zack to manage the MAAST Facebook account
Work closely with other groups in town to help promote the goals of MAAST
Creating a very successful marketing campaign to not only grow our general membership but also grow our charter membership in 2015


Thank you for the nomination and I look forward to building on my success and utilizing my previous experiences to be Vice President for MAAST in 2016

[Justin]

I nominate Alton and Justin for President and Kkiel02 for Vice President.

Dean thank you for the nomination but I will have to humbly decline your offer. I have decided that I would like to offer up my services to the group as its Vice President.

[Justin]

Daily Bump.

Rrasco- can we get this thread put as a sticky on the top of the page to gain more exposure for nominations?

[Justin]

Bump

[Justin]

Bump

[Zack]

Ttt

[Justin]

Bump for the last day to nominate anyone before I create the vote thread.