Membership Applauds IRTA & UC’s Accomplishments & Global Board Re-Elects Annette Riggs as President
IRTA’s 35th Annual International Convention in Cancun, Mexico was a resounding success as representatives from trade organizations around the globe rallied in support of IRTA and UC’s thirty-five years of meaningful accomplishments for the barter industry.
The convention was opened by world renowned actress Dette Glashouwer, who dazzled the audience with her creative presentation on the history of money, central banks and barter. Seminars on complementary currencies, FINCEN rulings, proper deficit management, sales & broker training, real estate trading and UC were all well attended.
The IRTA annual meeting reviewed IRTA and UC’s 2014 financials. The Treasurer distributed the Financial Reports and provided an overview of challenges and successes before opening the discussion to the members for a Q&A session. So far in 2014 twenty new members joined IRTA and there has been record setting UC trading and UC cash revenues for the year. Despite a software conversion and other challenges in September, UC set a trading record for the month of September with 637,204.02 of trading, thereby exceeding 2013’s total annual trade volume of 8,598,461.70, after only three quarters in 2014, with one full quarter of trading still to go in 2014.
“It really was a great convention, with a lot of camaraderie and warm feelings of good will and support from everyone who attended,” said IRTA Executive Director Ron Whitney.
The IRTA membership re-elected John Strabley, (IMS, Milwaukee, Wisconsin), Mary Ellen Rosinski,(Tradesource, Phoenix, Arizona), and Scot Mathewson, (iTradeearth, Cayey, Puerto Rico), to the Global Board of directors and also elected new board members Chong Kee Tan, (Bay-Bucks, San Francisco, CA), and Steve Zadrick, (WorldtradeX, Ocala, Florida).
The IRTA Global Board re-elected Annette Riggs to another two-year term as President of IRTA and also re-elected Mary Ellen Rosinski as Treasurer of IRTA. New board member Chong Kee Tan was elected to serve as IRTA’s Secretary. Scott Whitmer, IRTA’s Vice-President, retained his VP seat as his VP term runs through September of 2015.
The Cancun Convention was capped-off by the Annual Awards Dinner that honored Michael Mercier of Metro Trade in Detroit, Michigan with the Barter Hall of Fame Award. Other key awards were received by Bruce Kamm, (Paul St. Martin Award), Vern Ulery and Richard Harris, (Legends of Barter Award), and Diane Gasper for 2014 UC Broker of the Year.
IRTA and UC congratulate all the 2014 award winners and looks forward to another year of tremendous growth in both IRTA and UC as well as reaching important industry advocacy goals.