GAMA held its Annual Membership Meeting Friday evening in conjunction with Association consumer show Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio, at which an election was held for officers and directors, among other business.  Before the election, GAMA President Stephan Brissaud thanking departing officers and longtime board members Brian Dalrymple, who had been Secretary, and Aaron Witten, who was Treasurer.  Dalrymple had been a board member representing every tier of the organization in his service since 1994, he noted in his departing remarks.

The board also rued the absence of Board Member Emeritus Rick Loomis,  who was too ill to attend (see “Rick Loomis Diagnosed with Cancer”), and sent him best wishes.  Loomis was one of six people who had attended every Origins Game Fair since its inception. 

Elections of officers were uncontested.  Stephan Brissaud was re-elected as President with no opposition, despite the resignations over the past year of two board members who cited Brissaud’s continued presidency after an incident at Gen Con last year as reasons for their departures (see “Mike Stackpole: ‘GAMA Board Is Broken,’” and “Mike Webb of Alliance Game Distributors Resigns from GAMA Board”).

Board member Jeff Tidball was elected as Secretary after an endorsement by departing Secretary Dalrymple.   

Board member Marie Poole was elected as Treasurer for a one-year term to fill out Witten’s term.

Elections for three Directors-at-Large were held.  Voting members chose from a variety of candidates to elect returning board member Nicole Lindros of Green Ronin Publishing, Andrew Chesney of Chip Theory Games, and Alan Hochman of Pastime Comics and Games.  After a run-off election to break a tie between second and third place between Chesney and Hochman, Chesney received more votes and will serve a two-year term, which Hochman will serve a one-year term serving out Poole’s time in office.

There were 77 attending Publishing/Manufacturing Member companies at the meeting, in person, online, or by proxy out of 214 companies with that classification of membership.  After an online member vote in the past month, a new proxy rule took effect with this election that allowed each member to hold only one proxy vote rather than an unlimited number of proxies.

In addition to the 214 Publishing/Manufacturing Member companies, at the time of the meeting0 there were 26 distributor members, 592 retailer members, and 177 communicating members.

Early numbers for the Origins Game Fair were up around 2,000 badges (to 17,791) as of Friday noon. Attendance at Trade Day was down somewhat, although specific numbers were not provided.