HOW IT ALL STARTED

In 1979 a couple of ocean marine managers decided to resurrect the old COMA which failed because they argued about Roberts Rules of Order, etc. for too long and lost focus.  (That was around 1975). The “new” COMA started very carefully and only with the marine managers.  The first two years they only met, annually, in December.  The original COMA committee consisted of Barb Spain, Atlantic Mutual, Ed Welty, Talbot Bird; Ed Gastell, Royal; Tim Lynch, Crum & Forster;  Bob Donovan, Fireman’s Fund;  Roy Salley, INA/ACE; Bob Ricker, St. Paul;  Pete Shepeck, Wm H. McGee; Bob Liston, MOAC and Ray Denny, Hartford.

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The plan was to start slow so as not to make the same mistakes made with the original “COMA”.  After the second “annual meeting”, it was decided to open up the club to other Ocean Marine underwriters.  Upon opening it up, a president was elected - Tony Blasco, ACE/INA.  We decided to have four meetings per year, two of which would be social (the golf outing and a Christmas party) and the other two would be educational.

 

There were 16 companies that were members. We divided into four groups and had each group manage the four outings

 

The two most successful outings were the Golf Outing and the Christmas party.  The other two education events got dropped within the first three or four years.  The first golf outing had 40 golfers and the Christmas party also had 40 attendees.