{"id":230582,"date":"2016-06-23T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=230582"},"modified":"2016-06-23T06:00:15","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T20:00:15","slug":"mtec-welcomes-new-board-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mtec-welcomes-new-board-member\/","title":{"rendered":"MTEC welcomes new board member"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_230605\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-230605\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/MTEC-pix.jpg-300x218.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-230605\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kanoa Resort general manager Wendi Herring, center, was elected to the Marianas Tourism Education Council Board of Directors on June 15, 2016, at the Marianas Visitors Authority office. From left, MVA Community Projects coordinator Ryan Calvo, MTEC board member Larry Lee, MTEC chair Vicky Benavente, Herring, MTEC board member Naomi Nishimura, MVA Community Projects assistant Jennalyd Babauta, and MTEC board member and MVA Community Projects manager Martin Duenas.<br \/>(Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kanoa Resort general manager Wendi Herring has joined the Marianas Tourism Education Council Board of Directors, voted in at the organization\u2019s board meeting on June 15, 2016. Herring was a founding board member of MTEC in 2002 as a then-representative of Pacific Islands Club Saipan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been MTEC\u2019s biggest fan on Facebook since I got back on Saipan,\u201d said Herring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited to be back on the board and am looking forward to our work ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MTEC chair Vicky Benavente also reported at the meeting that MTEC netted $12,000 from the Governor\u2019s Tourism Cup held last month at Laolao Bay Golf Resort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NMI\u2019s tourism industry can continue to grow and flourish, but only with the collaboration from our community and stakeholders. In celebration of the Marianas Visitors Authority\u2019s 40th anniversary, the government and the private sector teamed up to coordinate a successful fundraiser for the MTEC, said Benavente. \u201cWith these funds, MTEC is able to continue the education outreach to the schools, focusing on the theme, \u201cTourism Is Everybody\u2019s Business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The board also voted to offer the first MTEC scholarship to two graduating high school seniors in the amounts of $1,000 and $500. Scholarship criteria are being developed and will be announced within the next several weeks.<\/p>\n<p>MTEC is a non-profit organization aimed at educating the public on the tourism industry and its importance to the community. MTEC is administered by a Board of directors, including Christopher A. Concepcion and Martin Duenas (MVA), Jonas Barcinas and Naomi Nishimura (CNMI Public School System), Larry Lee (MTEC), James Nelson (Sorenson Media Broadcasting), Gordon Marciano (Pacific Development, Inc.), and Shamika Ratwatte (Ernst &amp; Young). <strong>(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kanoa Resort general manager Wendi Herring has joined the Marianas Tourism Education Council Board of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":230605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[43,1526,1527,4986],"class_list":["post-230582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-marianas-visitors-authority","tag-mtec","tag-vicky-benavente","tag-wendi-herring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}