Whoever the guy was that said time flies sure knew what he was talking about. I am quickly approaching the end of my 17 years of service on the AMOA board of directors and am feeling somewhat melancholy. My last official AMOA board meeting is at the AMOA convention this fall. The short story as to how the AMOA board works, if you're not familiar with it, is that you are first elected as a director (a three-year commitment). If you decide to stay on the board, and the Nominating Committee selects you, you then advance to the positions of Vice President (another three years), Secretary (one year), Treasurer (one year), First Vice President (one year), President (one year), and then finally the Past Presidents Council (five years). Yes, it's true that you could be born and have a driver's license in the same time frame it takes to go through the AMOA system, but what a system. I remember as a first year director (at 25 years old) doing the math and laughing that if I stayed with it, I would go off the board when I was 42 years old. That seemed so far away. I turned 42 this last March. Over the next few months, I hope you will allow me to do a couple of victory laps in my column as my term comes to an end. It's been a terrific ride.
As clearly as what I did yesterday, I remember attending the Notre Dame seminar, group one, in 1984. I knew none of the 25 attendees before arriving. I didn't know what the AMOA board was because I wasn't real sure what the AMOA was or did. I had attended a couple of trade shows up to that time with my father, and knew it as the AMOA's show. I learned quickly that the charter session of the AMOA Notre Dame program I had chosen to attend was made up of most of the AMOA board leadership at that time. The Notre Dame program was, and still is one of our more ambitious and successful programs.
How can I forget the first day when I had Dock Ringo (Mineral Wells, TX) sitting on my left and Fred Collins (Greenville, SC) on my right? From that day 17 years ago Dock hasn't aged a day and Fred has gotten younger. I remember that Dock rarely said anything during that meeting, but he clearly had the respect of everyone in the room. Maybe one of the reasons Dock didn't say much was that Fred was talking non-stop for four days.
There were many other industry leaders in that first group that influence me to this day. In addition to AMOA Past Presidents Dock Ringo and Fred Collins attending the sessions, I remember AMOA Past Presidents Jim Trucano, John Estridge Sr., Wally Bohrer, Don Van Brackel, Jerry Derrick, Wes Lawson, Gene Urso, R. A. Green, Jim Stansfield, Norm Pink, and 2001 incoming AMOA President Michael Leonard. Other industry notables in that first group included Billy Weisman (Weisman Enterprises), Bill Stone (Stone Amusements), Vincent Storino (S & S Amusements), Alan Deutschmann (A.L.D. Services), Ted Furkin (Allstar Music), J.B. Reeves, and Lloyd Williamson. How's that for an industry study group at 25 years old?
Clearly looking for some young meat to be on the board, John Estridge and Bill Stone approached me about being nominated to serve on the AMOA Board. With very little knowledge, I answered yes to that question and found out the details later. It was easily, and that understates it a bunch, the best decision I've made in my 19-year industry career. I can think of very few successes in my career that can't somehow be directly tied back to my involvement in the AMOA. The mentoring program at AMOA is alive and well. I can narrow it down to about five AMOA board members who have been mentors of mine for over a decade. I learned a lot about operating from my father. I learned more than I can describe from my AMOA friends, and I wasn't a dumb guy to begin with. I couldn't mess up too bad. I was like a bowling ball with the gutter guides in place. No way to go too far wrong. Frankly, I've been unbelievably lucky. This industry has been great to my family and to me.
I made another big decision in 1984. I got married. I've said this before so forgive me for being repetitive, but it is so true. I knew I had made one big long-term decision that year by getting married. The AMOA was what I figured would be a three years and out commitment. I got it backwards. My first three years as a director exceeded the total term of my first marriage. My AMOA "marriage" is still intact after 17 years, and I barely remember old "What's Her Name."
The first board meeting I attended was in Orlando. It took me about one meeting to realize this was a group I could hang out with for a while. I began working in the committees and having some fun. Jim Trucano told me the seminar committee was the road to success in the AMOA, so that is where I began my AMOA career. The seminar committee basically ran all the seminars at the AMOA convention. It was a terrific experience, but only those that attended the trade show could benefit. So was born the AMOA Regional Seminar Program. My committee and I coordinated two-day seminars for operators and conducted them all over the country.
I won't forget the first three locations, Columbia, SC, Los Angeles, CA, and Philadelphia, PA. Being 25 years old from Kansas I had traveled very little, if any. The meeting in Columbia was very well attended and I met some of the friendliest people ever. Wow, what they say about southern hospitality is true. I left there and felt I had made 100 new friends. Then we went to Los Angeles. They were equally friendly, but less interested in the seminars. I think someone told them they had to attend. I met a lot of very groovy people. They were "huggers." It was my first trip to California. Then we were off to Philly. I'll never forget the first day when I was welcoming everyone. I was looking at what could have been 100 direct relatives of Andrew Dice Clay. As I introduced myself, the audience responded by what I thought was their way of telling me I was "number one." I usually used my index finger for this message, and faced the palm side of my hand outward, but clearly they did it differently in Philly. Probably a regional thing I thought. There was no love, very few new friends, just a lot of guys looking at their watch anticipating either the end of the seminar or the next smoke break. I learned quickly that people are different all over the country. We did a few more of these but the program eventually fizzled. It was a financial success but the difficulty was finding qualified industry speakers that would travel to the seminars up to six times per year.
It wasn't an easy accession for me through the chairs of the AMOA. There are usually a few speed bumps along the way for most people. For the vice presidents seats, they select three candidates from the 10 directors ending their term each year, and send the other seven home. At the end of my first term as director I was sent home. Three others were chosen to advance to the next level. I had worked very hard those first three years and was very disappointed not to move up. OK, I was mad as hell. A month later the chairman of the Nominating Committee called me to tell me a Director, Phil Eisenburg from Pennsylvania, had resigned and they were asking me to fill an unexpired term on the board. I was back in play. However, I was also not selected the first time I was up for the office of Secretary. They gave it to a guy named Craig Johnson from Utah who went on to make quite an impact in the association. Finally, in 1992, I was selected to move to the office of Secretary. From there, you really have to mess up not to move up to Treasurer, First Vice President, and then President, as I did in 1995.
I remember bragging to my banker in Kansas that I had been selected to be president of our national association. His enthusiastic response was something like, "Oh, no!" A customer of ours at the time suggested I should have quit the AMOA immediately before it adversely affected our company. Their concerns of course were the time commitment of volunteering for the association. Luckily, my father was a supporter of the AMOA and supported me throughout. I have discussed this issue with other members of the board, and we are in total agreement that whatever you give to your industry, either in time, expertise, or through expenses you incur, comes back to you 100 times over. That's absolutely the case in my career. As with anything, you get out of it what you put into it.
It's very fulfilling to get people involved in the AMOA. It isn't always
an easy first step. To learn more call the AMOA office at 800/937-2662 and
ask for more information on becoming a director. Better yet, I'd be honored
to talk to you myself. I'm at 303/444-2559.