I'm living vicariously through a partner of mine at Sugarloaf, Britain White. Now before you say something silly, he was one of 10 new industry members nominated and elected to the AMOA board of directors for a three-year term during the recent AMOA convention. Britain is the breed that any active association needs: young, energetic, and ready to rule the world. He's beginning the path of being an AMOA director, which at a minimum is a three-year commitment that includes a handful of meetings; for the few that decide to stay involved and become a vice president, officer, president and past president, it's a minimum 15-year commitment. Many have challenged this lengthy timeline. It's very unusual for an association to be so dependent on volunteerism. If you can get a good year out of someone, that often is considered a success on industry boards. Not at the AMOA. That's what makes the AMOA different from other associations. It truly is a volunteer-run association. Everyone works, or they are generally sent packing. That's how the system was designed.
For me, my first AMOA official duty was the AMOA convention in 1984, followed shortly by my first mid-year board meeting in March 1985 in Orlando. That was 19 years, 20 pounds, one ex-wife and lots of gray hair ago. The AMOA president at my first meeting was Dock Ringo of Mineral Wells, Texas. The hot topic back then was the jukebox licensing negotiations. My, how times have changed. I went on to become president in 1995 and then served on the Past President's Committee until 2001. I use the term "served" generously. Since we sold our business in 1998 and I went to work at Sugarloaf, my new career transition from Kansas to Colorado left little time for AMOA meetings. Any calculation would suggest that the AMOA got at least a solid 16 years of service from Randy Chilton. It's one of my proudest career accomplishments.
My AMOA conventions are much different for me today than they were during those years. I'm visiting with customers most of the time, morning, afternoon and evening. I now begin to understand what a distributor and manufacturer feel like. It's a pretty exhausting week. I've missed AMOA board meetings and general sessions since 2000. Thursday at 8AM at the convention, I attended the AMOA general membership meeting with my new AMOA director friend Britain.
I was an officer of the AMOA at a time when the convention was barely profitable, attendance was down, the reserve "rainy day" savings account had been all but exhausted due to questionable investments and lower-than-expected convention revenues, and our association was being managed by a company named Smith-Bucklin and Associates. Everything has its time and place, but at that time, we were buying champagne services on a generic beer budget. Our negotiations with the manufacturers association, the AAMA, on merging associations and conventions, in hindsight had the feel of a United Way fundraiser. The merger negotiations today see the AMOA with the strongest show and a supportive membership at record levels. I like the outcome of the negotiations either way. As I've always said, the two boards will get together to fix the "too many shows" dilemma, or the market will ultimately solve the problem for them.
I'm now back at the AMOA General Membership Meeting. Chris Warren is president with a stellar lineup of officers backing him up: Don Hesch (a past president), Marion Paul, Jim Pietrangelo and Howard Cole. Backing up the entire team are past presidents Jim Stansfield, Frank Seninsky, Jerry Derrick and Mike Leonard.
I'm listening to the new AMOA presentations during the 2003 General Membership meeting. "New" is the correct verbiage here. Everything felt different, and the board had the statistics to back it all up. First of all, the show was a success by all measures. Exhibitors were happy, and the aisles were full. Registration was up 10% over last year at 3,200 attendees. Considering the continued consolidation of the industry, this is a fantastic performance. Today the AMOA reserve fund is back up over $1 million. The new association staff is dedicated to AMOA. Jack Kelleher, the AMOA executive vice president, and his staff are loved by all. That means everyone looks forward to attending the meetings. The energy is back. Everyone has worked together to get the AMOA to this prosperous time and place. It was refreshing to see this again. There was a time when the energy was low, and each meeting seemed like a new opportunity to learn more bad news.
Membership is at a 10, high of 1,750 members. How in the world membership is up in a declining head-count industry is beyond me. It's quite unbelievable. The programs are strong, from Notre Dame to Jukebox Licensing to Government Relations, to name but a few. The AMOA is getting it done as never before.
I'm only 44, but I felt quite senior sitting in that meeting. If someone in 1995 would have made a prediction that the AMOA would be in the healthy condition that it is today - well, I don't think anyone would have been brave enough to make that prediction back then. Evidence was mountainous to the contrary. But if someone would have said that AMOA membership would be at today's record level, and that the association would be as financially healthy today as at any time in its history, he would have been looked at like a crazy man.
When we were in the eye of a storm, as the AMOA board was in the mid-'90s, we were carrying the burden of a now 55-year-old tradition. In 1995, I remember wondering how this whole thing was going to work itself out, and I remember wondering what the AMOA was going to look like at the end of this day. Would we end up as a pipe-and-drape show at the local Holiday Inn, talking about how it used to be, or would the association be able to regroup and recover?
At the 2003 AMOA General Membership meeting, I found out. I was genuinely trying to hide the chills I was experiencing as the board members were making their respective reports. Wow, they really did it. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. As they say, the future's so bright I need to wear shades.
I'm envious of my friend Britain as he begins his work as an AMOA director.
Some of my greatest memories were experiences I enjoyed during my years
as an AMOA board member. Don't be surprised if I exercise my past president
right and show up at a few of the meetings. I completely enjoyed the first
one I had attended in three years.