MISSING: DMA Board Members
Have you seen any of the following people?
Leslie Abi-Karam, Pitney Bowes Inc.
Christine Aguilera, SkyMall, Inc.
Bill Bass, Fair Indigo
Ronald Bliwas, A. Eicoff & Company
G. Steven Dapper, hawkeye
Glenn Eisen, Guthy-Renker LLC
Rick Erwin, Experian
Nancy Evenson, NetNowVideo
Brian Fetherstonhaugh, OgilvyOne Worldwide
Steve Fuller, L.L. Bean Inc.
Andrew Goldberg, Publishers Clearing House
Susan Goodman, Goodman&Company
Karen Haefling, KeyBank
John Healy, Dydacomp Development Corporation
Reuben Hendell, MRM Worldwide
George Ittner, The Territory Ahead
Gary Laben, KnowledgeBase Marketing Inc.
Stephen M. Lacy, Meredith Corporation
Yuchun Lee, Unica Corporation
E. Donald McKenzie,Direct Group
Mary Miller, PetSmart
Matt O’Grady, Nielsen Claritas
Godfred Otuteye, Money Mailer LLC
Gian-Carlo Peressutti, R.R. Donnelley
Wesley Protheroe, Gerber Life Insurance Company
Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics, Inc.
Robert Quigley
Donn Rappaport, American List Counsel, Inc.
Arun Sinha, Zurich Financial Services
Gary Skidmore, Harte-Hanks, Inc.
Pat Snyder, Cabela’s
Markus Wilhelm, AKS Marketing & Media LLC
David Williams, Merkle Inc.
Brian Wolfe, Time Inc.
Dawn Zier, Reader’s Digest Association
If you have information or knowledge of their whereabouts, please ask them if they know that there is a pissing match, er, proxy war going on? (While you are at it, please also ask them exactly who the 7th mysterious member of the compensation committee is. I’d like to submit their name to well, you know, the organizations who check up on filings, taxes and such things.)
Whose side are they on? Team Greco’s? Team Pike’s? What are their feelings about this whole matter? And why praytell, don’t we know?
Are they on the Board of Directors of the DMA because it looked good on their resume; got them more clients; or because they really care about direct marketing and the major association that supports it?
It appears that many of them have mistaken FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY with vow of silence.
I am very curious to hear what they think.
And yes, folks, I’m also very tired of hearing myself talk about this.
There has been so much chatter since Sept. 25, including mine.
With that said, before you head to San Diego and Sunday’s proxy showdown, let me point out that this is NOT about whether Pike wins the proxy war on Sunday, it’s NOT about a second Board term for Pike, it really has little or nothing ultimately to do with Gerry Pike.
Nor is the core issue John Greco’s salary, though that certainly appears to be of utmost interest to members, current/former DMA staff, and at least one member of the Board.
Rather, the real issue is whether YOU, a dues-paying member, and the 92-year-old DMA will be well, appropriately, ethically served by the current CEO and his loyal-to-a-fault senior team, whose decision-making seemingly has been focused more on the CEO’s paycheck than on member needs, service and representation.
This question is especially important at this time in our industry’s history…i.e., economy, media explosion, etc.
Whether you give your proxy to Pike, DMA, Connie LaMotta (who is smart, well-spoken and unbelievably courageous) or Richard H. Levey (whose exhaustive reporting deserves proxies, cookies and a hefty cash bonus from Penton), I would encourage you to actually attend Sunday’s meeting. Your mere presence…let alone your voice, should we actually be given the opportunity to utter one word…will be a powerful reminder to DMA’s Grand Poobahs that YOU, the dues-paying member, care, are concerned, and do matter.
Why do I make this pitch? Do you agree or disagree that when all the buzz dies down the real core issue is whether the DMA will even exist in another five years?
DMA Annual Business Meeting
Sunday, October 18, 2009
1:15 - 1:45 PM
US Grant Hotel
Presidential “D” Room
326 Broadway
San Diego, CA
*****There is a rumor going around that there may be a room change that will not be announced. Get there early.
October 14th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Thanks for the ’shout out’ Amy.
I don’t think of myself as ‘courageous.’ I just can’t keep quiet about this.
And quite honestly, I just don’t understand the culture of fear that is surrounding all of this. I understand fear on the part of present employees, and yes, some former staff have compensation fears. But why do vendors who are exhibiting have fears and why aren’t they speaking? Why do former Board members have fears? And why aren’t they speaking?
DMA is an organization I worked for during 12 transformative years of my career. I was given the freedom to be creative and explore opportunities to make a difference and was able to do the same for my staff. We thrived in that environment and, I like to believe, so did the DMA members.
I agree that the biggest question of all is - will there be a DMA in the future? Will there be a conscience on the Board that takes the questions being raised seriously. Will there be a DMA?
Or will there be a perpetuation of fear - will they DO something at the Board meeting that doesn’t allow Gerry to participate? Will they find some by-laws, some legal gobbledegook loophole to disqualify Pike’s proxy holdings? Will they act in a way that is responsible to the members or protective of themselves?
Will the atmosphere of fear be perpetuated, or will the Board shatter the culture of fear and take the bold action needed at this moment in DMA’s history.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Hello Amy,
While I understand the desire to cast this as Team Greco vs Team Pike and to simplify a widely diverse board of individuals into representing one of two camps (controversy sells papers, or at least used to when there were newspapers around), I don’t think this was quite a fair post. My duty on this board is to represent the membership. Doubt you will find any board member in your list who feels differently. But the board is not a monolithic entity (nor the duality that your post pre-supposes) and as one would expect, how to best to represent the membership is the subject of spirited debate. Admittedly, rarely this spirited or this public. Then again, this has been much more interesting reading in the trade press than the latest proposal for behavioral advertising guidelines. We have a board meeting this weekend in advance of the annual meeting. Regardless of the eventual outcome of the proxy fight, Gerry’s concerns will generate good (and spirited) debate at the board meeting about how the DMA can better serve its members.
Thanks
Bill
October 15th, 2009 at 8:20 am
Bill -
Thank you for your response.
First, you should know that I am not a journalist, nor do I work for Penton. I have no vested interested in “how many papers they sell” but one of stimulating the discussion. Also, I think it’s more like Team Gehn (Gerry and John) versus Team Apathy but that’s another story.
My understanding is that the Board has three meetings per year and that, statistically a quarter of the Board Members skip at least one meeting per year. (Understandable since most of you have very big businesses to run and this is a volunteer position at your own time/expense.) Additionally, and please correct me if I am wrong, all the information you get has been Greco-approved before you get it.
So referring to Levey’s article, the questions become…
Did or did not the Board “fix” Greco’s salary as the Constitution mandates? And is it true or not that Pike, who has a reputation of being one of the most DMA-involved Board Members, was not re-nominated because he had the audacity to ask probing questions concerning salary and spending that Greco did not wish to address?
If you have read Levey’s articles and the DMA’s throwaway responses, I imagine you’ll understand why we are left wondering: Where is the rest of the Board?
Thanks again for writing.
P.S. With all due respect, the companies on the Board are not exactly representative of someone who goes to a conference like ACCM as something other than a keynote speaker or a vendor. Nor have I heard of a lot (ok, of any) mass solicitations from Board Members looking for the “regular guy’s” opinion. I respect that your goal is to represent the membership. My question for the Board is… how exactly are you finding out what the membership wants to hear? If you read the comments on my other posts, many folks state that they think Greco and his team do not listen. If the information to you is being filtered by and through them, how would it even be close to accurate?
October 15th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Amy is right. The regular members should be asked about how they feel about The-DMA and how it’s serving them.
These are hard times in our industry, and to go behind closed doors and not tell members about what they’re doing doesn’t help anyone. Transparency is a good thing in all governing bodies.
There’s also a pomposity to the “private meetings” only for the important guys, when most members have a choice now of what organizations will most benefit them.
I have heard that The-DMA did do a customer survey, called “Voice of the Customer” and the results were not positive, so they already know that they need change fast.
The sad part for me is that The-DMA was always an important part of my career, and many wonderful relationships were made at the meetings and conferences.
Maybe it just got too big, too fat cat, too superior and somehow forgot that an association is there to serve its members. It is not to serve the big companies only, but help the small ones grow. To be available…like it has in past administations.
October 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Maybe the DMA has finally succumbed to the Law of Organizations: Once an organization reaches a thousand people, its management no longer requires contact with the outside world.