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Anyone who criticizes the DMA in this regard is out of line. The DMA has to represent all its members and can’t merely snub one over the other. By starting an entirely new group, the ACMA took the best approach. But it barely has enough backing to get by.
As for the event itself, ACMA’s executive director Hamilton Davison has worked feverishly to pull together this postal event quickly, but it needs a decent turnout among catalogers.
In fact, Hamilton approached me at the end of April to see if Catalog Success would agree to co-present the event, but unfortunately, as I had to tell him, we’re in the thick of putting together our first-ever conference with F. Curtis Barry & Co. just a week and a half before this event. We just didn’t have the manpower or enough time to manage both of these events properly. Then Hamilton turned to NEMOA, and the NEMOA board has also aggressively promoted this among its members — plus NEMOA members will qualify for ACMA member rates.
We’ll revist the possibility of co-presenting this event if ACMA chooses to do it again in the future. For now, this editorial is part of what we’re doing to help out on our end.
Postal Heavy Hitters
Davison says he’s received commitments from the following postal heavy hitters, all of whom will be speaking and carrying on a dialog with catalogers during the event: From the USPS, Postmaster General Jack Potter; Deputy Postmaster General Pat Donahoe; Chief Marketing Officer Anita Bizzotto; VP Pricing & Classification Steve Kearney; and VP Government Affairs & Public Policy Marie Therese Dominquez.
The following representatives from the Postal Regulatory Commission also will be there: Chairman Dan Blair and commissioners Ruth Goldway and Mark Acton. And Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has been invited.
Unlike the National Postal Forum, the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee meetings and other postal events, this one will focus solely on catalogers’ interests. So I recommend you consider attending, whether you’re an ACMA member or not. For information, contact Hamilton Davison at hdavison@catalogmailers.org or Cathy Roden at croden@catalogmailers.org.
A Closing Disclaimer (of Sorts)
A final note here: Those of you who’ve gotten to know me well over the years know full well that I pride myself on objective reporting, both with the material we run in Catalog Success and during my years at the old Catalog Age. I’ll be perfectly blunt: It pains me to write a shameless puff piece like this, and I assure you that nobody paid me off to do so.
But per our tagline, “Your Partner in Multichannel Commerce,” I do feel very much like a partner to our catalog/multichannel readers and have a vested interest in your future. So pulling yourself off the beach and making your way to an event such as this is certainly in your best long-term interests.
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