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Trade Associations Must Change In Wake of Consolidation

By Susan Carol
Appearing in the Monitor, June 2002

In the wake of industry consolidation and the economic recession, many equipment leasing and finance trade associations are finding that, just like their members, they must not stagnate if they want to succeed. As membership declines or changes, so must they. Representatives of some of these groups are meeting informally to study ways to cooperate, and some associations are already adjusting programming to reduce the need for travel or to reach a wider audience. The idea of a federation of associations is even under informal discussion by some executives.

In response to declining attendance at educational and networking events, some are combining their events, offering reciprocal member rates or changing the way they reach their target audience. For example, the Equipment Leasing Association (ELA) and the United Association of Equipment Leasing (UAEL) recently began to offer seminars via teleconferencing. Both report success with this, and the ELA says its last teleconference had 150 sites on the call. The ELA and the National Vehicle Leasing Association (NVLA) agreed to give members of each other's organizations discounts on association events.

Changes in its membership drove the ELA to appoint a task force to assist in planning for the future. Headed by Edward Dahlka, president of LaSalle National Leasing Corporation, Baltimore, Md., it's focused less on the size of the membership and more on active involvement of existing members. Dahlka reports increased participation among industry service providers. As the number of companies in the industry decline due to mergers and acquisitions, programs will be tailored not only for the most senior level executives at these companies but at the mid-level as well. ELA membership has declined from 1,000 at its peak to 850 members today, losing some if its top dues-paying members along the way.

The ELA plans to continue to distinguish itself by its leadership in advocacy and education. Michael Fleming, association president, says he expects "to be more tightly focused on the risks their members take, as well as the reputation and brand of the industry."

While the ELA missed recent informal gatherings of association representatives who met at the UAEL and Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors (EAEL) combined annual conference in Las Vegas, and later in Orlando at the National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers (NAELB) meeting, it plans to invite all of the representatives to another meeting this fall. So far the representatives of four groups-UAEL, EAEL, NAELB and the MidAmerica Association of Equipment Lessors (MAEL)-have only agreed to keep the dialogue open.

Gery Egan, president of Tecsource Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., and president of the NAELB, says NAELB doesn't feel pressured economically to collaborate. "It's more of a logistics thing, to give our members more bang for the buck." The vast majority of its members can't turn in a receipt to someone for compensation when they travel to these events and numbers were down at their recent conference.

One of the newer industry associations, the eLessors Networking Association (eLNA), is launching a new service called "Event Discounts" at its holding company's Web site: www.lessors.com. It is a clearinghouse for tickets to association conferences and events. Founder John Semon reports any association can advertise unsold attendee registrations at a discount on this network.

Semon also says he is interested in collaboration with other trade associations, observing that associations, "like the industry they represent must abandon their proprietary members-only strategies and embrace a more collaborative culture that includes other associations and their members."

Membership dues are not an issue for eLNA because it applies membership fees to the registration cost for their first event, Semons says. eLNA is reaching more than 15,000 targeted industry professionals in weekly e-mail distributions. The recipients aren't just e-leasing professionals, Semon reports, but they are Internet savvy.

Another industry group that isn't worried about membership is the Association of Service and Computer Dealers International (ASCDI). President Joseph Marion says being international in scope helps and the fact that it has acquired other large member organizations such as the former Computer Dealers and Lessors Association (CDLA), the Information Technology Resellers Association (ITRA) and the European computer lessors (ECLAT). It has about 325 member companies with IBM and Sun Microsystems representatives on its board of directors.

Whether there will be more mergers, just informal partnering or a grand plan for the future, industry observers are noting that adjustments are on the horizon, just as business realities shape the industry as a whole.

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