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Robbins offers resignation
joe Robbins, president of the
American Amusement Association
(AAMA) , has offered his resignation
and has instructed a nominating
committee to seek a new president
and slate of oHicers at an AAMA
business meeting May 16-17 in San
Francisco .
Robbins offered his resignation
in an April15 letter to AAMA mem-
bers in hopes of stemming the dis-
cord within the association. Dissen-
sion has apparently grown within
the AAMA in recent weeks following
the poor attenda nee at the associa-
tion ' s annual trade exposition ,
Amusement Showcase International
(ASI) , which was held March 1-3 in
Chicago.
Robbins has been the prime pro-
ponent of the AAMA's attempt to
sponsor a springtime show to com-
pete against the Amusement Oper-
ators Expo (AOE),which has been
owned and managed by Play Meter
magazine since 1980. The AAMA
president has maintained that, with-
out the ASI show, the entire game
manufacturers ' association is in
jeopardy.
However , in its first two years ,
th e ASI ha s been unable to draw
operator attendees away from the
more established AOE, and exhibi-
tors at both shows are now com-
plaining that the attempt by ASI to
force a second springtime show on
the industry has diluted the poten-
tial of either show (ASI or AOE)
being profitable for exhibitors.
AAMA executives have claimed
the ASI had 3,500 registrations for
PLAY METER, May 1 5, 1985
th_is year's exposition, but they have
refused to release the actual atten-
dance figures, which were consider-
ably lower. In fact, this year's ASI
drew so poorly that several mem-
bers , including Atari, said they
would not exhibit at the ASI again.
And, in informal discussions,
other manufacturer members who
exhibited at the ASI said they would
favor paying higher dues to support
the association rather than having to
go through the enormous expense
of exhibiting again at the ASI. Said
one manufacturer, "I could have
invited all my distributors to our
offices and spent a lot less than I did
at the ASI and still wrote as many
orders."
In his open letter, Robbins con-
firmed the numerous complaints
from members about the ASI's poor
draw. Robbins wrote, " I have heard
so many complaints about the lack
of operator attendance , but oh so
few compliments from Glenn [Bras-
well, AAMA executive director] and
his crew.
"Unfortunately, there has sur-
faced in recent weeks," he con-
tinued, " devisive [sic) elements that
possibly threaten the ongoing
existence of AAMA and the con-
tinuity of the ASI. In this respect, let
no one misunderstand the reason
for being for ASI. Given the reduced
schedule of dues, the funds gener-
ated by the show are essential to the
continuance of our programs,
including the fight against the
copiers."
However, Robbins's letter con-
tinued, "I have been President of
AGMA and AAMA since its incep-
tion in 1981, and I have the press of
personal affairs, and I do believe a
new President and a revised execu-
tive committee might better reunite
everyone and restore the cohesive-
ness which seems to be slowly
eroding."
Braswell, however, downplayed
the Robbins's letter, saying , " At the
last two annual meetings, joe said he
would resign because his business
was taking up to much of his time.
But each time he is re-elected to the
position of president."
But Braswell noted that this time
several nominations were made for
the position and that the matter will
be voted upon at the San Francisco
meeting.
In his April 15 letter, Robbins
also criticized 28 distributing com-
panies by name for not having paid
their association dues.
In January, prior to the AAMA
push to enlist dues-paying distribu-
tor members, Braswell said ten dis-
tributorships were ready to join the
association. However, according to
Robbins's April 15 letter, the dis-
tributor members still totalled ten.
Robbins wrote, "Having been
instrumental in creating a new cate-
gory of membership for distributors
(at their request I must add), I must
apologize to the members as it
appears that I was sadly misled as to
the sincerity of their actual desire."
Robbins continued that he "was
ashamed and appalled" that the list
of dues-paying distributor members
had not grown.
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