Music Trade Review
Issue: 1922 Vol. 75 N. 10 - Page 3
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
fULflC TRADE
VOL. LXXV. No. 10
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th ATC, New York.
Sept. 2, 1922
sln
*{!.oo°Pe e p
Association Members
T
HERE is no question hut that the music industry as a whole has heen sold on the association idea in
its various forms, and prohahly at the present time there are more trade association memhers through-
out the country than at any period in history when the membership of local as well as national music
trade organizations is taken into consideration.
The greatest trouble seems to be, however, that much of this membership seems to be without enthusi-
asm and that so far as accomplishments go, with one or two notable exceptions, the trade bodies are associa-
tions in name only. During the past year or two there have been formed a dozen or more local trade bodies
that have been launched most enthusiastically and then left to shift for themselves. At the organization
meeting and at meetings following immediately thereafter the attendance was large and full of vigor, but grad-
ually interest waned and the officers were left to carry on the association work as best they could under exist-
ing conditions.
Those who have experience in organization activities have long realized that the real work must rest
upon the shoulders of a comparative few and that the bulk of the membership is generally content to sit by and
criticise. In organizations of a fraternal nature this plan works out fairly well, but the successful trade asso-
ciation depends upon the interest taken by all members, for various association moves in most cases depend
upon the co-operation of the membership as a whole rather than upon the sincere but often unappreciated
work and efforts of a few.
One of the functions of a trade association is to provide for the interchange of business information
of definite value, and this work must be carried on on the basis of give and take if it is to get results. The in-
dividual member who sits quietly by himself and expects his trade association to provide him with legal pro-
tection, sales information and other service that is helping him to maintain and develop his business without
at the same time adding his own share to that fund of information is not playing fair to the other members
of the industry.
The only members of the trade who have any reason to complain about association work are those who
have taken an active and steady interest in the work of the association and have become discouraged because
the rank and file of the trade body have not seen fit to lend their co-operation and carry a part of the burden.
There are those who feel that a paid executive with a central office in which to work solves the problem and
relieves the membership at large of any further possibilities. Yet, such an executive, unless he is provided
with material by the members in the field, would be simply wasting time.
In an endeavor to overcome the apathy of the majority of members various association secretaries have
adopted various plans for getting under the skin of the individual who simply pays his dues and lets it go at
that. The secretary of the New England Association, for instance, recently propounded a brief questionnaire,
which was sent to non-attending members, for the purpose of getting their views on the value of trade associa-
tions and association work with the idea of arousing their interest to a point where it would become active and
produce results.
•
'
,
Others have tried by personal letter and by direct solicitation to bring into association work those mem-
bers of the trade whose experience and opinions are calculated to prove of genuine value, but results have
not been always satisfactory.
When the members of the music trade come to a realization of the fact that the strength of a trade
association lies in what it accomplishes through the co-operation of its members, rather than in the size of its
membership roll, then perhaps the trade bodies will prove real factors in actually building business for all
concerned.
-
.
.
THE
fULflC TRADE
VOL. LXXV. No. 10
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th ATC, New York.
Sept. 2, 1922
sln
*{!.oo°Pe e p
Association Members
T
HERE is no question hut that the music industry as a whole has heen sold on the association idea in
its various forms, and prohahly at the present time there are more trade association memhers through-
out the country than at any period in history when the membership of local as well as national music
trade organizations is taken into consideration.
The greatest trouble seems to be, however, that much of this membership seems to be without enthusi-
asm and that so far as accomplishments go, with one or two notable exceptions, the trade bodies are associa-
tions in name only. During the past year or two there have been formed a dozen or more local trade bodies
that have been launched most enthusiastically and then left to shift for themselves. At the organization
meeting and at meetings following immediately thereafter the attendance was large and full of vigor, but grad-
ually interest waned and the officers were left to carry on the association work as best they could under exist-
ing conditions.
Those who have experience in organization activities have long realized that the real work must rest
upon the shoulders of a comparative few and that the bulk of the membership is generally content to sit by and
criticise. In organizations of a fraternal nature this plan works out fairly well, but the successful trade asso-
ciation depends upon the interest taken by all members, for various association moves in most cases depend
upon the co-operation of the membership as a whole rather than upon the sincere but often unappreciated
work and efforts of a few.
One of the functions of a trade association is to provide for the interchange of business information
of definite value, and this work must be carried on on the basis of give and take if it is to get results. The in-
dividual member who sits quietly by himself and expects his trade association to provide him with legal pro-
tection, sales information and other service that is helping him to maintain and develop his business without
at the same time adding his own share to that fund of information is not playing fair to the other members
of the industry.
The only members of the trade who have any reason to complain about association work are those who
have taken an active and steady interest in the work of the association and have become discouraged because
the rank and file of the trade body have not seen fit to lend their co-operation and carry a part of the burden.
There are those who feel that a paid executive with a central office in which to work solves the problem and
relieves the membership at large of any further possibilities. Yet, such an executive, unless he is provided
with material by the members in the field, would be simply wasting time.
In an endeavor to overcome the apathy of the majority of members various association secretaries have
adopted various plans for getting under the skin of the individual who simply pays his dues and lets it go at
that. The secretary of the New England Association, for instance, recently propounded a brief questionnaire,
which was sent to non-attending members, for the purpose of getting their views on the value of trade associa-
tions and association work with the idea of arousing their interest to a point where it would become active and
produce results.
•
'
,
Others have tried by personal letter and by direct solicitation to bring into association work those mem-
bers of the trade whose experience and opinions are calculated to prove of genuine value, but results have
not been always satisfactory.
When the members of the music trade come to a realization of the fact that the strength of a trade
association lies in what it accomplishes through the co-operation of its members, rather than in the size of its
membership roll, then perhaps the trade bodies will prove real factors in actually building business for all
concerned.
-
.
.
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