Play Meter

AMOA releases Droste
The 18-member executive com-
mittee of the operators' national
association (AMOA) dismissed Leo
Droste, the organization 's fulltime
executive director, and hired a pro-
fessional management team in a
move to restructure AMOA .
Droste , who had served as
AMOA' s fulltime executive director
since 1981 , told Play Meter he was
surprised by the executive commit-
tee's action, that he had had no
advanced warning of the commit-
tee 's decision. He offered no further
comment concerning his dismissal.
AMOA's new association firm,
Smith, Bucklin & Associates, Inc. of
Chicago, is reportedly the nation 's
largest association management
company. It currently serves over
120 association clients from offices
in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Wa sh -
ington, D.C.
William Carpenter, pre si dent of
Smith , Bucklin, has been named
AMOA's new executive director
and, according to AMOA president
John Estridge, " will be devoting
about 90 percent of his time prob-
ably through the end of this year to
evaluating all our program s."
Estridge told Play Meter, "There's
not a need for 100 percent of the
time of a person ."
In a release from the association ,
Estridge said , "a growing awareness
among AMOA for an expanded
government relations position in
Washington , D .C. was an important
factor in our decision ." But when
contacted by Play Meter, Estridge
said the main reason for the switch
was "to make a more efficient use of
AMOA's dollars."
AMOA, which has suffered a
8
drastic decline in membership, is
down to only 1, 500 member s.
During the industry's peak years,
the association boasted of a mem-
bership well over 3,000 .
Estridge said the switch to an
association management firm should
result in a 40 percent savings for
AMOA . " This frees up our dollars to
better serve the membership ,"
Estridge said. The AMOA president
added that , by hiring Smith , Bu cklin
as the fulltime association manage-
ment team , a lot of legislative costs
would be greatly reduced.
He said the association's recent
unsuccessful legislative push to
change the compu lsory jukebox
co pyri ght law cost the association
about $150 an hour. While the legis-
lative firm AMOA had employed
was effectjve, Estridge said it was too
costly.
"A lot of the work is really $10 an
hour work , clerical in nature ,"
Estridge told Play Meter. By hiring a
fulltime association management
team , he said , AMOA is spreading
out its costs and still maintaining its
abi lity to deal with both association
and legislative matters .
" Smith , Bucklin will simply mean
a day-to-day more efficient use of
AMOA dollars," he told Play M eter .
Accordingly, AMOA has moved
its offices to the Smith , Bucklin
headquarters at One Ill inois Center,
111 E. Wa cker Drive, Chicago, Illi-
nois. The association ' s new tele-
phone number is (312)644-6610.
AMOA 's cur rent staff, Estridge said,
will be movin g to those offices " to
help with the transition ."
Th E_! AMOA president would not
say whether those AMOA staffers
would be retained , say ing only that
Smith , Bu c klin had interviewed
them and if th y would be retained
it would be as employees of Smith ,
Bu cklin not as employees of AMOA .
As for AMOA 's expanded gov-
ernment relations position in Wash-
ington , D .C. , Estridg said the asso-
ciation ' s government relations man
will be Smith , Bucklin 's Michael
Payne, who will be based at the
firm 's Connecticut Avenue office .
Payne will be "t he front man respon-
sible for se tting up meetings," said
Estridge. " That 's one of the things
that attracted us to them . They have
a re latively large staff."
Estridge co ntinued, " By having a
staff in Washington , we can monitor
things in th formative stages. "
He noted that there are several
le gis lative i sues concerning mem-
b r operators on Capitol Hill .
When asked if AMOA 's recent
aborted attempt to introduce a
revision to the compulsory jukebox
copyright law pre c ipitated this
a tion , E tridg told Play Meter , " It
just pointed out a need for us to do
things more efficiently."
In hi s open letter to AMOA
members, Estridge said, " Among
other advantages will be Smith ,
Bucklin ' s expertise in convention
and trade show management. They
currently manage over 25 annua l
trade shows-many of them larger
than our own AMOA International
Expo ition ."
He suggested there may be
further announcements in the
months ahead as " we evaluate all
AMOA 's programs and directions."
PLAY METER, August 1. 1985