A BIT OF IAVM HISTORY
RELATIVE TO CHANGE & DIVERSITY By Cliff Wallace, CVE
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sembly venue industry. It seemed my parents both worked all the time, so I followed suit landing a part-time job as a vendor during events at in connection with the marketing of one of the early books on plan- ning venues and promoted especially to the IAAM’s membership. The book, Encyclopedic Guide to Planning and Establishing an Auditori- um, Arena, Coliseum or Multi-Purpose Building, was completed in authorship. I had the opportunity of coordinating the mailing of al- most all copies initially ordered of that publication, during which time I became imminently familiar with the venues in the U.S. and Canada at the time and the names of their GMs. What quickly became obvi- ous to me was that only venue GMs were ordering the book, a point
then GM Leslie M. Timms, who understood that with my years of would be looking for challenge and career advancement. The curtain opened and my career development path would be
greatly enhanced by something that would in only two years become truly novel, a most revolutionary change within IAAM during its then
It quickly became clear to me why years before only GMs ordered
Penn’s publication. IAAM had been almost a closed shop of indus- try “elites” that generally didn’t seem overly interested in delegating, much less empowering their subordinates. Admittedly, change and di- versity then compared to now was obviously at a slower pace and level, but neither seemed to me to be so important to the IAAM’s fraternity less introduce diversity that may adversely impact the “social club.”
26 Facility Manager Magazine
It would be the start of a career path starting from small-town south- ern USA and leading me to major cities in Asia, managing, providing the way. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the opportunities Until then, assistant venue managers made up only a small por-
Membership Directory also sits on my desk today, listing 434 manag- Members and 33 Honorary Members. We “assistants” would sit at the back of the room during the IAAM business meetings at tables deliberations. -
president. Almost immediately, the association’s wheels of change be- gan to rotate faster than ever. Only weeks following, I received a letter participate with him in the earlier mentioned symposium only weeks before his ascension to the presidency; he had seen some restlessness and desire to speak out on my part. Cunningham, in my opinion, ran for IAAM’s president because he had intently observed during his early years within IAAM, and at the - clude that IAAM was no longer about hierarchy and control. Way ahead of his time, I think he was saying no longer are things best done alone. He clearly saw the need for collaboration, then missing in the ranks of the IAAM’s membership. There was competitive self-inter-
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