TO CHAIR IS HUMAN, TO CARICATURE DIVINE
The boss’s request seemed innocent enough. “Say, do you think it is worth reaching out to Linda to see if she is still planning to do the caricatures on the cover of her magazine?” our president and CEO Brad Mayne asked one day not long ago. “Linda,” of course, is a professional colleague and someone I
proudly call a dear friend in Linda Deckard, the founder of Venues Today (now VenuesNow) magazine, which was acquired by the Oak View Group in late December 2016. The caricatures, as those of you who have at least a couple of
years in the industry know, are the renderings that graced the covers of Amusement Business magazine back when Linda worked for that entity before it folded, and she went on to found her own publication and took the caricature covers with her. The annual occasion for the hugely popular cover was the issue
dedicated to coverage of IAVM’s major annual event, VenueConnect. There on the cover, in a backdrop that gives a nod to the conference’s host city, would appear three individuals in caricature form, IAVM’s for the next year, the chairman. “Sure, I’ll call her,” I answered Brad. “I’ve been needing to call Linda anyhow just to check in and see how she is doing.” As some may recall, after I left IAVM in August 2013, Linda was
so incredibly gracious to keep me connected to the industry by hand- ing me freelance writing assignments for Venues Today. It was during of my wife, Tanya, who died at age 48 from a coronary dissection while undergoing what we thought would be a normal day surgery angiogram procedure. Linda grieved with me. I am going to go ahead and say this, too,
but I told her that I just needed two or three months to get over the shock. That I would be useless trying to write in the midst of my loss and to not pay me during that time. Instead, Linda continued paying me until I returned to writing for the magazine on a regular basis. I will never forget that act of kindness and generosity. I called, and after we visited and caught up with each other and
where life has been taking us, I popped the question. (No, not THAT question! That was reserved for Charlotte Cariker, the woman who became my new bride on June 16.) “Are you planning on continuing with the caricatures on the cover
for VenueConnect?” I asked. Linda told me that the covers were no longer part of the maga-
zine’s strategy, and that she had no proprietary types of ownership to these covers that for decades have been a hit and generate a lot of
By R.V. Baugus 4 Facility Manager Magazine
who had designed her caricatures for the past 10 years and wished me luck if we decided to pick up the ball and run with it for the Ven- ueConnect issue of Facility Manager. After another call to introduce to this individual with a unique talent that I can only dream about, we quickly struck a deal and – voila, presto! – what you hold in your hands is the culmination of all that activity. We made the simple decision that there was no reason to tamper with success, so these covers continue to pay homage to the host city guessing will become a lifelong keepsake for them. There was one minor tweak that Brad suggested and made great
sense, which is to include the person who is serving as immediate past chair. So, Mark Mettes, CVE, take a bow and take a magazine home with you! We look forward to now continuing one of the industry’s best
magazine traditions as we move from city to city and new names enter the chair rotation. You could be next. FM
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