Trade Association Confusion

If it weren't so sad, it would be funny.

Tom MacGuinness and his group are pushing formation of the American Equestrian Trade Association. Jim Herbert of GlobalStrat, owner of American Equestrian Tack and Apparel Expo, is conducting a survey on his Web site asking the industry whether there is a need for a trade association and what its goals should be. Meanwhile, the Western-English Trade Association (WETA), established five years ago, prepares for its annual conference in May.

So it boils down to this:

We have a trade association.
We need another trade association.
We should be asking if we need another trade association.

Well, at least no opinion was omitted from consideration!

Originally, the idea was to have a trade show, proceeds from which would fund a trade association. That plan went off the rails and both parties are moving forward on separate tracks at this point.

After working with WETA since its inception, I have come to one burning conclusion about trade associations. It's extremely difficult to run a trade association effectively without a steady (and fairly substantial) source of funding.

WETA uses primarily membership dues to run its programs and is just now getting into selling such things as its marketing initiative to make them self-funding or at least somewhat self-funding. It's a tough go.

There's always more demand for services than there is money to go around. If it were not for the generosity of some of the key members, the organization would be in bad shape today. The key to its success thus far has been commitment to the cause by those who believe in what WETA stands for.

Laying that template on the organization that Tom and his group are trying to form, it's clear to any steely-eyed realist that another membership-based trade association is going to be difficult for the industry to support at any significant level.

Should Jim Herbert and his group determine that a trade association would be helpful, it will likely be funded by proceeds from the trade show, undoubtedly the best hope for a trade association to be successful financially. There are other measuring sticks, of course.

Clearly there has to be a way for all the various factions to cooperate to comprise one large and succesful trade association. There's a role for everyone.

Tom and his group have to recognize that unless one of them is willing to fund a trade association out of his or her own pocket, and risk the monicker of it being "their" trade association (not ours), it's going to be a tough go. Using the original formula would mean this group would have to throw in with another trade show organizer, thus scuttling the original goal of one large trade show on the East Coast -- something retailers still desperately would like to see.

Jim holds a lot of cards. If his survey reveals the need for a trade association and his group decides to move forward, it would have the one key ingredient for success: money. The only other option would be for Tom and Jim to patch up their differences and put Humpty-Dumpty back together again.

Another possibility is that both those entities recognize the value of WETA and throw their support in that direction. That's not as far-fetched as it might seem at first glance.

WETA already has an organization in place (no start-up expenses), an office, a mail-box, etc. and has a long history of service to the equine industry. There would be challenges, no doubt. WETA has long been perceived as a "Western" controlled organization and for good reason. The movers and shakers have traditionally come out of the Western side of the industry. No one in that organization has ever said the English sector was not welcome or somehow inferior.

Similarly, neither Tom MacGuinness nor Jim Herbert nor anyone in their group that I've ever heard speak has said WETA is a bad organization or doesn't deserve to exist. Most in the English camp say they don't understand what WETA is all about, despite years of educational efforts on the part of the organization. Perhaps there's a better way to tell the story.

Like Martin Luther King, I have a dream. I have a dream that everyone involved in the equine trade industry see the value of being unified under one banner and move in that direction. A good starting point would be for all of the factions to come to the WETA All Industry Conference in Scottsdale later this month, sit down around a big table and do what everyone knows is best for the industry as a whole. You don't have to be a member of WETA to be part of the conference.

The conversation has to start somewhere, why not in a perfect setting like beautiful Scottsdale? This equine industry Yalta-like event could go a long way toward each party understanding what the other has to say. There has to be dialogue and it has to start somewhere.