From the CEO: Just like Gloria Gaynor, MEA is what it says it is. But is everyone?

In this week's #MEAExpress, MEA CEO Peter McDonald shares his thoughts on recent commentry about the industry's associations and their purpose.. 

I realise we live in modern times, and a guy like me who has some k’s on the clock may not be as socially ‘with it’ as he once was. We’re no longer defined by the boxes and stereotypes that typified people in yesteryear society. But just because someone identifies as something, does that really mean that they are who they purport to be? 

From the outset when I first started writing these articles, I wrote that I wouldn’t engage in keyboard warriordom with people sharing their ‘wisdom’ and critique from the bleachers. And I’m not going to start now especially on an individual level because I don’t want to give air to their intentionally destructive fire. But I’d be remiss to not make general remarks calling out some commentary that has been recently published. 

Its not for me to say who can think what. Everyone has the right to think what they want, but when they express that and it contains factually inaccurate information to the detriment of another – be this a person or a business – or is hypocritically presented, I find myself saying “Really?” 

Its my hope that everyone reads everything objectively and critically – and that of course applies to my articles too. By that I mean that they digest the words by reading between the lines and analysing what the author’s objective is, and whether that’s honourable or self-serving. 

A few writings I’ve been made aware of – I don’t go seeking out these author’s thoughts – have taken swipes at multiple of the industry’s associations and their leaders, including yours truly. To be honest I don’t place any value in those opinions or the angry diatribe within which they’re included. The opinions that matter to me are those of MEA’s Board, its members, and our key stakeholders such as our sponsors. And for the record, I do not speak on behalf of the other associations. 

It should be obvious but to some its apparently not. So I’ll take things to the lowest common denominator and spell it out. Associations are groups of people and businesses who choose to unite as a community. As such, what they do, say, how they operate and the products and services they offer are reflections of that group. They are not businesses who act independently of an industry and speak for it. They are businesses, usually not-for-profit, run by the industry, for the industry. 

The business strategies and policies are developed and/or approved by members of the community democratically elected to be the Board, who as a group collaborate to identify a commonly agreed best approach. In MEA’s case, prospective Board Directors put forward an election platform articulating their position on industry circumstances and intent for the association, and the members then cast votes on with whom of these their own beliefs best align. The candidates with the highest degree of thought alignment then become the decision shapers for MEA. 

So when commentators offer up their views on what the associations “should” – I still hate that word – be doing, they need to remember that the associations are doing what their members, ie: the industry, believe is what’s best. Should the majority of shared view change from the platform upon which a Director candidate stands, that person is democratically removed from office and the organisational position adjusts. 

Associations act in collective interest through their very nature of existence. They are representative by definition. The people to whom I’m referring above can only claim to speak for themselves because there is no mandate or capacity to share a view and claim it being on anyone else’s behalf. That doesn’t stop them from doing so though or ‘identifying’ as being representative. Which is why I suggest reading all commentary with objectivity. Is an author genuinely speaking with collective interest or really with self-interest? 

As industry picks up, people who are currently outspoken and identify as industry representatives will likely become busy in their own businesses. When they’re focused running those, they’re not going to have the time to be concerned with – or allege concern for – other people’s businesses who they’ll return to competing with. 

So who will be acting for the industry then? The associations still, that’s who. Because that’s what they have done for the last nearly 50 years in MEA’s case as the longest operating, and that will stay their job moving forward. That’s what they do. That’s why they exist. Its our primary purpose. The primary purpose of other people identifying as industry spokespeople, and even stretching to claim being members of the industry is to make a profit for their own business. That’s why they exist. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I just prefer to call things for what they are. 

Even though some individuals are laying claim to having achieved the support that has been provided to the sector, the reality is that the associations have been getting on with their job in the background and have been active advocates for the industry and their members. We’ve spent our time doing rather than telling and finger pointing. They say while you’re pointing the finger at someone else nobody is looking at you. But I’m comfortable with people looking at MEA. We are the industry voice because we’re constituted by the largest industry membership – businesses and people who CHOOSE to belong. Accordingly, what we say and do is actually the most representative indication of what the industry thinks and wants. Nobody else has the basis to lay that claim. 

What’s more, none of the commentators are MEA members (I don’t know if they belong to any of the other associations). Free choice of course applies, but I do wonder why with their confidence of how the industry bodies should be behaving differently to what they perceive they do – remembering perception and reality can be very different – they don’t back themselves, join and put their platform to the industry electorate to, if successful, steer the association in the direction they believe it should head. Perhaps these people are unwilling to run the risk of revelation that things are not as straightforwardly possible as they suggest, or that their viewpoint is exposed to be a not widely agreed one? It’s always easier to tell someone what to do than to do it yourself. There’s lots of experts sitting in the NRL grandstands every week yelling instruction at the 34 people who take the field per match, almost all of whom were never a chance of ever doing so. 

One of the critics took issue that I incorporate a song reference into each article. I analogise, so what? Apparently that’s a bad thing to do – unless of course it’s done his way with a rodent and dairy product. I’m no Molly Meldrum wannabe, and I don’t write my articles in that context. As the CEO of the longest operating Australian events industry association, my messages have everything to do with what’s going on in the sector. My likening my words to music lyrics in no way diminishes the premise of the issues being addressed. It’s just a light way of doing it, in the hope that it might assist with resonance. 

So although this might inspire some more venom being spit the way of the associations and I by those who seem to identify as having all the answers and being more representative of the sector than we, I’ll leave you this week with the words of Gloria Gaynor as sung from the perspective of the collective that is MEA: 

It takes a lifetime to become the best that we can be 
We have not the time or the right to judge each other 
And it's one life, and there's not return or no deposit 
One life, so make sure you like what's in your closet 

I am what I am 
I don't want praise I don't want pity 
I bang my own drum 
Some think it's noise I think it's pretty 
And so what if I love each sparkle and each bangle 
Why not try to see things from a different angle 
Your life is a sham ‘til you can shout out 
I am what I am 

I am what I am 
And what I am needs no excuses 
I deal my own deck 
Sometimes the ace sometimes the deuces 
It's my life that I want to have a little pride in 
My life and it's not a place I have to hide in 
Life's not worth a damn ‘til you can shout out 
I am what I am 

MEA beats the drum of its members’ opinions and beliefs and will continue to do so regardless of the beat those outside the association think it should. MEA is what it is and is proudly so. 

Source: 
Song – “I am what I am”
Album – “Gloria Gaynor”