SALT LAKE CITY --
It wasn't as they had envisioned, but the leadership of the
National Tour Association really did reshape the organization when
they renamed it CrossSphere in 2004. Though the name was rejected
by the membership and virtually forgotten at this year's convention
in Salt Lake City last week, it left a different organization in
its turbulent wake.
"I still scratch my
head, look back and try to process it," said Mitch Sussman, who was
NTA chairman when the name was changed. By the following March a
grassroots movement had forced the leadership to restore the former
name.
"The fatal error
was in not enveloping the membership as part of the process," said
Sussman. "We alienated them, didn't give them a chance to absorb
it. It's a lesson well learned. The positive thing was the passion
of the members. Their reaction wasn't, 'To hell with you guys,' it
was, 'We love the NTA. We want to be a part of it. Please allow us
to be part of the decision-making.'"
Members and staff
who spoke with Travel Weekly at the convention agreed that the
incident had galvanized the membership and breathed new life into
the half-century-old organization. "The passion that had been
dormant was reignited," said Catherine Prather, vice president of
communications.
"The lesson was
that the leadership is listening to the membership more," said
Suzanne Slavitter, vice president of California-based Sports
Empire. "We have a 'Tell Us How' lounge here now [where members can
give suggestions to the staff]. That's very positive."
The NTA staff wore
buttons that said "Tell Us How," and suggestion boxes that bore the
slogan were placed around the convention center.
Shebby Lee, owner
of Shebby Lee Tours in Rapid City, S.D., and one of the leaders of
the revolt against CrossSphere, said the association was now
"moving in the right direction."
"We're pulling back
from the membership loss," said Lee. "We're on the rise
again."
No one was willing
to say how much membership numbers dropped after the CrossSphere
incident, but all acknowledged it.
"The loss was
mostly suppliers," said Lee. "It was bosses back at the office
saying, 'What kind of organization is this?' It wasn't the people
who actually come to the conferences and know the
association."
According to Judith
Thomas, the NTA's 2006 chairman, tour operator membership in 2006
was up by 52 and supplier membership was up by 215 over the
previous year. "The negativity seems to
have disappeared," she said.
"We made changes
after the CrossSphere debacle," said Charlie McIlvain, a former
chairman who had been on the board at the time of the name change.
"We're listening to the members more."
The leadership said
the incident didn't affect the NTA's underlying strategy, which is
to diversify its membership and be the definitive organization for
packaged travel. After all, at the time, a majority of members had
agreed on the mission and on the need for a new name. They just
didn't like the name itself and the fact that they weren't included
in the decision.
John Stachnik,
president of Downers Grove, Ill.-based Mayflower Tours and a former
NTA chairman, said, "All tour operators have to reinvent themselves
every few years, and the NTA is going through that now. The mandate
of the NTA is to do for members what they can't do for themselves.
The NTA is without peer in government relations."
Lisa Simon, who
took over as interim executive director after the departure of Hank
Phillips in September, said she agreed that members wanted the NTA
to provide government relations as well as research and education
and, perhaps most importantly, a platform for meeting with
suppliers at the annual convention.
To
contact reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].