Volume 2, No. 13. July 12, 2002
Return
of a champion
Clark Robinson does
have regrets. “I had retired and was loving life,” he said. “Retirement
is a great thing.”
But the industry
he has devoted a lifetime to is a greater thing, and so Robinson, three years
into his retirement, accepted the call to serve as interim president of the
International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, taking on the
leadership mantle at a time when the industry is buffeted from without and within
on many fronts. He fills the slot vacated by the sudden resignation of Bret
Lovejoy, who joined IAAPA in March 2001 as John Graff’s heir-in waiting
and took over fully in November.
Robinson,
who spent 27 years on the IAAPA Board of Directors, serving a term as president
and two terms as treasurer, took the new job June 27. He reenters the association
amid rancorous dissension among the IAAPA membership on many levels, including
a contentious executive board, a condition which some insiders say hastened
Lovejoy’s departure (according to an IAAPA press statement, Lovejoy intends
to be available until the end of the year to help with the transition). Part
of the dissension inside IAAPA is driven by outside pressures on the industry,
most notably efforts among government officials to regulate and restrict ride
performances.
The
reason for those government efforts are largely baseless, but their instigators,
especially U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, have managed to tap into a hyper-venting media
fixated on doomsday journalism. IAAPA has taken the first key steps in combating
those assertions and impressions by collecting data from parks on the number
of ride incidents in 2001. How to publicize that data while protecting parks’
from liability claims and public backlash is at the heart of discussions among
IAAPA board members. Meanwhile, small independent parks are feeling increasingly
ostracized by an association dominated in the higher ranks by large chains.
“From
my perspective, one of the things I could do best is bring the family of parks
together to work as a consolidated group of individual enterprises with common
interests,” Robinson said. “We need to make that happen, make sure
all the institutions are involved and are acknowledged and on the same team.”
Already
the board is taking the extraordinary step of calling a midsummer board meeting
July 23. “These guys are busy right now," Robinson said. "But
it’s critical to jump on this early and work on the education process.”
He means education for both the members and the public. Robinson is hoping that
RSM McGladrey, Inc. will have completed gathering the data from the parks on
incident reports, information which will be presented only in bulk form to maintain
the confidentiality of individual parks. “It’s important for the viability
of the data to have a significant number of returns,” Robinson said, aiming
for 80 percent. “We’re close to that.”
Robinson
has not had a chance to formulate an agenda to address any other issues, including
the economic struggles of many manufacturers, but he does intend to have IAAPA
put on a strong trade show in November. The number of registered exhibitors
is down “slightly” compared to this time a year ago, he said, but
“We anticipate that will correct itself as we go down the road. The convention
and trade show is the staple of the industry, that’s what we’re about.
I don’t think there are any issues there, fortunately.”
Robinson entered the industry when he was only 8 years old, moving up through
the ranks at Lagoon amusement park in Farmington, Utah, until he became general
manager in 1974, a position he held until his retirement in 1998. His industry
experience and connections allows him to hit the ground running while a search
committee finds a longer term successor. “It’s a coming home for me,”
he said. “I have a passion about the industry.”
That, right now, is what IAAPA needs most. “I hope members of the association and the board members take a look at all this and say, ‘I’m not here to represent just me and my group of parks, I’m here to represent the whole industry and to create an environment that not only will be beneficial to the industry but beneficial to my individual park and operation,’” he said. “I wish there were more of that kind of thought and feeling, because I think each of us has a responsibility to any park, regardless of their size, to help them in anyway we can. Sometimes we get too caught up in our own individual situation, and that’s understandable, but it’s more of an attitude than anything else.”
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