Continue reading »]]> Whoa, it’s been over a year since I last updated my site. I’d like to say that I’ve been off on wild adventures. But, truth be told, I’ve been consumed with life. Between working over 90 auctions in 2010, running (and losing by six votes) for director of the National Auctioneers Association, and serving as Past President of the Minnesota State Auctioneers Association, life has been crazy. Ohh yeah, and don’t forget to mix in serving on two high-profile national committees.

Maybe, just maybe, life is starting to slow down… or I’ve figured out how to better prioritize life. Yet, it again seems I’ve got a lot on plate for the year.

As for service to the auction industry, I’m again going to take a run at being elected to the National Auctioneers Association Board of Directors. With missing by only six votes, it’s hard to pass on running again. Given a larger margin of defeat, I probably would have taken my ball and gone home. This year, I’m working on a bit more of a structured campaign strategy thanks to some friends with experience. Vote early, vote often comes to mind… but just won’t work – although the elections are in Florida this year. Ha!

Career wise, our company is often recognized as leaders in our industry, and we’re going to take a bold step this year in continuing that leadership. We’re in the process of refocusing the asset classes our auction company serves, and increasing the online presence of our auctions. In fact, this year all our auctions have had an online part, and many online only. We’re also committed to taking our customer service levels to the next level by engaging our customers for honest anonymous feedback after every transaction with our company. We’re already seeing fantastic results from this engagement. Maybe I’ll talk more about that in the future.

Finally, personally, life is looking good. I’ve already been on one vacation this year. It was a two-part vacation. The first part was a cruise from Miami to Key West to Cozumel and back. It was a great time of doing nothing, and just what the doctor ordered. The second part was a trip out to Phoenix to see a friend run his first marathon. It was a huge motivator, and has led me to the gym and gearing up for a 5k in April, June and probably August.

In the meantime, I’m back. If you’re a past reader, you’ll know that I can be quite prolific in my writing, and quiet at other times. I hope to be more consistent, and to give you a mix of life, work, and fun. I’m sure I won’t always strike the correct balance. But, I’m hopeful that I’ll get back into the swing of writing – which I very much enjoy!

Continue reading »]]> The Minnesota State Auctioneers Association is often regarded as one of the standout state associations in the industry. In addition to such high regard, it is also one of the oldest state auctioneer’s associations in the nation. The year 2009 marks the 60th anniversary of the association. With that, I thought it might be interesting to look back at a small but important part of its history.

In the Beginning
The first president of the association was Russell Davis in 1949. Although Mr. Davis was the first president of the association, the association was not recognized by the State of Minnesota as an association until June 7, 1960 when it officially incorporated as the Minnesota State Auctioneers’ Association. Recently, the board of directors came across the original Articles of Incorporation. This document presents an interesting look into the heritage of the association.

The Incorporators and First Board of Directors
In 1960, the association was incorporated by three people all from Minneapolis, Minnesota: Jerry Rosenzweig, Bertin A Bisbee, and Gus N Benakis. Initially, the association had 16 directors: EK Elmes, Long Prairie; Vernard Paulson, Winthrop; Alvin Payne, DeGraff; Hubert Pinske, Arlington; WJ Radde, Watertown; WA Thomsen, Austin; Daniel Turek, Montgomery; Paul Hull, Austin; Floyd Munsell, Franklin; Frank Sloan, Minneapolis; Russell Davis, St Peter; Tom Gould, Minneapolis; MJ Henry, Foley; Claus V Beck, East Grand Forks; Alvin Kohner, Winona; and MC Maranell, Woodstock. Many of these first directors were past presidents of the association, at the time of incorporation, or would go on to become presidents of the association, after the first incorporation.

Initial Purpose of the Association
The original articles provided 13 purposes for the association. I’ll briefly touch on the first nine of the purposes, as they offer an interesting look back at the heritage of the association – a look back that is important to remember as the association celebrates 60 years.

• To promote a spirit of cooperation among auctioneers who constitute the association and for the encouragement and protection of auction sales and to hold meetings at stated periods where members of the association may meet one another in a body and whereby the interchange of views they may be mutually benefited, their profession promoted and the most advantageous methods of bookkeeping, management, advertising and other problems applicable to their particular profession may be discussed.
• To reform abuses in the profession, to secure, for the profession, freedom from unjust and unlawful transactions, to produce uniformity and certainty in the customs and usages of the profession, to settle differences among the members of the association, to prevent unjust and unreasonable discrimination against any person or persons by any combination, person or conspiracy in any matter relating to the profession or the members.
• Protect the interest of all Auctioneers (members of the association) in all matters of legislation when such legislation is in the interest of our association.
• At all times to help, aid and assist in elevating the Auctioneering profession technical training, instruction, apprenticeship, exchange of ideas, practices, advertising and publicity.
• Exclude all questions which verge on immorality, sectarianism or on politics, except as essential to the discussion of a political topic.
• Go to the assistance of a brother member, when due to conditions over which he has no control, in helping to the best of one’s ability in the conduct of an auction sale or in any other way or manner your judgment may dictate.
• Strive at all times to make the public more auction minded by fostering advantages of selling at auction, conducting charity auction sales, publicity and by being auction salesmen.
• To exercise the privilege, when consistent to do so, of using the organization’s influence as and when the occasion presents, in protest against existing or proposed legislation designed to place unfair or burdensome limitations upon the member, all state Auctioneer organizations and or Associations and upon the auction method of selling or barter.
• To create and maintain a Health and Welfare program, designed to care for the health and welfare of members whose disability by reason of advanced age, or injury, may force them from active performance of their profession as Auctioneers.

It is often easy to look at an association, and forget that so many have come before the current leadership, and with such foresight. In fact, nearly all nine of the purposes of the original association remain topics at the forefront the association today. As the association moves forward, and celebrates 60 years as an association in 2009, now is an excellent time to review the first purposes of the association, and consider if the association is remaining faithful to its fellow members and the first purposes!

Continue reading »]]> I’m currently President of the Minnesota State Auctioneers Association, serve on a variety of state committees, serve on an advisory board to Proxibid, and serve the National Auctioneers Association on two committees (technology and futures). Within this myriad of roles, I’ve recently had the opportunity to look to the future and prognosticate what it will look like. I’ve got to admit, it’s near impossible to tell. However, in the past months and especially in the last week, I keep coming back to an idea about how to structure an association. I’m not sure if it would ever work. Yet, it’s just crazy enough that it might work better than one could imagine.

Couple the crazy idea with my current reading of What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis, and I’ve got a recipe for an association that might just be radical enough to work, or just radical enough that it would fail due to lack of revenues. I’m not sure, and figure this is a great place to get my thoughts out onto paper for your commentary.

So, let’s begin.

First, let’s get the assumptions about associations out of the way. As associations, we’re driven primarily by membership dollars raised through annual dues. We provide value by offering educational offerings through conferences and seminars (at an extra cost above membership dues), and provide monthly periodicals (digital in some cases, print in others) that seek to provide education (included in the membership dues) through articles. We’re inherently afraid that if we give our educational content away, members will have no reason to belong, and will stop paying dues. As a result, all information is locked behind the proverbial membership wall. Plus, if you want to access past educational offerings, you need to pay extra for that (in the form of DVDs or online streaming). All areas that can be tapped for revenue, even if it’s not practical, is exploited.

Now, let’s scrap the model and start over. Let’s assume we’re starting from a complete clean slate, could do what we wanted, and had ample capital to form the basis for our association. Here’s how I would envision the structure.

Members would pay a modest fee. In return they would receive a monthly, or bi-weekly, educational offering digitally. Perhaps once a month it was a newsletter containing informative articles, and the other instance a month was an educational podcast. The association would use it’s membership as the basis for the educational offerings, and use the sphere of influence of its members to find additional educational topics and speakers. There would be an annual conference, and additional symposiums throughout the year. These additional offerings would be premium in nature, and delve deep into the business. All educational offerings not offered at conference or a symposium would be available to anyone – member or not. Additional educational articles would also be written on a twice weekly basis. All this content would be on a site specifically linkable, commentable (sic), shareable, and fully archived.

This model would serve many purposes. It would encourage auctioneers to congregate online at one source for educational offerings and discussions. The association would truly be serving the industry, and not just the member population of the industry. In addition, auctioneers and non-auctioneers would look to the site for informative guidelines, information and education about the auction industry. The association would gain influence and relevance that is lacking in the “hide behind the member wall” mentality.

You may be asking, why would you want to be a member? Simple. The educational offerings offered to all comers would be top notch but pale in comparison to the in-depth, rich aspects of the educational offerings offered to the members. Members would also have access to additional member only educational offerings, and in depth offerings by leading experts from within and outside of the industry. Only members could attend the conference and additional symposiums, and all conference and symposium education would be archived for members to access at any time at no additional charge but not available to non-members.

The short term and long term implications may be that association membership numbers dropped considerably. However, the influence of the association would increase as the entire auction community began to look to one source for information. The more and more I read and interact with the social aspects of the web, and look to the future and see a world based on social interactions and relationships, I can’t help but wonder if the application of a more porous membership wall would lead to a more unified, influential standing within the community.