The Direct Marketing Association, in one of the most dramatic reforms in its history, has created four board-level committees to strengthen its strategic reporting process.
The four committees–for ethics & privacy, government affairs, new initiatives and industry segments–will meet three times a year, and be comprised totally of DMA board members.
In addition, the DMA will form segment advisory committees for the following industry sectors: business-to-business, catalog/mail order, consumer service, information/list/database, international, Internet, not-for-profit and teleservices/DRTV.
The goal is to “set up an internal board structure to provide oversight of the principle areas of activity,” said H. Robert Wientzen, president and CEO of the DMA, in an interview during National Center for Database Marketing conference in Orlando, FL.
Reporting to the oversight committees will be several existing committees, such as those devoted to ethics policy, privacy, legal affairs, and government affairs. Previously, these reported directly to the board.
The reform was first discussed during the tenure of former DMA CEO Jonah Gitlitz.
Unlike the DMA’s councils, which meet often and have an operational focus, the new segment committees will meet twice a year, and will be made of up of “high-level people who will talk only about strategic issues,” said Wientzen.
“We were getting input from these groups, but only on a crisis basis,” Wientzen continued. “We were not seeking periodic strategic input, and we didn’t have a mechanism for it.”
The input will alert the DMA to unique issues in a given sector.
The DMA is now seeking from 70 to 80 people to serve on the segment committees. The chairman of the appropriate DMA council will serve on each group.
“Here’s a place for people who have an interest in the industry but don’t have the time or inclination to have more input,” Wientzen said. He added the committees could be viewed as sort of a farm club for future board members.
The chairman of each segment committee will also sit on the industry segments oversight committee.
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