Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2000 - 79

e:-;ecutil"e director in the early 19-0s. So it \\"Ould be ml" guess.
since you hal"e nO\I" put me on the spot. that his tenure could \I"ell
be eight to ten I"ears, \I"hich is significant \I"hen I"OU look at the national office staff before and since and the turnover that \I"e hal"e
had. And remember that for most of that time Herb \I"as our only
employee, so Herb /I'as the national office.
Interviewer: Herb died during I"our I"ice-presidencl"' Was that 1981 or
1982'
RE: 1think he died in late 1981. 1beliel"e the 1982 conference in Denver \I"as dedicated to Herb's memory.
Interviewer: So. \I"hen you moved the office to -I2nd Street you decided
to hire an office manager \I"ith arts management training'
RE: Right. And. again, as 1say \I"ith all due respect to Herb. I am not at
all attempting to reflect on the wav he ran the office. because the
wav he ran it was superb. But with his passing it seemed like it \I"as
time to change the staffing of the office to more of an arts administration professional. which bl" Herb's own admission he \I"as not. So
I hired Kristen Batt (rom the management program at Indiana UniI"ersity; she becanle our national office manager. We hired Tina
Margolis to become head of publications and marketing to sell adI"ertising space. Also at that point we brought in Arnold and Kate
Aronson as our co-editors of publications. We had a good team.
When you ask what I am most proud of in ml" administration, I am
very proud of the office that \I"e set up. I am verI" proud of the team
of Amold, Kate, Tina, and Kiisten who managed it lutd made it happen.
We also contracted with Herb Schmoll to computerize the
office and put us into the world beyond our old IBM t\pe\\Titers.
We brought computers into the Institute; they \I"ere the old Zenith System. which I beliel"e Herb \I"as representing at that time
through his firm, Design Une. He gal"e us a deal we couldn't
refuse, so we bought, I don't know, three or four computers
(rom him and installed them. We got our membership base up
and running and \I"ere fortunate enough to have Jim Pearson
from the Chesapeake Section come into the office on an almost
weekly basis and do programming. You see, in Herb Greggs'
days the USITT membership base and files were kept on 5:-;8 file
cards. If you walked into the national office and said. "I would
like to check on ml" membership. I'm Randy Earle..' Herb
Greoos would open the dra\l"er and go to the "E" section. Then
he would go through the little cards until he found "Earle.
Randy." On that card in pencil or pen \I"ould be the date I registered or signed up for a membership. and how much I paid.
and probably my check number. And it \\"Ould indicate \I"hen I
had renewed each year, or if I had gone into a state of inactivity,
when I had paid conference fees, all of this on a neat little card.
And Jim Pearson's job \I"as to essentially take that old cru'd file ruld
put it into a database.
Interviewer: And \I"e mOl"ed into the electronic age'
RE: We moved into the electronic age. Lnderstand, hO\l"el"er. that it \I"as
not an easy move. I can remember numerous phone calls from
Ki'isten telling us the system had crashed. ruld \I"e had lost the entire
membership. And there \I"ould be Jim. getting on a two-hour train
from Washington, DC to :;ew York to see if he could sall"age it. We
all know the word "upgrade" nO\I". But we rapid'" realized-and
I'm sure Don and Herb would admit this-that although \I"e were at
the leading edge of technologl", it \I"as moving so rapidll" that b\' the
time we had that old Zenith system on-line, it was oLHdated.

Interviewer: Sure. It's no different todm·.
RE: So there we were. Before the hardware \I"as up ruld running and the

software \I"as programmed and customized. \I"e already needed ne\1"
equipment. Understand. this \I"as something that I had \I"antedto do.
I \I"as the one \I"ho had said. "We have to mOl"e the office into the
electronic age; we have to computerize." It had been an uphill fight,
because for us it \I"as a lot of monel". You hal"e to understand. after I
took ol"er the presidency I discol"ered that ,,'e were all but brulk.rupt.
Interviewer: Again'
RE: Again.
Interviewer: 'IX-ell. I'm glad that
this Cal11e up. because I was
intending to ask you about
the Orlando conference in
198-1. The Lore and Legend is
that considerable financial
problems developed as a result of that conference. What
happened?
RE: Well. \I"hen I entered the
presidency in 198-1. I found
that \I"e \I"ere looking at a
potential deficit at the close of
that year. It came about because those \I"ho ran the conference in Orlando had
bought a number of park
tickets for Disnel" World.
Each ticket had been bought
at a substantial discount off
the gate rate. I don't knO\I"
\I"hat that \I"as e:-;actly. but it
\I"as at least fifty percem off. It
was a good deal, which meant that thel" could be resold to our
members to go to Disney World. It was \l"iIHl"in proposition. The
Institute could make a nice piece o( change. and the members
could attend Disnev World for a day \I"ith their families at a substantial reduction. HO\I" could anybodl" lose' Lnless the members didn't bUI" the passes. And they didn·t. Thel" didn't buy them
in drol"es. There were a lot of misunderstandings. We had to put
cash up front, but those of us in LSITT who had been pri\~ to
the agreement had understood that the Disnel" corporation
\\"Ould refund our money for rulY unsold tickets. But that didn't
pan out. I can remember talking to Ki'isten and some of the national office staff in the summer aIter the conference, and) will
never forget saying, "would there be any wal" I can give \"OU ne:-;t
\I"eek's check in day passes to Disnel" World, which you could
then either use or sell to I"our friends?"
Interviewer: Oh. no!
RE: :\nd Jan !llusson and I-because Jan \I"as our treasurer-she andl
had already talked seriousll" about one of us taking a flight to Orlruldo.
a cheap flight. \\ith this bo:-; of tickets. going to the (ront of the entrance
to the pm'k \\ith a little umbrella and a chair. lutd as people are (hi\ing
up the road to Disnel" World, \I"e \\"Ould hal"e a sign that said, "Dm'
passes to Disney World S15. If you continue to the gate you \I"ill pay
$25." The thought \\';L~ that \I"e probabll" could hal"e sold them in a day
or t\1"Q--lutdl lUll not kidding. This is not a joke.

I will neverforget

saying, "would

tI1ere be any way

I can give you

next week's check

in day passes to

Disney H!orld... ))

T I) & T

,\\

()

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