Market Authority to add 3 board members
2 retailers, 1 showroom exec — but no hotel rep — to join HP group
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, January 22, 2006
High Point — The board of the International Home Furnishings Market Authority voted to add three members — including two retailers — to its roster, but turned down a request to include a representative of local hotel owners.
In approving several changes to its bylaws, board members said the expanded 12-member board would provide greater representation to constituent groups that haven't had a clear voice in the operation of the semiannual market.
"There are a tremendous number of people who have a vested interest in the market, and some of them are under-represented," said board chairman and Hooker Furniture CEO Paul Toms, who led a committee that proposed the changes.
In addition to adding two retailers to the board, the new bylaws call for one additional showroom owner to gain a board seat. That will boost the number of showroom operators on the board to five, including one independent operator and representatives of the three largest showroom owners — the International Home Furnishings Center, Merchandise Mart Properties and Showplace.
Currently, no retailers are on the board, although Steve DeHaan, executive vice president of the National Home Furnishings Assn. retail trade group, is a non-voting member. Under the new bylaws, he will retain that status.
Toms said he received a request from the Guilford County Hotel-Motel Assn. to have a representative on the board, but his committee decided not to recommend that step to the full board. He said hotel owners already are well represented by the High Point Chamber of Commerce and the local Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose full-time executives will be voting members under the new bylaws.
Board member Chris Greene, the current CVB representative, disagreed, noting that area hotels collect room taxes that help fund the Market Authority.
"Now, they see themselves left out even more," she said.
Toms said he hopes the new board members can be in place for the next meeting, tentatively set for March 1.
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Market Authority Board to add 3 members
Jan 20, 2006
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