Thoughts from Mark Melickian, VP-Communications, Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Hammer LLP

Members Only Some of us are old enough to remember the iconic jacket of 1980’s yuppiedom – the Members Only jacket, which announced that its wearer was a bona fide member of “Members Only” in a ribbon on the front of the jacket. Think early David Hasselhoff. Equally revered and reviled - the jacket, that is, because Hasselhoff was then still the Knight Rider and not yet a punch line.

The Members Only 1980’s slogan: “When you put it on, something happens.”

Members Only disappeared as a U.S. brand in the 1990’s only to be revived in the mid-2000’s by some prescient ready to wear and vintage clothing entrepreneurs. The license to the brand has traversed at least one bankruptcy. The brand’s offerings have expanded significantly since 2009, when the brand was purchased by JR Apparel World, and has been sold through a number of outlets, most prominently Urban Outfitters. Online, the company now pushes its iconic “signature racer jacket” that “has been a pop culture symbol of coolness since the 1980's.” If by “coolness” they mean “pit stop chic,” then they have it right.

Notwithstanding its apparent resurgence, I’m certain that I haven’t seen a Members Only jacket at a TMA event, or if I did, the brand did not register. That makes sense. Members Only may now skew too young for even the youngest NextGenner. In the 1980’s, the brand sought the attention of “members” of all ages. But a cursory glance at the “Official” Members Only website suggests that, from the company’s perspective, no one over 30 would be caught dead in a Members Only signature racer jacket.

Why am I discussing Members Only? (Why do I do many of the things I do, my wife asks). Members Only was a hot brand that sought universal, multi-age appeal, and for a while, achieved it. It then disappeared, only to be revived over a decade ago as a retro, hipster brand with an element of self-mockery, and now is focused on the young, not necessarily professional urban set (with no element of self-mockery). A story of birth, growth, maturity, senescence, death, and rebirth.

I will come back to this thought after throwing some statistics at you.

TMA Global conducted restructuring industry surveys in 2012 and 2016. The surveys were not limited to the TMA family, though roughly 5 of 6 respondents to each survey were either current or former TMA members. In addition, our chapter tracks certain demographic information about its members. At the risk of violating a number of fundamental tenets of statistical analysis, I am going to muse on some statistics from these analyses and draw some conclusions that assumes that the national survey respondents fairly represent our chapter and our industry at large without qualifications.

Age: Our chapter is older than it was in 2012. All things being equal, the shift indicates some combination of increased retention among the more seasoned of us, and a decreased pool of younger members. This matches a trend in the legal profession. If this keeps up, AARP may soon be one of our platinum sponsors.

Gender: The restructuring industry – lawyers and non-lawyers alike – has always been a boys’ club, far more so than other financial and legal sectors. No surprise here – our chapter is overwhelmingly male. 88 percent of our members as of August 2015 identify as men. While I don’t have the figures from a decade ago, it is safe to assume that the membership in 2006 was more male than it is now. So the trend is in the right direction, though there is not much upward vector to the arrow.

Interestingly, in the 2012 and 2016 surveys, respondents were 78% and 82% male, respectively. Why are the survey respondents less male than our membership? That’s a thought piece for another time.

Growth and Renewal: In 2004, TMA Global published an annual report on the state of the TMA (which reports are not annual, but are published periodically). The report on the Chicago/Midwest chapter began as follows:

How does a chapter meet and surpass its membership goal by 5.4 percent when 22 percent of its 2003 members did not renew? “Effective marketing not just by our membership committee, but by all of our committees,” said President Jim Vargo, adding their efforts resulted in 219 new members. “Quality networking and educational events, as well as ongoing communication to ensure that we are meeting members’ needs, are all part of a collaborative effort that has formed the foundation of this Chapter.”

The report noted that our chapter focused on expanding events (to nearly 40) and expanding the Board (to 68 members, including committee chairs). Overall membership was described as “nearly 900 members.”

As of the close of 2015, our chapter had 849 members, down about 10% from 2014 which handled a small bubble fostered by some new member incentives. The renewal rate for 2015 was 74 percent, tracking the 2015 national figure, though individual chapter renewal rates varied markedly (from 42 percent to 87 percent). And our chapter’s board level activities are currently led by 66 officers, directors, and committee chairs.

Put another way, our chapter hit its present size twelve years ago, and with some annual fluctuation, seems to have settled in at around 900 members, with a stable board size. With membership flat, our chapter leaders muse about chapter growth and renewal rates. This musing considers not just our friendly rivalry with the New York City chapter, against which we annually compete for largest chapter, but that old business truism - that failure to grow is failure to thrive. I do not buy that principle as a universal truth -- sounds akin to Ricky Bobby’s “If you’re not first, you’re last” – but I appreciate the concern. Whenever growth is flat, leadership would be remiss not to think about it, try to understand it, and if necessary, work to remedy it.

Our chapter of the TMA – the founding chapter, we like to say – is in its mature phase, and the rank and file of our chapter of the TMA is skewing older. What do we do – we members – to keep our beloved chapter ever clear from the foundering shores of senescence? The chapter will remain alive as long as the TMA remains alive – so assume that, at some level, this discussion is a national one.

Fifty (or in my case, fifty something) may be the new black, but much as it pains me to say so, the long-term future of our cozy little corner of the TMA world is not me – older(ish) and male. The chapter’s future are members of NextGen and NOW (Network of Women). Those committees are charged to lead the effort to make membership in the TMA akin to a “pop culture … symbol of coolness.”

The past three Springs, the same cardinal has appeared in late April in my backyard. Cardinals live awhile and are very territorial, so I predict the same for 2017. Just as I expect to see (at the 2017 Beercade event) flocks of young new recruits flashing their Members Only signature racer jackets. And John Kemp, our president-elect, adopting this 2017 slogan:

TMA – when you put it on, something happens.