Hotel Dispute Causes ITS to Close Up Shop

Citing a dispute with the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel in Hawaii as thestraw that broke the camel's back, the ITS has announced that it isclosing it's doors. Following is the full text of a letter sent out bythe ITS Board of Directors to all ITS members explaining thesituation:

ITS Member:

2001 marks not only the 15th anniversary of the establishment ofITS, but also its end. The National Office of ITS will close its doorstoday, August 15, 2001.

As a member of ITS, you deserve to understand why this ishappening, but you should also feel proud to have been part of anorganization that made a powerful, positive difference to our industry,an industry in search of knowledge, community and answers in times oftransition. Our trade association has concentrated on how ourpostproduction businesses might be better served by joining forces andsharing knowledge with competitors, colleagues and peers. This is thetrue value of ITS

Throughout its existence, ITS has helped its members to run theirbusinesses more successfully. It has opened communications betweenmanufacturers and facilities, between people on the East Coast, WestCoast, and all points between. ITS has brought about legislativechanges that have saved members millions of dollars. It has honoredoutstanding creative work by thousands of individuals and has built amulti-faceted forum for shared knowledge and understanding of industrytechnology.

Even from early days, however, the financial foundations of ITSwere not strong. Recently our industry has been experiencing difficulttimes. The current global economic climate has created a depressedadvertising market that has come on the heels of the recent SAG strike.Along with globalization and the impact of technology changes on ourbusinesses, our industry has become even more challenging for many ofour individual as well as affiliate members over this pastyear.

Of course, our trade association is not immune from the economicuncertainty of our industry. For the past year, ITS has been faced withits own economic challenges as our membership, sponsorship, andparticipation levels have dropped in direct response to the state ofour industry. The ITS Board and staff have been working throughout thattime to develop workable solutions to manage our finances and stillprovide the services and programs needed by our members. As if thechallenges that face our industry and ITS were not serious enough, arecent action by the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel in Hawaii, site of the 2001ITS President’s Retreat, has pushed ITS to the brink.

In an effort to keep our members fully informed, we felt itimportant to outline the facts that have led up to the most seriouscrisis in ITS history, one that now forces us to close the doors of ournational office.

In December of last year, the ITS paid a significant deposit tothe Mauna Lani for the Presidents Retreat. In April, ITS received thefinal invoice which included all guest rooms and conference expenses.In order to preserve and manage cash, we submitted a payment scheduleto the hotel and began payments accordingly. At no time did the hotelcommunicate to ITS that this payment plan was unacceptable and in fact,they accepted our payments.

In mid-July, and without any communication whatsoever either toITS or its members, the hotel charged the credit card of every Retreatattendee for their full room bill and a portion of the conference foodand beverage bill. This was done even though the hotel had alreadyreceived a substantial amount of the balance due.

After the fact, on the 24th of July, the hotel mailed a letter toattendees stating: "the group [ITS] has declared themselves unable tomake payment for costs incurred for services provided by us" andinforming those individuals that they were being held personally liablefor these charges. After numerous discussions with the Mauna Lani, wehave been unable to resolve this audacious, unprecedented andunprovoked action against ITS and it members. Even though they assuredus, on more than one occasion and as recently as last week, that thecredit card charges would be reversed, they are now unwilling to followthrough on that commitment. Irreparable harm has been done to thereputation of the association and this action by the hotel forces us,financially, to cease operations immediately.

It is ironic that in a time where there has never been a greaterneed for an organization such as ITS, that the organization is unableto continue.

We feel it is important whatever the fate of ITS as a nationalassociation, that the work of ITS continue as the post productionindustry finds its way on the path to its future. This work can be bestaccomplished through the efforts of the chapters, which will continueas they are organized separately from the national association of ITS.Further, the Southern California Chapter is committed to keeping atrade association active. For the present, they have agreed to host theITS email lists and maintain a Web presence. They are actively planningways to continue to provide events focused on our industry such as theTechnology Retreats that have been held in Palm Springs.

As to the remaining financial obligations of ITS, we arecurrently attempting to liquidate our few remaining assets, in hopes ofsatisfying our total obligations to our membership as well as oursuppliers. We apologize for any inconvenience that this action maycause to you or your company, but we are confident that you willunderstand the necessity of this action.

Remember that it is through exchange with colleagues and vendorsand through mutual sustained effort that, together, we can create astronger business environment and industry. The spirit of ITS must andwill survive.

Best regards,

ITS Board of Directors