Funworld March 2011

Lundmark owns a special place in the annals of committee history. In 1989, Dennis Speigel, the IAAPA president at the time, recruited Lundmark to chair the first committee, at that time dedicated to serving mini-golf venues. This became the important short-lived precursor to the presentday FEC committee.

Along with several IAAPA staffers, Lundmark sought to recruit committee members who represented a cross-section of the industry: owners of freestanding courses, industry suppliers, and course owners who also owned an FEC or larger amusement facility. The charter members included J. Robert Chado, David Lloyd, Robert E.Miller, E.K. “Dutch” Magrath Jr., and T.E. Spackman.

“It was the first time IAAPA officially recognized miniature golf as a specific business group inside the association,” recalls Magrath, president of Amusement Products LLC and Amusement Construction Co. Inc., Chattanooga, Tennessee. “It helped me and many other owners feel more a part of the association.”

Some of the early committee goals focused on creating an insurance program, working with officials in Washington regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act, and providing education at the annual IAAPA conference and trade show (now known as IAAPA Attractions Expo). Session topics focused on maintenance, management, and marketing of a mini-golf facility. To reach out to folks wanting to enter the industry, the committee invited owners, designers, builders, feasibility experts, and insurance representatives to speak.

The mini-golf industry was undergoing significant growth at the time, Lundmark says. As a result, the lectures were frequently standing room only, with 500-plus people in attendance.

After a couple years, though, the committee began to notice that conference attendees were asking questions related to other attractions, says Miller, owner of Go-Karts Plus in Williamsburg, Virginia. “We realized that most mini-golf owners with additional land available were adding batting cages, go-karts, and arcades.”

With this shift in focus, it made sense to open the group To members with more diverse types of entertainment, Lundmark explains: “The move launched the committee to a new level, with greater interest and support from more IAAPA members.”

And so with little fanfare, the IAAPA Miniature Golf Committee morphed into the IAAPA Family Entertainment Center Committee in 1992. Court Huish, who has served with the group for the better part of 15 years, was one of the first new members.

“My time with the FEC committee has always been very rewarding and entertaining,” says Huish, currently a partner of Wilsonville Family Fun Center in Wilsonville, Oregon, as well as Boondocks Fun Center, with locations in Colorado and Utah. “I have gotten more out of the experience than I have put in, so the return on investment on my IAAPA time has always been wonderful.”

Continued Growth
During the ’90s, the FEC committee sought to build on the strong foundation left by its predecessors. That took some hard work, but the camaraderie made it enjoyable, the members say.

“We had a lot of fun—exchanging methods of operating, managing, and promoting FECs,” remembers Michael Getlan, director of enthusiasm and opportunity! at Amusement Consultants Ltd., which operates five family entertainment centers in New York, Connecticut, and Nevada. “My favorite memories are dinners with the committee after we had visited a new or different site and talking and analyzing what we had seen. Those discussions could last for hours. Everyone on the committee was so passionate about the subject. That’s what drove us to do all the work we had to do. Meetings would last for days, and we always had homework to do before the next one.”

Some goals during this time included establishing criteria for what qualified as an FEC, increasing FEC representation within IAAPA and having a voice on the IAAPA Board of Directors, becoming more involved in other committees, providing training and workshops specifically geared for FEC members, and helping the association better understand the needs of the FEC segment, says Elena F. Ruane, vice president of sales, events, and marketing for Trails Entertainment Centers, Lombard, Illinois.

Coming Into Their Own
The turn of the millennium and subsequent decade brought about even more advances. Many members past and present point to Larry Cochran’s and Bob Rippy’s time on the committee as an important turning point. Cochran, of Palace Entertainment, was chair in 2005; Rippy, the 2011 IAAPA Chairman of the Board, served from 2000-2008 and was co-chair/ chair in 2001-2004.

In 2006, IAAPA launched the FIRST! insurance and risk-management program exclusively for FEC members, with Roanoke, Indiana-based American Specialty Insurance as the endorsed vendor. (For more information, visit www.amerspec.com/first.)

FEC coverage at IAAPA Attractions Expo also has continued to increase with more professional speakers, higher quality programming, and the roundtables and receptions becoming must-attend events, says Ben Jones, IAAPA’s FEC Specialist and longtime committee member and chair from 1998-2001. Other recent accomplishments include the premiere of the FUN EXTRA e-newsletter to supplement FUNWORLD’s already-extensive FEC coverage, as well as the addition of a subcommittee structure to support key areas such as marketing, human resources, education, social media, website, and games.

“They will have ownership over an area of the industry,” says Tim Sorge, current chair of the FEC committee, adding that the committee’s goal is to make available more tangible resources in these areas.

For Sorge, one of the most rewarding parts of his committee work was the 2009 merger of IAAPA and the International Association for the Leisure and Entertainment Industry (IALEI).

“Having all FECs under one umbrella will serve our industry tremendously for years to come,” says the owner of Swings-N-Things Family Fun Park in Olmsted Township, Ohio. “There is strength in numbers, and IAAPA has made a huge commitment to FECs, which will allow us to do fantastic things for everyone in the organization.”

For example, the more people involved in the insurance program, the better the premiums. In addition, IAAPA Attractions Expo 2010 featured a filled-to-capacity Rookies and Newcomers lineup—a program fostered at Fun Expo and embraced by IAAPA through the IALEI merger.

As for the future, Sorge is looking forward to several committee initiatives in the works that he says the FEC membership will be excited to hear about later this year.

“The FEC committee has always been comprised of a small group of successful, very passionate, entrepreneurially minded people, and that mix is the recipe for spirited discussions, engagement, debate, and problem solving,” says Jones. “And we do it all in the spirit of moving the FEC community, its players, and IAAPA forward.”

Contact Contributing Editor Mike Bederka at mbederka@IAAPA.org.

The following individuals have served as members of the IAAPA Miniature Golf and Family Entertainment Center committees between 1989 and 2010. During that 22-year period, these individuals have devoted countless volunteer hours to establish and developing the products and services IAAPA has offered its FEC members. Their commitment and hard work are greatly appreciated.