MCA-I logoMCA-I (and before the name change – ITVA) has been one of my tribes for a very long time. I was working full-time at General Dynamics in the film and video department when my boss, Scott Crist, told me I should join. So, I did. And through the years, I was active on the local board in pretty much every position, including several years acting as chapter coordinator until a new crop of leaders took over. At that point, I moved to the national board and again did nearly all of the positions, including President of the association.

By that time, the association had started it’s decline. And so, after many years of declining membership and sponsorship dollars, on August 11, 2016 the Board of Directors of Media Communication Association-International (MCA-I) voted to dissolve the 47-year old association, effective immediately.

A little history. MCA-I was founded as the National Industrial Television Association (NITA) in 1970. Renamed the IITVA (International Industrial Television Association) in 1973, and then shortened to the ITVA (International Television Association) in 1978, it assumed its current name in 2001 to reflect the growing diversity of its membership, a result of the expansion and convergence of communications technologies in the previous decade.

However, the turn of the century brought a changing business climate that shut down many in-house video departments, forcing hundreds of members to become independent. Membership dues were now coming out of reduced incomes, causing a dramatic decrease in renewals.

Simultaneously, the Internet began to create other opportunities for people entering the profession to seek technical support and business advice.

This is not unique to MCA-I, as many professional associations are seeing the same decline in memberships. In the case of MCA-I, several of the remaining active MCA-I chapters plan to transition to independent status.

So, at the end of August, the www.mca-i.org website will be shut down. If you want to join a professional development, networking and friendship building group face-to-face group, you will need to find a chapter and help it transition to independent status, or start your own group.

Please contact these chapters – Atlanta, Orange County/Los Angeles, San Diego, New Jersey, Madison, Central Carolina and St. Louis. Until the end of August 2016, you will find their contact information on the MCA-I website. http://www.mca-i.org/find-a-chapter

ITVA/MCA-I has a long and rich history, bringing together many people to build businesses and nurture new media communications professionals, forging lifetime friendships in the process.

(If this post resembles the official press release, that’s because I wrote the official press release.)

So, as my duties to MCA-I wind down, my other tribes could see some more love – if they’ll have me. www.world-voices.com is one. And next week, my fellow Faffers gather in Minneapolis for FaffCon 8, and I have a couple of assignments already.