RetailNOW 2013 Membership Meeting Recap: Here's Your New Board
RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) held its elections today at RetailNOW 2013 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, NV. Jim Roddy, the president of Business Solutions magazine, has been named incoming chairperson of the RSPA Board of Directors. Roddy has been an active member of the RSPA serving as a board member since 2010. He has also served as the chairperson of the Vendor Working Group and Marketing Committee and has moderated several panel discussions at RetailNOW and RSPA INSPIRE. His term will begin next year, following Lynn Skurla who will receive the gavel tomorrow from current chair Mark Olson.
“I’m honored and humbled to be asked to serve as a member of the RSPA’s executive committee. What this community has accomplished over the last several years has been impressive – industry leadership, significant growth, and excellent education. I’ll work in earnest to keep the momentum moving forward,” says Roddy. “When I look at the list of previous chairpeople, there are some big shoes to fill. I have great respect for people like Mark Olson, Les Farrance, Dean Crotty, Lynn Skurla, Jason Cowan, B.J. Maynard, Bryon Stiller, Brad Holaway, Bob Bauer, and Dave McCarthy just to name a few. This is a great organization and a real privilege for me.”
Roddy is the first member of the media to be elected Incoming Chairperson of the RSPA board. Business Solutions is a three-time winner of the RSPA’s Gold Vendor Award of Excellence.
David Gosman, CEO of pcAmerica, was elected to the open vendor board seat. “The RSPA is an organization that designs, executes and lobbies for strategies and concepts to support sustainable, channel-based point of sale industry with solid margins. One of my personal passions as a computer scientist, a technologist, and the leader of a point of sale ISV business is to identify, adopt, and deploy cutting edge technology that our retail customers can use to be more efficient and competitive in a challenging business environment,” says Gosman. “I’d like to drive this passion into strategy and education that helps our dealer members master new retail-focused technologies so they can maintain their relevance within the point of sale world and find new sources of revenue to maintain and grow their businesses.”
Bart Collins, VP of sales for Macro Integration Services, and Jim Stewart, president of Advanced Data Systems, will fill the two open reseller seats on the board. Collins says, “The past few years have seen critical changes in our industry, and the next few years will see even more. PCI issues continue, but new threats include mobile POS and BYOD (bring your own POS device). We are also experiencing margin erosion from new competition with companies that were historically our partners. My goal is to fight for this industry’s survival so our children will have the option to join, should they choose.”
Stewart says, “I have been working in his business for over 25 years and have never seen such instability of our industry as we have now. It is very important to me to be a part of the organization that helps steer the channel. We currently have quite a few uncertainties. One of my strengths is understanding where the channel is going, and I would like to provide any input I can to help our members sustain and succeed.”