January 2010 Developments - 24

Member Proﬁle Robert Tappan President Weber Merritt Public Affairs Tell us a little bit about your ﬁrm and how you became involved with ARDA. Weber Merritt Public Affairs is a Washington, D.C.-based public relations and public affairs ﬁrm. My ﬁrm has been working with ARDA as its agency-of-record for almost four years now, focusing on a wide variety of communications issues and PR efforts for the industry, including the launch of its consumer Web site, www.VacationBetter. org. Earlier this year, my ﬁrm joined ARDA as a member, and I’m pleased to serve as an ARDA Trustee. How has the economic downturn affected ARDA’s efforts to communicate with its key audiences? The economic downturn has not changed ARDA’s overall goals, but it has shifted our communications priorities. During 2010, ARDA will be focusing its communications activities around four major priorities: About Rob Tappan estate media, so that Wall Street (and beyond) better understands vacation ownership as an industry that performs well when there is better access to credit markets, as well as securitization and hypothecation opportunities; Affairs in their efforts to educate government ofﬁcials and regulators, secure favorable federal and state legislation, and prevent over-regulation of the industry; beneﬁts of vacationing with timeshare. The Washington Post How would you deﬁne success for the ARDA communications efforts in 2010? Next year, I think you’ll see some terriﬁc innovations coming out of ARDA. We want to harness social media even more than we did this past year—we’re always looking at ways of exploiting new costeffective and impactful ways to reach key audiences— especially ARDA members, federal and state lawmakers, as well as the ﬁnancial community, potential timeshare consumers, and, of course, the media. The most challenging issue we face is reaching and mobilizing individual timeshare owners on a periodic basis. So, success in 2010 also means tapping into that well and marshalling a collective “voice” for timeshare. We’ll continue to work with ARDA to develop new content, information, and resources aimed at enhancing the membership experience as well, including the development of a brand-new ARDA-ROC Web site, which I’m particularly excited about. Finally, we will continue to support ARDA in furthering its advocacy and legislative agendas. Just for Fun If you could vacation anywhere in the world, where would it be? Outside of the United States: Europe. In the United States: Napa, Scottsdale, or anywhere that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. What are your favorite TV shows? “Mad Men” and anything on The Golf Channel. What Trustee member beneﬁts do you see having the most impact on overall ARDA communications efforts? It’s been a pleasure working with ARDA over these past three years, and we’re excited about the new initiatives and activities that we’re planning for 2010. Working with Howard Nusbaum, Lou Ann Burney, and many others on ARDA’s staff has really been a great collaboration. I personally have gotten to know many members since 2006—at the Annual Conventions, the Fall Conferences, and the Trustee Retreats. The amount of institutional knowledge from those ARDA members who have been “present at the creation” of this vibrant industry has been staggering, and I have learned so much from them. Where are your sources of news? I get 85% of my news from on-line news aggregators like Google News, MSN.com, and Yahoo. The rest I get from an eclectic mix of online news sources from across the political spectrum—DrudgeReport, HufﬁngtonPost, The Daily Beast, and Breitbart are particular favorites. I still love the look and feel of a good, old-fashioned newspaper, so I read The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, too. Developments January 2010

January 2010 Developments

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2010 Developments