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**Colin Lloyd Elected President of IFDMA for a Year

NEW ORLEANS — Meeting at the Windsor Court Hotel here, where four years ago the International Federation of Direct Marketing Associations was formed, 15 members of the 31-nation group yesterday elected Colin Lloyd, the new president of the UK DMA, as IFDMA president for a year.

A minority led by the DDV’s (the German DMA) managing director Holgar Albers voted against the concept of having a president for the association and against creating a structure and funding for the group.

“I value IFDMA very highly,” Albers said, “but I don’t see the need for a formal structure with appropriate funding. We need IFDMA as a network platform, but I don’t believe that we will benefit from giving it a formal structure. Structure isn’t everything.”

But he acknowledged that he lacked the votes to stop Lloyd, adding “that’s democracy.” He said the Dutch, the French and the Belgians joined him in opposing Lloyd and that other members, including the Portuguese, had abstained.

Lloyd reportedly had requested a budget to fund the new operation that would have cost DDV $5,000. “No way am I going to pay that,” Albers said, noting that he needed to justify such expenditures to his membership.

The question of structure and funding was referred to a steering committee of “wise men” that included Rob Edwards, the head of the Australian DMA, Alex di Paola, the former head of the Argentine DMA and Charles Prescott of the U.S. association.

The meeting was closed to the outside, but those who attended said it had become tumultuous as the question of the presidency was aired. Lloyd, who usually talks frankly, declined comment.

But associates said he was clearly unhappy about not having won his points on structure and money.

Lloyd is leaving his post as CEO of the British DMA at the end of this month to become president, a part-time position that will allow him to act as a kind of ambassador for the association on international forums.

IFDMA was formed at the DMA’s annual conference in New Orleans in 1996 in order to bring DMAs from less developed countries up to international standards. The group has never really gotten off the ground despite professions of universal support for the concept.

Efforts to form regional groupings have also come to naught. Thus, a regional association of Latin American DMAs was formed at the DMA’s Chicago conference in 1997, but internal bickering has blocked any substantial progress.

Nor have Asian DMAs made much progress. They have scheduled an Asian DM conference for December, but Asian delegates who attended the U.S. DMA conference said they weren’t sure if it would happen.

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