BSA Letter to the Editor
In The Green Sheet of April 29th, I addressed the feed back that I had received from the 1996 Mid-year BSA (Bankcard Services Association) meeting.
The following letter is from Mr. Ken Bowman, the Executive Director of the BSA, in response to the article.
May 2, 1996
To Mr. Paul Green:
I was just faxed, from one of my members, a copy of the article you ran in your April 29 issue of The Green Sheet. While I'm not as upset as he is, there are a few inconsistencies in the article that are troubling. First of all, I would have appreciated your critical comments about the meeting to come to me first so together we could have benefited...you from giving me an attendee's perspective (Of course, I don't think you were in attendance so your perspective would have had to be secondhand.) and I gaining valuable information to help make our meetings even better in the future. Its unfortunate that you chose such a public format which gives your readers a negative impression about this meeting.
And, that kind of impression is a mistaken one because the meeting was a successful one. Anytime you have 300+ people make an effort to come to a meeting, and based on their evaluations, state it was one of the best yet, it points out that it was successful. Granted, as in all meetings, there were some problems but I don't believe they were insurmountable nor caused 'weird vibes.' But, every meeting is a learning experience that we use to try to make the next one even better!
But, on a bigger issue, I am concerned that BSA seems to get negative reviews in your newsletter. This is somewhat confusing since your company has been a member and has supported BSA through attendance at our meetings. In fact, I don't know what your 'beef' is with BSA and would welcome talking with you to perhaps understand your position better. Perhaps you have some personal problems with one or two of our individual members but I would think you would be bigger than that and not let that effect your attitudes towards the organization. Of course, I do know that you and BSA have different numbers on how many ISO/BSPs there are in the industry but I believe that variance is caused by a difference in definition. In fact, as I have read in past Green Sheets, it appears we are striving for the same things...credibility in the industry, ethical business practices, education, realistic regulations, ability to network with our peers, among other issues. I just don't understand the negativity that I perceive in your editorial approach.
Lastly, I want to attempt to clarify a couple additional items that were referred to in your Green Sheet. First, BSA does not report to any of the card associations the status of any ISO/BSP, we are not a 'policing mechanism' for them, its not our job. However, we do require that if a company wants to be a member of BSA as a Corporate/Bankcard Service Provider Member, then they have to be duly registered with VISA and MasterCard with a letter from their sponsoring bank attesting to that. Hopefully, those people who stated they 'sell for a bank who is not a member' means that the bank is not a member of BSA and not that it is not registered with VISA and MasterCard. That could be problematic! As for a category of membership that is less costly, BSA does have a category of membership for salespeople whose company they represent. In fact, this is a very inexpensive membership. As for BSA giving some people the feeling that 'we don't belong here,' I find that very troubling because during the past year of Jack Martin's presidency, BSA has made every effort to get our members involved. Jack has formed several committees and I am proud to say that more than twenty members have volunteered to serve...and we always have room for more! In fact, I would love to have you give me the names of the people you talked to so I could call them and invite them to get more involved-or, at least, hear their ideas on how we can make them feel more a part of BSA. I must say, it does them no good to talk to you and not me about BSA, I'm the guy who can answer their complaints and questions!
Well, I've rattled on long enough but I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this and any other BSA issue with you. I feel such a discussion would only be positive and beneficial.
Thanks,
KB
P.S. I would love to be on your mailing list of The Green Sheet, that way I wouldn't have to rely on members to fax it to me.
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