Pictures from the Past---1979---Sam Eichenfeld

 

 

Sam Eichenfeld, President of the American Association

of Equipment Lessors (now the Equipment Leasing Association)

 

( Article includes the announcement of the move to Washington and the appointment of the new Executive Secretary, Michael J. Fleming.)

 

 

Record turn-out at Reno Convention

“THERE WAS A record turn-out of some 1,500 people at the annual convention of the American Association of Equipment Lessors, this year held in Reno, Nevada, from September 16-19. The AAEL President, Sam Eichenfield, described 1979 as being the most significant in the history of the Association, because it was the year in which it became active rather than reactive.

“This year the AAEL moved its headquarters from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Washington DC. For the long standing and respected secretary, Sidney R. Rose, this is retirement year and his last Convention. In 1966 he joined the young association of 23 members, and it has since then grown massively in membership.

“With the move to Washington comes the appointment of the new Executive Secretary, Michael J. Fleming. Now in temporary offices in Washington he will move to new offices at 1700 North Moores Street, Arlington, VA 22209, from November 1. A sign of the importance of the new location lies in the fact that a reception for US Congressmen is being planned for October 22 when the AAEL will be asserting itself as an effective voice the political lobby...

“The AAEL members at a private session at the start of the Convention announced the intention of dividing the association into five regional associations for the purpose of attracting a wider range of smaller leasing companies. These would feel more sympathy to a local regional association than a supranational AAEL in which they did not have a sense of place...

“Sam Eichenfeld said the membership should double in the course of the next 18 months because of this new move.

“The move springs out of the appreciation of the aggressive growth policies pursued by several similar leasing associations, in particular the Western Association of Equipment Lessors, out of which grew the Eastern Association of Equipment Lessors (29 members). WAEL contacts had claimed to fill a void left by the AAEL which "was not sensitive to their needs on a local basis" according to the Leasing Committee Chairman, Harvey Granat of the Sussex Leasing Corporation, Great Neck, New York. Granat's report to the- Convention indicated that the new membership categories should stress ‘take home value of AAEL membership with its new regional organisation.'

“Next year's convention is to be held at the Doral Country Club, near Miami, Florida, where it was held last year. In 1981 the venue will be the new Hyatt Hotel of Maui in Western Hawaii.”

Leasing Digest, September, 1979

---from the Nibarger Library