When asked last week what he regarded as his biggest contributions during a nearly 15-year career as president and CEO of Outdoor Industry Association, Frank Hugelmeyer did not hesitate.
He concisely ticked off three: creating a financially strong organization; demonstrating the enormity of the outdoor recreation economy and establishing OIA’s reputation as a global leader in sustainable business practices.
“When I started that first December (1999), we had six employees and about $1,700 in our checking account,” Hugelmeyer told The B.O.S.S. Report Sept. 30, a day after announcing he would resign his post Oct. 3. “In those early years my goal was to just get the organization to be fiscally solvent. And then it was, Let’s build it and let it thrive. We will end 2014 with another year of record revenue, a very strong financial position that few associations enjoy, a huge reserve fund and the ability to invest.”
The OIA Hugelmeyer left behind Friday, had a staff of 25, annual revenues of more than $7 million, 1,300 members and growing influence both at home and abroad. Underlying all the success, say colleagues, was Hugelmeyer’s ability to rally the many factions of the outdoor recreation community around common goals.
“The thing I admire about Frank and the thing he has done over the years is call attention to the bigger challenges we have, which is people not caring about the outdoors and maybe not recreating as much outdoors,” said Mike Van Abel, president and U.S. executive director for the International Mountain Bicycling Association. “I saw him create as big a tent as possible to bring all the organizations in to look at that issue. His message was We can fight over scraps, or look at the big picture.”
In 2005, for instance, OIA created The Outdoor Foundation to leverage the industry’s relatively limited resources for research. As a 501c-3 non-profit corporation, The Foundation could partner with other foundations interested in reversing a growing disconnection between America’s increasingly urban youth and the outdoors. In 2010, The Foundation moved from research to outreach by launched Outdoor Nation, which stages summits and oversees grants aimed at fomenting a new generation of outdoor leaders who will champion conservation and outdoor recreation. Outdoor Nation has partnered with dozens of non-profits, corporations, foundations and government agencies to invest more than $3 million in more than 250 projects that have connected 200,000 youth to the outdoors. The Foundation, which will disburse $900,000 in grant money this year, is now focusing on connecting college outdoor clubs with local high schools and underserved communities to promote outdoor recreation.
Hugelmeyer also demonstrated his collaborative approachs by supporting OIA’s Sustainability Working Group. Over a period of five years from 2007 to 2012, volunteers from about 250 outdoor brands collaborated through the group to create tools manufacturers could use to measure and improve the environmental and social performance of their supply chains. Realizing the outdoor industry was too small to change supply chain practices, OIA essentially gifted those tools – now referred to as the Higgs Index – to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which represents global athletic, fashion and retail apparel and footwear brands.
“It established our reputation globally,” said Hugelmeyer of the Higgs Index.
Perhaps Hugelmeyer’s biggest legacy is The Active Outdoor Recreation Economy, a landmark 2006 report that laid out the industry’s $740 billion annual economic impact in the United States. Hugelmeyer began pushing for the report in the mid-2000s after concluding the best way to gain influence on Capitol Hill and in state capitols was to demonstrate the number of jobs, retail sales and tax revenues generated by the industry. Hugelmeyer and the OIA board of directors lined up funding from Recreational Equipment Inc. and Outdoor Retailer and persuaded 11 trade associations representing the travel, fishing, cycling, snow sports and RV industries to collaborate. When OIA updated the report in 2012, it brought in trade groups representing off-road motorsports and recreational boating companies as well as the Western Governors Association and broke out economic impact estimates for all 50 states. That edition or the report shows that U.S. consumers spend more on outdoor recreation – including related travel, dining, lodging and shopping expenses – annually than cars or pharmaceuticals.
“That cleared the way for Utah to recognize outdoor recreation in their economic development policies and have one of our own sitting as U.S. Secretary of Interior,” said Hugelmeyer, referring to former REI CEO Sally Jewell. “That we are now ubiquitous in terms of the messaging and reports we are providing for Congress, agencies and non-profits I think is a huge accomplishment.”
