Last year Bill Brehm was running for
president of PHIP (Parrot Heads In Paradise) which host the annual
MOTM event here in Key West, at the Casa Marina. He and I started a
dialog back then. We had a good deal in common, starting with our
last names. Boiling it down, we have the same last name, however
Bill's has a B in the beginning. HA HA! The funny thing here is that
we both use the original German pronunciations. Like the US, Germany
has different accents for different areas. Bill's family originated
in the Berlin area where his name is pronounced “Braym” Where my
family is from the Munich area and is pronounced Reem”. We started
off with that in common.
I had put out a blog after 2018's MOTM
event which was focused on how the independent events outside the
Casa Marina had been growing, and growing, year after year.
Bill was kind enough to share his
thoughts with me on what he envisioned MOTM could be like. To put it
candidly, his ideas were fabulous! Bill saw MOTM reaching outside
just the Casa Marina as well He wanted to incorporate new The Coffee
Butler Amphitheater, as well as working hand-in-hand with the
independent acts about town. Bill also had very progressive ideas on
what to to with the events at The Casa Marina. I was flattered that
he asked if I could assist, as I live here. Of course I said yes!
Bill also recognized the need to add
new members to the fold. Over the last five or six years, I had that
same vision for the genre and held events to promote it with radio
broadcasts from multiple stations working together during MOTM.
Finding out that I was on the same page as Bill was all very
encouraging to hear!
In general, the word on the street was
the majority of fans were looking for new things at MOTM, however
what they were getting was the same basic program every year. Again,
Bill had all sorts of new, progressive ideas that would not only
stimulate the events themselves, but also draw in new fans!
Facebook was blowing up with enthusiasm
for Bill and sure enough, when the elections happened, Bill was voted
in!
In our conversations after he had been
elected, he continued to be looking forward, but after the first few
weeks, it was clear that The Board of Directors basically saw him
only as a figurehead. They had no intention of giving him any say in
anything they were doing. They're intention was to basically continue
as though nothing ever happened and there was no president that was
ever voted in. They didn't want change.
In 2019 MOTM's attendance was said to
be down. Some said 25% some said 33%. One can only speculate as to
why? What happened to that 25% - 33%? Where did they go? What has
PHIP done to increase it's fan/attendance?
The bottom line is that from the
get-go, the PHIP Board of Directors had no intention of giving Bill
Brehm any leeway on anything that was not the status quot, regardless
of the fact that he had been voted in because the fans wanted
something more progressive and new.
Regretfully, the PHIP Board of
Directors are like little biddies on a hick-town clique. Votes mean
nothing. They fired Bill over the weekend.
Here, PHIP was given via the fans votes, a young, energetic
visionary on a golden platter with Bill Brehm, who had all kinds of
fabulous, progressive ideas..... and they threw it all away.
MOTM Blog from November 13, 2018
https://keywestmusic.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-future-of-motm-and-coastal-americana.html
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Lots and lots of people are very upset about this. Looking forward to see what happens.
ReplyDeleteA darn shame, it is.
ReplyDeleteIt is a terrible situation!! Bill is a good man with great ideas! The remaining PHIP must be accountable! Stop hiding behind the curtain!
ReplyDeleteA travesty, Bill is a great leader with vision. I predict after this happening MOTM attendance will be down even more!
ReplyDeleteThat is sad. New and improved is worth a shot...
ReplyDeleteMakes we wonder if they are trying to cover something up.
ReplyDeleteBeing from the Chicago Parrot Head Club I definitely have a little bias with this issue. After reading the PHIP By-Laws, it states there needs to be just cause for removal of an officer. I'm paraphrasing here but the PHIP Leadership email that announced Billy's removal basically boils down to... "you're new and you're rocking the boat with your different ideas and you're not apologizing for stepping on our toes and we don't like that so you need to leave"! Since when does having differing opinions give "just cause" for removal?
ReplyDeleteThe PHIP board needs to explain their actions and provide the specifics that resulted in the ousting of Billy as the PHIP president (who was elected in a general election by all the clubs). This action is also somewhat suspect with upcoming PHIP elections on the horizon.
Bill Brehm was trying to take PHIP and MOTM into the 21st century. The remaining board members are content to sit on their asses and live in the 20th century. I think that, not only will this action be a fatal blow to MOTM, but will also have a very negative effect on PHIP in general.
ReplyDelete#ImWithBilly
ReplyDelete