Coping With Controversy

When the American Society of Mechanical Engineers began planning an upcoming confab on power and energy, there was nothing to suggest it would be different from other meetings on the nonprofit group's calendar. This is, after all, an organization engaged in the science and engineering fields, where the hottest topic on the agenda might be a seminar on thermodynamics.

But this spring the group suddenly found itself dealing with heat of a different sort: The power meeting, expected to draw 2,000 attendees from June 26 to 30, was just one of three upcoming ASME events set for the city of Charlotte in North Carolina, a state that suddenly became the new ground zero in the furor over a wave of legislation widely perceived as discriminatory to the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population.  

This latest flash point erupted in late March, after North Carolina's state legislature passed HB2, a law that requires people to use the public restrooms that correspond to the gender of their birth, not their gender identity, and bans local jurisdictions from enacting ordinances to protect the rights of LGBT citizens. As with similar laws proposed or enacted elsewhere, the raison d'•tre for the measure ostensibly was to preserve the religious liberties of those who feel LGBT lifestyles are sinful and might thus not wish to serve such people as customers in business situations.  

"We started getting email messages to our conference staff, asking if we were still going to have the meetings," says Elena Gerstmann, deputy of executive operations for the New York City-based ASME. "They were not only asking if we were going to keep the meeting venue, but if we were going to take a public stance on it. We were definitely aware that some people were feeling uncomfortable about going to North Carolina."   

Not long after Gov. Pat McCrory signed HB2 into law, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit claiming the legislation represents illegal discrimination. At press time, the law was still in effect. The legal wrangling doesn't stop there: North Carolina has sued the federal government, accusing it of "overreach" into what it claims should be a matter for the states to resolve.

For ASME, a decision loomed: hold the meeting as planned, or follow the lead of numerous other high-profile groups, including the National Basketball Association, that are reconsidering events in the state, or performers like Bruce Springsteen and •Ringo Starr, who canceled concerts there in protest.

It's a decision many other groups are wrestling with, and not only regarding gatherings in North Carolina. Along the way, new provisions are being written into contracts and industry policies are being forged to address how controversial legislation should be handled in the meetings and events business.

Difficult decisions
This is hardly the first such controversy to roil the meetings and travel industry. Last year, a flap over Indiana's "Religious Freedom Restoration Act" ended when that law was amended after stakeholders in tourism and meetings interests worked to demonstrate the economic damage the law would have caused (see M&C, "Playing Politics," June 2015).

In May of this year, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed into law House Bill 1523, allowing businesses to refuse to serve LGBT customers in keeping with "sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions." A number of major employers in the state quickly registered objections, including MGM Resorts, automakers Nissan and Toyota, and Tyson Foods. The jury is still out on the ultimate fate of the legislation.

However, in April, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal rejected a similar "religious liberty bill," under strong pressure from business leaders who threatened repercussions if the law was enacted.

But with North Carolina showing no inclination to back down in the HB2 matter, ASME officials agonized over what to do. "We went through all the pros and cons," Gerstmann recalls. "First off, we weren't happy putting people in a place where they weren't comfortable." She notes that student members in particular made it clear that they wanted the group to take a strong stand on the issue.

Of course, "the hospitality people in Charlotte were in favor of keeping the conference," Gerstmann says. "They are working to counteract the effects of the new law and don't want people to pull out." The Westin in Charlotte, for example, a popular host hotel, has reportedly reassured meeting planners that guests can use their own judgment on gender identity and bathroom use.

In fact, the bill affects only public places, not private hotels or businesses, which are free to set their own policies regarding bathroom use. The city of Charlotte does own the convention center, whose officials have been in frequent contact with meeting planners to assure them that attendees will feel comfortable in regard to restroom access thanks to a variety of options, including single-occupancy bathrooms, according to Laura White, director of communications.

Gerstmann also acknowledges it would have been costly to decamp, as most meeting contracts carry stiff penalties for 11th-hour cancellations. (See sidebar, "Making the Call".)

The upshot: "We kept the conferences, but we also issued a policy statement that made it clear what our position is," Gerstmann says. The state•ment, which is posted on the ASME website's meeting registration page, states that the group "stands for diversity, inclusion, and safety for all who look to engineering and its benefits for the world," adding that as an organization, ASME also "stands strongly in support of diversity and inclusion in the science, technology and math professions, in education and in our wider world."

The organization's statement also sent a clear message that destinations enacting such laws could be crossed off the list for future meetings: "Going forward, ASME will negotiate for the inclusion of contract clauses in their conference contracts that will provide latitude to the Society to respond appropriately and decisively in the event that new legislation like that recently adopted by the State of North Carolina is enacted in other places where ASME does business." (Read the full statement at bit.ly/1sIb1so.)

The effects have extended well beyond one association and its meeting planning staff. Gerstmann says that once the ASME statement was issued, she began hearing from counterparts at other organizations who wanted to know if they could appropriate the society's language when facing similar quandaries. "There are plenty of associations asking us for advice," she says. "A few years ago, no one would have thought a big organization in the sciences would have come out and taken a stand on something like this. Who was even thinking about bathrooms and transgender rights a few years ago?"

Meanwhile, ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership is working on a model contract with language that would allow a convention host to legally back out of a contract if the state or locality were to put into place a law it deemed discriminatory. ASAE already has come out strongly against the recently enacted laws in North Carolina and Mississippi, among others. "We are deeply opposed to any laws that permit or even give the appearance of tolerating discrimination," the association said in a statement. "In addition to being regressive, these types of laws could also cause serious harm to the meetings and conventions business in any state that adopts them, creating an unwelcome environment for meeting planners and their attendees."

Principles and penalties
"This is a very complex issue," notes Deborah Sexton, president and CEO of the Professional Convention Management Association. It's a tough call to cancel an upcoming meeting, and it punishes the hospitality community, among others, for the actions of legislators. However, she says, "my bottom line is that discrimination is unacceptable." Convention organizers can "get the message across to politicians" that taking their business elsewhere will have a huge impact on a state's economy. "North Carolina is going to reel from this," Sexton regretfully predicted.

Many groups have made the decision to cancel and take the economic consequences, especially if a particular law is in direct conflict with their organization's policies and mission. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, for one, decided to cancel its "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation" summit  in Asheville, N.C., set for this August, citing "disappointment with North Carolina's failure to protect all human rights." The four-day conference would have drawn 500 attendees to the state.  

It's impossible to know how many potential conferences North Carolina might have lost since late March, but some aspects of the overall economic impact are measurable: In early June, Charlotte estimated that the fallout from HB2 thus far had cost it an estimated $285 million and 1,000 jobs, per that city's Chamber of Commerce.

Not far to the west, the Human Rights Organization Foundation canceled its "Time to Thrive" conference for educators and youth counselors, which would have taken place in Nashville next February, due to a new "religious freedom" law that specifically targets the counseling profession. In announcing its decision, the HROF described the law as amounting to "needless and mean-spirited counseling discrimination" targeting LGBT youth. The group's meeting, expected to draw around 800 delegates, will instead be held in Washington, D.C., next April.

The HROF took a cue from its co-sponsor, the American Counseling Association, which in late May made the decision to pull its 2017 annual conference and expo out of Nashville. Those two defections alone stand to cost Tennessee's economy hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues.

The HROF does not favor economic boycotts in general, according to Elizabeth Halloran, an executive at the organization, but this topic hit too close to home. "Everyone makes their own decision based on their own ethics," she says, characterizing as "difficult" the call to shift both the meeting venue and dates of the Nashville event.

Natasha Ross, director of meetings and events for the Association of Air Medical Services, knows the situation well: The association recently decided, after much deliberation, to go ahead with its annual conference set for Sept. 26-28 in Charlotte, which is expected to draw some 2,500 attendees.

At least that's what they were expecting before the controversy erupted. "We do expect a negative impact on our attendance numbers," Ross says. "Unfortunately, due to the timing of our annual conference, canceling or attempting to move our event at this late date is simply too cost prohibitive," she adds, citing "contractual obligations across Charlotte."

Ross, like her counterparts at organizations like ASME, says the city of Charlotte worked hard to convince the group to stay. "They have been in constant contact with us, and are very transparent about their efforts to mitigate the effects of the legislation."  

Among the more effective of these efforts, say planners, is Charlotte's •"Always Welcome" campaign. In the words of Tom Murray, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitor Authority, the idea is "to communicate the welcoming, inclusive spirit that has long been a differentiator for our city in helping to attract impactful meetings and conventions as well as millions of visitors annually."

Murray's message to those who might be rethinking whether to meet in the state is that "Charlotte still greatly values their business and encourages them to come."