Roots

The roots of the Southern Management Association (SMA) go back almost as far as those of the national Academy of Management. The idea for the Academy began in 1933 with the first meeting in 1936. On October 29, 1938, the idea of a Southern association was born when the first management papers were presented to a meeting of the Southern Economic Association (SEA) in Birmingham, Alabama. However, it was 13 years later -- on November 17, 1951 in Knoxville, Tennessee -- before the second set of management papers was presented at an SEA meeting. Thereafter, management papers were presented more regularly -- in 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, and 1958 -- and the possibility of a separate management program began to be discussed.

That dream was realized in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 18, 1960, when Claude S. George, Jr. (North Carolina), became the first head of SMA and chaired the first full-fledged management program at an SEA meeting. This program included a seminar on Managements Responsibilities, a panel discussion on Educating 1960s Managers, and a luncheon address, Research in Management by M.D. Kilbridge (Chicago).
The next year another management program was held as part of the SEA (November 10, 1961 in Memphis, Tennessee), Leon C. Megginson, (Louisiana State), SMA's second head, had planned the program with 27 people participating, but he was in Spain as a Fulbright Research Scholar and could not attend the meeting. At that meeting, Raymond V. Lasikar (Louisiana State) chaired a session on Recent Developments in Business Administration, Bernard J. Bienvenu (Southwestern Louisiana) chaired Current Trends in Management Thinking in which William M. Fox (Florida) and Herbert G. Hicks (Louisiana State) participated, and Allen H. Keally (Tennessee) chaired The Theory and Philosophy of Management, while Curtis E. Tate, Jr. (Georgia) chaired the Luncheon.

The success of his second program coupled with the success of that of the previous year lead Bill Fox to propose that the group formally organize as the Southern Division of the Academy of Management like the Western and Midwest had just done. Herb Hicks stated that the group, in the greatest tradition of management scholars, agreed that they must get organized. Later that day in a book publishers hospitality suite, Herb was asked to chair a business meeting to deal with this issue and Bill Wilmot agreed to develop a constitution. Others involved in these early informal meetings included Bernard Bienvenu, Claude S. George, Jr., Joseph L. Massie (Kentucky), Bernard H. Sord (Texas at Austin), and Bill Thompson.

The Early Years

The thirty-second annual conference of the SEA (November 8-10, 1962) provided for two large blocks of time for management sessions. The first of these was a management luncheon and business meeting scheduled from 12:30 to 3:00. Even before this meeting, Herb Hicks had circulated letters to deans and department chairmen to secure a firm list of potential members and arouse the necessary interest for a formal association. His efforts were successful and the nucleus for our organization appeared. At this meeting a great deal of emphasis was placed on formalizing the organization and requiring nominal dues as one of the requirements for membership.

Finally, on November 9, 1962, the Southern Management Association formally was founded at the Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta. Unfortunately, Bill Fox, who as the third head had been the originator of the idea, was unable to attend. Rollin Simonds (Michigan State), who had helped organize the Midwest region, talked about Regional Organization and Academy Affiliation, and Bill Wilmot presented the proposed Constitution and By-Laws. Herb Hicks presided over the election of officers. Joseph L. Massie (Kentucky) became the first President and was to preside over the 1963 meetings, Bill Wilmot was elected Vice President and Program Chairman, and Herb Hicks was the Secretary-Treasurer.

By the fall of 1963, there were 66 members in the organization. The annual meeting, in continued cooperation with the SEA, was held in Roanoke, Virginia, on November 15-16. Bill Fox was elected the second President; Charles (Scotty) Scott, Jr. (Alabama in Tuscaloosa) was elected President-Elect; Herb Hicks, was elected Vice President and Program Chair; and Earl Greene was elected Secretary-Treasurer, Bernard Bienvenu, Fred Brett, James Chapman, John Darr, R.L. Froemke, Rudy Milton, Dick Roman, Curtis Tate, and Bill Wilmot became the first Board of Directors of the Association.

Years of Growth

The period from 1964 through 1968 was one of steady growth, both in terms of membership as well as program content. By this time a precedent was established whereby past presidents of the Association served as a nominating committee to place before the membership suggestions for future officers and directors. In successive order the vice president and program chairman moved to president-elect and finally to the position of president to provide year to year continuity. This proved to be a sound practice for a young and growing association that met formally only once a year. Thus, Herb Hicks succeeded Charles Scott as president in November 1965, and was followed by Claude George in 1966 and Burnard Sord in 1967. In 1964, the first SMA Proceedings was published in conjunction with the Southern Marketing Association and they also contained the 1964 proceedings of the Southern Finance Association edited by C.H. Kreps (North Carolina). John R. Thompson (Georgia) was the first Editor. The proceedings were published by the Graduate School of Business Administration at Georgia.

During this same period the SMA followed the tradition set by the SEA of meeting in Atlanta every other year and in different corners of the Southeast in intervening years. Thus the SMA met in the Atlanta Biltmore in 1964, the Deauville in Miami Beach in 1965, the Marriott in Atlanta in 1966, and the Jung Hotel in New Orleans in 1967. By then the combined membership of the allied associations could no longer by accommodated in a single hotel as easily as in earlier years. The tradition of returning to Atlanta in alternating years had to be temporarily suspended. Consequently, the SMA found itself in the large Washington Hilton in 1968 and in St. Louis in the following year.

Each year the most difficult job fell to the Vice President and Program Chairman whose responsibility it was to solicit papers and select those that would meet the expectations of high quality, would have wide appeal to the membership, and would be topical for the state of our discipline. To accomplish this objective Bob Fulmer (Georgia State) initiated the practice of extending a general call for papers rather than specifically selecting papers to be presented. Bob also initiated a policy foe selecting papers which 1) helped insure programs more representative of the membership and 2) encouraged greater involvement on the part of members from all geographic areas within the Southern Region. Basically, the policy recognized that quality of paper and presentation had to be the first consideration. In addition, however, the program chairman would also 1) review who had delivered papers in the immediate prior years and 2) make an effort to see that papers would not over emphasize a few schools or one section or the Southern Region. This practice increased the quality and variety of participation in the program and replaced the previous practice whereby all papers were, essentially, invited. The number of papers presented as well as attendance suggested the wisdom of this practice as both increased.

The real unsung heroes of the SMA in the early years were those dedicated members who served as secretary-treasurers. The longest to serve in this post was John DeVogt. For many, Johns was the first familiar face to greet us as we made our way toward the registration table. On many occasions the Arrangements Chairman provided local students to help with the registration task. But even the best of plans go awry, and often, John found himself spending countless hours registering new members, keeping the records and books intact, and securing help only when his considerate wife could be drafted for assistance. Jim Todd succeeded a John DeVogt in 1969.

A Turning Point

In November of 1969 the SMA faced two obstacles to its continued success. Most young organizations have a tendency to take themselves a bit too seriously for their own good. That this would be a problem for our association was quickly put to rest when Bernard Bienvenu took the podium and opened the meetings in St. Louis. His urbane charm, down to earth good humor, and Creole hospitality established a warm climate that defied pomposity as well as the cold, wet weather outside the walls of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Dick Levin rose and challenged the membership by questioning whether there really was such a thing as Management Principles.

The second hurdle lay in whether we could sustain our growth in membership and attendance while meeting at a location so far removed from the South. Our fears of low attendance, however, proved groundless. Twelve different papers sessions were scheduled from noon Thursday to noon Saturdays and experienced standing room only through many of the meetings. A couple of other firsts took place at this meeting. Earlier Bill Fox, when asked had established that neither race nor sex would be a factor in the Associations membership. That year, for the first time, both a black and a female academician were invited to deliver a paper on the program. Alice Kidder and James Hefner collaborated on a paper entitled, Racial Integration in Southern Management Positions. This also was the first year an attempt was made to tie together the many different papers with a central theme.

In 1970, the program format underwent a dramatic change. National President William B. Wolf (Cornell) had introduced a plan to restructure the Academy into professional divisions, and Leon Magginson (Louisiana State) as Southern Program Chairman opted to follow suit. When he was program Chair some years later, Jay Knippen (South Florida) introduced the use of sub-chairpersons in each program area. The meetings returned to Atlanta that year, although The Sheraton Biltmore could no longer hold all the allied associations and the SMA had to find quarters at the Atlanta Cabana, two blocks away. Bob Fulmer held the reigns as President, and worked hard to gain better representation for the SMA in the activities of the Academy of Management. As president of our regional division, Bob served concurrently on the Board of Governors of the Academy. He also established a newsletter to keep the membership better informed between meetings. Planning for each annual meeting was improved by having the directors, officers, and committee chairmen confer during the August meetings of the academy.

Funding problems in 1970 jeopardized the publication of the Proceedings for that year. However, just in the nick of time, the College of Business of Virginia Polytechnic Institute with the concurrence of The Southern Journal of Business offered to publish a volume of abstracts for members. The next year (1971), the SMA issued its own Proceedings for the first time. The first Proceedings Editor was Richard Dutton (South Florida). A more permanent arrangement for the proceedings was made the following year when Thad B. Green and Dennis F. Ray (both of Mississippi State) took on the editorship of the Proceedings with financial help from the College of Business at Mississippi State. In 1980 Dennis became the sole Editor and has continued as Editor and Mississippi State has continued to provide financial assistance to this day.
By 1974, Daniel A. Wren (Florida State) initiated the first series of awards for member contributions. Then in 1975 a major milestone was achieved -- the Journal of Management was begun. The enthusiastic reception given the Proceedings under the guidance of Thad Green and Dennis F. Ray (Mississippi State) led the SMA Board of Directors in August 1975 to approve and commit the SMA to publishing a new journal to contribute to the theory and practice of management. Initially a semiannual publication with one issue coming from papers presented at the annual meeting, the first editor was Dennis Ray. In 1993, under the editorship of Dan L. Dalton (Indiana), the publication of the Journal of Management was assumed by JAI press although control still lay in the hands of the SMA.