InterviewsOpinions

A Conversation With Darcy Detlor

Yesterday LinkedIn alerted me to the fact that Bob McGill was no longer the President of the ITC. Bob used the run a very successful partner program at SolidWorks and was brought on board the ITC as a consultant to help in promote the organization. Subsequently he was elevated to the post of President which was being held by an acting president since Arnold van der Weide left the ITC to run the ODA. Apparently, the ITC does not have a President at present.

Something else about the ITC has been bothering me. As I mentioned in my post titled “CADopia Takes Down Its Flagship Product“, I wondered why the ITC did not exercise the arbitration option before hauling up CADopia in court. So I decided to ask Darcy Delor, the Treasurer of the ITC, a couple of questions. This is what I wrote to him:

I hear that Bob McGill is no longer the President of the ITC and that the position is currently vacant. Will you be willing to comment on the reasons why this change happened?

Also I was wondering why the ITC did not get into arbitration with CADopia, especially since the ITC membership agreement has an arbitration clause.

Here is Darcy’s reply:

Bob resigned for a variety of reasons.  I do not believe it would be right for me to try to explain the feelings he had, but I can assure you that there were no ultimatums, no serious arguments, nothing that would be considered as the slightest bit newsworthy about him leaving. He implemented a number of good ideas while at the ITC, and we are in a better position from an organizational perspective now than before he came on board.  Unfortunately the recession has cost us members, but everyone has lost something in the past two years. I believe that he has the best wishes in mind for the ITC, and the ITC has equal feelings for him.

The ITC has formed a committee to discuss the need for a president versus other options that are available such as having both a sales person and some sort of administrative manager. The ITC officers have taken on the duties of the president for now, and we have in excess of 100 years of combined management experience. We are there to execute the wishes of the board of directors, and the combined experience of the board is probably over 300 years.

With regards to CADopia, there was an attempt to come to some sort of agreement, but the reality is, CADopia was grossly in arrears on their membership fees and was terminated as a member, but continued to sell IntelliCAD. This had to be stopped as soon as possible. The board authorized this action to protect the intellectual property of the ITC. I am sure you understand the urgency of the problem. The ITC will aggressively protect its assets using the courts if necessary. Surya’s claims are not relevant. The officers of the ITC are unpaid volunteers other than the president; however, that position only became a paying position after it was required that the president be independent of any ITC member.  I believe this change occurred after Surya was president, and a few years before I became Treasurer.

Of course Surya wishes to make this appear as though there are “two sides” to this problem, when in reality, his “side” only appeared after CADopia stopped making payments and was suspended, and finally terminated, from the ITC.