Heroes and Villains

Today, Aug 2005 by Bolita, Dan

As part of the General Session at this year's Forum & Expo, TAWPI has arranged to have an interesting group of entertainers perform a comic parody presentation. NOW THIS! is billed as an improvisational group of "one big, dysfunctional family made up of Republicans and Democrats, hunters and vegetarians" (sounds a bit like TAWPI).

As the troupe prepared for its performance, they asked TAWPI staff to provide a few details about the Association, so that the skits might be customized for our audience. Among the questions was one asking us to name the "heroes and villains" of our industry. Quite frankly, we were stumped by this question. We thought about it for a few moments of awkward silence and then pressed on to other questions.

So who are the heroes and villains of the information processing world? In our association, we've named our Distinguished Service Award to honor Herb Schantz, an industry pioneer and long-time (and I mean very long time) TAWPI member. Herb's passing left a big hole in the TAWPI family. Herb could rightly be viewed as one of the industry's heroes.

At this year's Forum, it is (we can now report) Ken Yokum of JPMorgan Chase who will take home the Distinguished Service honor. Ken has served in most every volunteer capacity TAWPI offers, and has held a variety of senior positions in remittance and payments processing operations, always maintaining competent good humor. Ken is certainly a TAWPI hero.

Other TAWPI heroes include Gary Murphy, who now heads IBML, and Reynolds Bish, who runs Captiva, both of whom have been involved with TAWPI and the information capture industry longer than there's been either. TAWPI's past president Linda O'Hara earned hero status during a tenure that moved the Association into fiscal soundness while recognizing the impact of a changing payments system.

The broader information processing industry has its share of heroes-Bill Gates and his infamous Windows operating system might be viewed as both hero and villain. Jon Postel and Vinton Cerf (heard of them?) are often touted as "Fathers of the Internet" (Heroes or villains? you decide.)

But really, TAWPI villains? seems like a contradiction in terms. Perhaps a TAWPI villain is a member who doesn't renew. Or a member who doesn't participate in all that the Association offers.

The true TAWPI heroes are the information capture and remittance processing professionals that make the Association what it is. It may not seem heroic to catch an exception mail item, credit a utility payment to the right account, or double check the accuracy of a bubble mark on an OMR form. But those mailed items, those payments and those marks all represent the efforts, intents or answers of the human beings who rely on the technology we've (sometimes) mastered.

That's your answer, NOW THIS! troupe: TAWPI's heroes are its members; its villains are the problems they solve. Enjoy the show.

Dan Bolita, ICP

Editor