Am I the only one who finds this offensive?

In their October 2009 issue, Meetings & Conventions magazine ran a News Analysis on the new name of SITE. They had interviewed Brenda Anderson, CEO SITE, who stated proudly,

“When SITE, formerly known as The Society of Incentive & Travel Executives, changed it’s name in January it deliberately ‘moved away from the word incentive in the rebrand’ "

Am I the only one who finds that offensive?

What follows is my email to Lisa Grimaldi, the M&C reporter who wrote the story.

Hi Lisa:
After reading your “Is ‘Incentive’ Passé?” in the current issue of Meetings & Conventions – I have a problem. Not with you but with some of the words from Brenda Anderson of SITE.

Article Excerpt : “The change is the most public example of how the once-ubiquitous word is being replaced in some circles of the industry, in favor of terms like "motivation" or "engagement."
1. Some circles of the industry, indeed. Other than the table at which the SITE board meets what industry circles have disowned the word? Has any member of SITE changed the name of his or her company? Have all the folks with “Incentive” in their title ordered new business cards? Will our trade magazines – I can think of four or five with “Incentive” in their name – have to change their name? (Luckily, Lisa, Meetings & Conventions is safe.) Has GOOGLE been notified?

Article Excerpt: Among the reasons for Site's switch, according to Anderson, is that "incentive" has long been synonymous with "boondoggle" in Europe...”
2. In all my travels to Europe I have never heard a European voice such a thought. However the CEO of a customer – Smith-Corona – once told me he thought the travel incentive program I proposed to his managers was a boondoggle. That didn’t stop his managers from running the boondoggle incentive, and didn’t bully me into selling “Motivational Engagements”.

Article Excerpt” “... and this year in the United States, incentives "got twisted with executive excess."
3. Please could we not react so dramatically to fleeting fashions. Don’t we all remember “Freedom Fries?”

I wish that Brenda and the Board of SITE had the members, or at least the ex-presidents of the society vote on the name change. I think they would have saved themselves embarrassment. This unsupported acronym will prove – in a very short time – an embarrassment to the members of the society.
4. Anyone out there agree with me? Or am I simply barking at the moon?

Bob Guerriero
President & Executive Director of The Journeymasters

Complete Meetings & Conventions article at: http://www.meetings-conventions.com/article_ektid29206.aspx