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This should be a time of excitement for the International Maintenance Institute.

The 41-year-old professional organization is talking with two major manufacturing companies about lucrative education contracts.

If alliances are formed, IMI would supply maintenance certification training to each firms more than 2,000 maintenance personnel.

IMI, based in Houston, is also close to adding an organization chapter in Saudi Arabia.

But detracting from all this is a rift between the group and the former members of a chapter based in Appleton, Wis.

According to several sources, members of the Fox Valley Chapter voted last fall to leave IMI and form a new professional organization called the Great Lakes Maintenance Association (GLMA). With 155 members, Fox Valley was IMIs third-largest chapter.

IMI reacted to the defection by filing a lawsuit against the Fox Valley Chapter and its officers. GLMA filed a counter lawsuit against IMI. The sides appear headed for a court battle in the coming months.

The official reason for the defection is unclear. GLMA leadership (including president Tom Scovronski and vice president John Butler) and IMI leadership (including chairman Pete Barba) are mum on the situation. On the advice of lawyers, each declined interviews with MRO Today. The sides also are not speaking to one another.

Sources with ties to the groups gave MRO Today several plausible scenarios for the secession. One cites a personality conflict between officers at the chapter and international levels. Another cites an issue of control over chapter funds. A third ties everything into a much larger issue whether a chapter has the right to ignore procedures and directives set by an organization and its board of directors.

According to several sources, GLMA claims the Fox Valley Chapter functioned as a standalone organization, not as an IMI affiliate. Such a designation would, in effect, give it the right to decide its own destiny.

In a faxed statement to MRO Today, IMI lawyers say such a legal position would be incorrect.

"The relationship of the chapter vis-a-vis the international (organization, or IMI Inc.) is clearly spelled out," the statement reads. "Chapters exist pursuant to a charter issued by the IMI Inc. Chapter operations are subject to the directive of the IMI Inc., which gives the chapters certain discretion in the use of funds in their custody. This discretion does not include the use of those funds and other assets to form another maintenance group."

The statement added IMI leadership felt a lawsuit was needed to "preserve the integrity of the organization," not to mention its current hub-and-spoke structure of chapters reporting to a central office.

Such a court fight is sure to draw attention inside and outside the maintenance community. A ruling in GLMAs favor could set a precedent for other IMI chapters, or for any professional organization functioning on a chapter basis.

Whatever happens, a mass secession at IMI is unlikely. The group traditionally has a united front on major issues. And, since nearly all of its 24 chapters have less than 150 members, few have the need or ability for such a power play.

Who is right? Send your opinions to MRO Today editor, 

This article appeared in the April/May 2001 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2001.

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