On a continuing mission

As war raged in 1916 Europe, the fledgling, $8 million American toy industry was looking for a way to lessen its dependency on European-made toys. In April of that year, representatives from 50 U.S. toy companies met at the Hotel McAlpin in New York City to create a toy trade association, the nation's first. In one day, they drafted a Constitution and by-laws, signed up 38 American companies as charter members and selected a Board of Managers.

Of course, they didn't have to take time out to check voice mails and e-mails!

The new group was named Toy Manufacturers of the U.S.A.

Fast-forward to 2002, and some things haven't changed. American names from the turn of the century, such as Lionel Trains, Gund and Strombecker/Tootsietoy are still going strong. Other things have changed a lot, however. As of 2001, the association is now known as Toy Industry Association, and represents a $25 billion industry; its members include multinational businesses located throughout North America.

TIA's mission, defined from the original by-laws that were drawn up in 1916, is "to cooperate and help toy merchants in every conceivable way." One of the first challenges that the group's founders faced arose not long after its creation.

In 1918, the U.S. Council of National Defense sought restrictions and/or an outright ban on the sales of toys for the Christmas season, in order to conserve costs for the war effort. The organization's own War Service Committee, under the leadership of the trade group's first president, A.C. Gilbert, arranged for a hearing in front of the Council. Gilbert made a stirring plea, citing the educational and social value of toys for children and then presented a selection of toys to the Council members as a demonstration. The Council members began playing with the toys and, after a discussion, declared that toys were essential and exempt from the holiday ban.

By 1930, the toy industry had grown tremendously, yet it still had no centralized trade show. After the 1931 show, the organization offered, and then took over the management of these shows, reducing and consolidating the number of New York City hotel exhibits and coordinating the show dates to a single period. In 1934 New York City became the single venue for Toy Fair. It is still the single venue for International Toy Fair.

Over the years, more opportunities and greater challenges arose for the toy industry.

The first comprehensive voluntary toy safety standard was developed in 1971 by the group's Safety Standards Committee, which was created in the early 1930s.

In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule that could regulate or even ban advertising to children as "unfair." Along with representatives from other children's industries, the organization testified in hearings on this proposed rulemaking, which was subsequently barred. Today, TIA regularly works with the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) to review and periodically update the CARU guidelines for all advertising addressed to children, including online messages.

As more toy production shifted offshore to Southeast Asia, the association began offering an annual Toy and Factory Safety Seminar for Chinese Manufacturers in that country.

In addition, the organization began compiling and distributing industry statistics in 1976, and with the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, formed the Toy Shippers Association (TOYSA) in 1990 to help manufacturers reduce transportation costs.

Today, 86 years later, the global toy marketplace is a world far different than that of A.C. Gilbert's time. Nevertheless, he'd most likely be pleased that the trade association he helped found is still going strong.