Catalogers of the Year

Industry Work

Connolly gives of his time and attention to other organizations as well. He is a member of the board of directors for both The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and Norm Thompson Outfitters, a multititle catalog company. Moreover, he speaks passionately about industry-wide challenges, most notably consumers’ growing interest in privacy and data security issues and how they will impact direct marketers. “Every cataloger has to understand how these issues will impact their companies,” he says. “Then they have to be vocal about these issues to their elected officials, to educate them on the issues and what is responsible direct marketing. We need to get the officials’ support on the privacy and data security issues. Or we’ll find ourselves in a situation we find distasteful.