COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
National Director’s Report January 29, 2012
Every time I think that
things are going to be quiet on the National level, they surprise me by
bringing up something new. For those of
you who were at the meeting on Saturday the 28th, this will be a
review of what I discussed. For those
of you who couldn’t attend, please read the following and let me know your
thoughts
TOWABLES
Over the past two years I
have told you about the thoughts of allowing towables to attend the National
Reunions. This past December the
Executive Board voted to allow towables to attend the 2012 Reunion in
Indianapolis. This decision was not
made lightly. We all realize that Motorhome
ownership is declining, which impacts the membership of FMCA. Our membership has declined by many
thousands during this latest turndown of the economy because the current
membership is aging and there just are not that many new Motorhome owners available
to take their place. As I have told
you, repeatedly, your National officers have cut expenses to the bear minimum
in every area that they could. Our
membership drives have not been able to keep up with the attrition.
The FMCA needs to
change! The Executive Board is looking
for our input to decide whether we should, formally, incorporate towables into
our membership. One of the driving
forces behind allowing towables into the FMCA is to increase revenue so that we
can start expanding the services of the FMCA instead of contracting.
As was discussed in the
meeting, nothing has been decided as of yet.
The Executive Board is looking for guidance. A ballot was handed out during the meeting with the following
questions:
·
Should we allow towable RV families to join the
FMCA as a Family Member
·
If allowed, should these new members have full
benefits or should they be denied the privilege to vote and hold office
·
Should we allow Towable Families to attend FMCA
events without becoming an FMCA member
·
If Towable Families were allowed to join the FMCA,
would you drop your membership
Before the vote was
taken, we had a very lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of opening up the
FMCA to Towables. You made me very
proud to be you National Director as all of the questions were
constructive. I didn’t hear a single,
negative, question or comment from anyone.
One question that was
raised was if the FMCA had considered merging with Good Sam. I honestly, do not know if any such
consideration has been made by the Executive Board, but I would assume they
would have to be very careful in broaching this subject. Those of you from Kansas City know what
happened to TWA when they merged with American Airlines!
At this time, the
Executive Board is just looking for guidance.
I would not expect to see any, major, changes for at least a year or
two. Please continue to send me your
questions and comments and I will see that they get into the right hands.
FMCA MASCOT CONTEST
I was going to update you with the latest
information on the Mascot Contest, but I see that they have published the flyer
in the February issue of Family Motor Coaching on page 29. Please note that the contest closes on March
30th, so send in your ideas as directed. Even if you idea is not chosen, all entrants will be placed in a
drawing to award full hookups at the Indianapolis Reunion.
UPCOMING FMCA REUNONS
Summer 2012 – Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August
27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 – Cam-Plex, Gillette, Wyoming, Kansas
(Dates To Be Determined)
If you have never been to the Cam-Plex it is worth
your while to visit www.cam-plex.com. This is a facility that was designed from
the ground up to be an RV only convention site.
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State Rally sites:
2012 – Shawnee, Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26
thru Saturday, September 29)
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
National
Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
National Director’s
Report December 19,
2011
In
November I wrote that I expected to write a lengthy report in December, but so many
changes have occurred that “lengthy” may be an understatement.
Currently
the FMCA is undergoing an internal restructuring. They are looking into going with Group Management Services to
bundle worker’s compensation, employee insurance, payroll management, and human
resources with other similar, small, organizations to reduce costs.
2011
will turn out to be another loosing year.
The projected deficit, as of December 31st is
$1,269,112.
As
you remember, MEDEX was cancelled as of December 31, 2010 and a new program
called FMCAssist was formed. The first
contract did not work out and was cancelled.
A new company was found and a contract was signed on April 1st. Unfortunately, we are not getting what was
hoped for and the cost was way too high, so FMCA is looking for a new company
to provide what we want at a cost we can afford.
The
FMCA is very serious about cutting expenses.
Some of these cuts include:
· Per diem will not be paid to any national
officer
· No reimbursement will be allowed for an area
vice-president travelling to any other area.
· Eliminate having the Fire and Safety seminar
presented at every rally.
· Offering Family Coaching Magazine
online. Each member would need to opt
out of receiving an issue by mail and accept the digital version instead. For those not interested, the mail copies
would remain available.
· Open up the Family Reunion sites to
competitive bidding.
As
you know, membership in the FMCA has been shrinking and the pool of potential
officer talent, on the chapter level, has caused some chapters to disband. A proposal will be made at the Governing
Board Meeting in Indianapolis to allow an FMCA member to hold an elected office
in two chapters. Currently, the by-laws
forbid holding office in more than one chapter. The offices that can be held are restricted to president,
vice-president, secretary, and treasurer.
Also, the current rule allows a member to hold two offices in the same
chapter, so in this case, it might be possible for a single individual to hold
a total of four offices at one time.
Please let me know your thoughts about this change.
The
FMCA “Goose Eggs” were discontinued as of the Governing Board Meeting in
Madison and replaced with a vinyl rendition.
The vinyl version is not holding up so the new thought is to have a flat
piece of polycarbonate made in the shape of the “Goose Egg” and to have the
FMCA logo and membership number applied with decals. Of course, the member can always purchase the traditional “Goose
Egg” directly from Kiley Molding.
2013
will be the FMCA’s 50th anniversary. Plans for the anniversary include:
· Special anniversary logo to be used on FMCA
merchandise and advertising
· Anniversary mascot
· $50 “Anniversary Bucks” to be given out at
the 2012 Reunion in Indianapolis
As
reposted last month, Brad Koshland resigned as the FMCA’s Executive
Director. Charlie Schrenkel has
appointed a Management Committee to assume the duties of the Executive
Director. This committee is comprised
of Charlie Schrenkel, Allen Rein, Wil Young, Bob Nebel, and Otto Tew. The committee appointed Jerry Yeats to serve
as the interim Executive Director.
FAMILY REUNIONS
As part of the cost
cutting measures, the 2013 Family Reunion in Hutchinson, Kansas has been cancelled! Part of the problem, besides cost, were that
with the Kansas State Fair being held at the being of September, the Reunion
would either have to be held at the end of July (deemed too hot) or at the end
of September, which would interfere with many of the area rallies. Therefore, Hutchinson has been replaced by
the Cam-Plex in Gillette, Wyoming.
Hutchinson will remain under contract as an emergency backup site if a
problem arises in Wyoming.
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August 27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 –
Cam-Plex, Gillette, Wyoming (Dates To Be Determined)
If you have never
been to the Cam-Plex it is worth your while to visit www.cam-plex.com. This is a facility that was designed from the ground up to be an
RV only convention site.
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
National Director’s
Report November 9, 2011
Two
weeks ago I wrote that it was very quiet on the national level. That is no longer the case. I still expect to have a lengthy report in
December, but these are the latest happenings at the fall meetings.
As
late as the governing board meeting in Madison we were all hopeful that the
motor home industry had turned the corner and was ready to make a
comeback. This is not the case. I am sure most of you have been following
the ups and downs of the market and see that you cannot rely on what your
savings are from day to day. The spokesman
for the RV industry still hopes that the motor home industry will still recover
from its low point, but he does not expect to see any recovery in the
foreseeable future.
For
2011, the FMCA has lost over 6,000 members which translates into another $250K
loss in revenue. We have cut just about all we can from the budget and not affect
the general memberships benefits. So we
need to look elsewhere.
To
help rein in costs, the board has lowered its attendance projections for the
2012 Reunion in Indianapolis to a total of 2,000 coaches which is 500 less than
Madison. On top of this, the board has
reduced the evening entertainment budget by a third. In Madison we went from four nights of entertainment to two. It is too early to tell if the current budget
reduction will lower the evening entertainment to only one night or not.
As
I wrote, we have cut just about everything that affects the general membership
that we could. Now we are cutting the
national officers benefits. By national
officers I mean the elected officers such as president, secretary, et cetera,
along with the national directors, and the national committee persons.
The
list of cuts to their benefits are:
· With a few exceptions, the officers must pay
for the use of golf carts
· All officers will have to pay for electric
service
· There will be no annual dinner
· There will be no box lunches
· There will be no travel reimbursement
Hopefully,
all of the cuts in both the general membership and for the officers can be
restored in 2013.
To
do this we need members. So far all of
the recruiting programs have failed to turn the tide of member loss. Whatever you can do to bring new members in,
not only to the Covered Wagons, but to the FMCA itself will help the
organization weather the current economic turndown and return to being a viable
organization once more. As “Doc” likes
to say, we are the “Premier” motor home organization, but we need to replace
the 40,000 members we have lost in the past five years to once more stand on
that pedestal.
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August 27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 –
Hutchinson, Kansas (Dates To Be Determined)
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
National Director’s
Report October 25, 2011
It
is a quiet period right now at FMCA. The semi-annual meetings are scheduled to
begin in two weeks so there should be plenty to report in December.
At
the moment, the big news regards FMCA’s Executive Director Bradford Koshland.
Some
of you met Brad at the South Central Rally in Hutchinson. Brad was hired this spring after a year long
search. Brad had retired from a 30 year
career with law enforcement in the State of New York. Being in his early fifties, we had hoped that Brad was in for the
long haul. That is not the case.
Brad
turned in his resignation this morning as the FMCA’s Executive Director. His reason for resigning is that he decided
he wanted to spend more time with his family and his parents and the FMCA was
taking up too much of his time.
The
Executive Director is a paid position that allows continuity in the operation
of FMCA when we change officers every two to four years. This is a position that cannot remain vacant
so if you have any suggestions as to a viable candidate, please let me know.
FAMILY REUNIONS
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August
27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 –
Hutchinson, Kansas (Dates To Be
Determined)
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
National Director’s
Report September 17,
2011
Another
Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase has come and gone. For those that attended, it was a very
unique week. For the first time we had
almost every seminar and all the indoor vendors in the same building. The Motorhome display was directly outside
the doors so it made for a very compact, and easy to see, event.
A
lot happened during that week that will have its effects on the FMCA for years
to come. I will, briefly, touch on the
highlights and you can ask me for details on any issue you wish to expand upon.
FMCA GOVERNING BOARD MEETING
The
governing board meeting this year was not as lengthy as I thought it would
be. We were in and out in only a little
over twelve hours, but a lot was done in those twelve hours. In no particular
order, here are the highlights:
· We reduced the National Executive Director’s
salary by $15K
· Attendance at National Family Reunions had
been dropping drastically on both the east and west coasts so the rotation plan
was changed so that we would have twice as many reunions in the central part of
the country as we do on the coasts. Odd
numbered years, the reunions will be west of the Appalachian Mountains and east
of the Rocky Mountains. The odd
numbered years are also our election years so the hope is that more of the National
directors will show up for the meeting.
We were short 125 directors (votes) this year.
· Fiscal responsibility is the motto for
2012. We will try to cut every
nonessential expenditure from the budget.
FMCA was founded as a group of Motorhome owners who would volunteer of
their time to help the organization wherever necessary. Over the years FMCA strayed from that idea
and many of the volunteer leaders (not the chapter volunteers) started getting
fairly large stipends and travel expenses reimbursed to reward them for their
service. The goal is to go back to an
all volunteer organization by taking small steps at a time. This year many of the stipends and
reimbursements were either halved or totally eliminated.
· The election of the National officers took
place. Charlie Schrenkel was reelected
president and Wil Young was reelected treasurer. Allen Rein was elected senior
vice-president and Vickie Ferrari was elected secretary.
· It was decided to start downsizing the
reunions. The FMCA will be looking for
smaller venues like Hutchinson (more to follow) and even consider holding a
joint National/Regional reunion.
· A motion was brought to the floor to
reinstate the Winter Reunions but it was soundly defeated.
· The Executive Director will investigate
selling one of the two buildings that currently make up the FMCA headquarters
and moving all operations into one building.
· For the past five years we have been
operating with deficit budgets. The
budget we adopted for 2012 has a minimal surplus, but we plan to increase that
surplus in future years.
· For many years the FMCA was the recipient of
lavish donations from the Motorhome manufacturers, dealers, and accessory
suppliers. This source of funding has
dried up and shows no sign of coming back in the foreseeable future so we need
to live on the money collected from the dues and reunion profits.
· The convention committee will be looking at
all areas to cut costs. We have already
cut the evening entertainment to two evenings and the committee may also
consider reducing the reunion by one day.
Nothing is sacred, but nothing has changed yet.
· Towables - the FMCA is investigating how to
bring towables into the fold. Nothing
has been decided except to study the issue and make a report to the full board
in 2013.
HUTCHINSON, KANSAS 2013
The
2013 Family Reunion will be the organization’s 50th anniversary
year. In honor of such an occasion,
this reunion has been given the official name of “Mile Marker 50”.
To
help celebrate this 50th anniversary, the Governing Board approved a
contest to be held at the 2012 reunion in Indianapolis. Each chapter is invited to design and build
(make) a stuffed animal that they feel will exemplify Kansas and the 50th
anniversary. The winner of the contest
will have its stuff animal displayed at each of the area rallies leading up to
the National in 2013.
I
am confident that the artistic talents that the Covered Wagons is known for
will outdo themselves in bringing the contest victory to the Covered Wagons.
Before
you ask, just because the National will be in Kansas in 2013 does NOT
automatically mean that we will be requested to volunteer our services. The fact that the South Central Area will be
the hosts is a good chance that we will be asked, but no guarantees. Also, unlike Six-State, where the chapter is
usually rewarded with a cash donation, volunteers at a National receive a hat
and nothing else.
FAMILY REUNIONS
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August
27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 –
Hutchinson, Kansas (Dates To Be
Determined)
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
Loren and Wanda
have everything planned out for the Six State so we all can sit back and enjoy
the fruits of their labor in just over a week from now.
David R.
Marlowe
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
Linwood, Kansas 66052-4040
July 06, 2011
National Director’s
Report
FMCAssist-There
has been one more, minor, change to the FMCAssist program to help save
money. Please take a look at page 55 in
the July 2011 copy of Family Motor Coaching.
These are your FMCAssist ID cards.
This is all that there will be.
No “Cards” will be issued as a cost savings move. Now, when you cut these out they will be
very flimsy and will easily be damaged in your wallet so it is suggested that you
have them laminated to protect them.
For those of you who have either discarded your magazine already or save
them for future reference, I have been issued a limited number of reprints of
page 55 to bring with me to the Covered Wagons rallies.
FMCA GOVERNING BOARD MEETING
The
governing board meeting this year looks to be another, lengthy, one. As a change of pace, I thought I would give
you a brief description of how these meeting run in case you would like to be
either a National or Alternate National Director.
Although
the meeting officially convenes at 9 AM, we are asked to report to the meeting
room at 7 AM, but no later than 8 AM.
The purpose of the early arrival is to discuss amongst ourselves the
issues that need to be addressed during the meeting.
At
9 AM the meeting starts with the American and Canada anthems, an invocation,
and introduction of the national offices.
The meeting starts with the Policies and Procedures (P&P) portion. The FMCA has hundreds of P&Ps and
whenever a change is made at a governing board meeting, the next year we have
to bring all the P&Ps up to date.
For example, when we voted to eliminate the Winter Reunion, it
necessitated that the legal group go through every P&P and wherever there
is reference to the Winter Reunion, the committee changes the wording to
eliminate any reference to the Winter Reunion.
Each P&P is addressed separately.
The legal committee presents its recommended word changes. Then we either vote to accept, modify, or
send the P&P back to the committee for rework.
If
we finish with the P&Ps before the lunch break, we go on to tackle the
budget for the next year; otherwise we start on the budget right after
lunch. The finance committee presents
the budget (all the Directors have had it since June). In most years we go through the budget line
by line and easily eat up two to three hours.
Once
the budget is approved we tackle any remaining old business then it is on to
new business. Any Director may bring a
new item to the floor that his or her chapter feels is important. One issue that the Executive Board is
introducing is the subject of towables.
Now
the FMCA is NOT going to allow owners of towable to directly join the
FMCA. Instead, it is being introduced
for discussion to create a separate, legal, entity for the owners of towables
to belong to. More than likely this
will include allowing towables to attend the International Reunions but be
restricted to a separate parking area.
I would appreciate any and all comments regarding your feelings on this
issue.
Getting
back to our friendly P&P. There is
a policy that no governing board meeting can continue past 5 PM (Yes, Bowling
Green went to 9:30 PM), so we have to vote to suspend the P&P for the
remainder of the meeting. In 2002, the Governing
Board Meeting lasted 3 days, but that has not happened since!
When
all other business is done, we move onto the elections. The resumes of all the candidates have been
published in the magazine and I would, again, appreciate your input. For those of you going to Madison, there
will be a candidate question and answer session that everyone can attend.
Unlike
the Covered Wagons Chapter where we vote for all the officers at once, on the
national level we vote for one at a time.
It averages ½ hour per vote because all of the ballots must be counted
three times with the same result so that it can be declared official. We start with the presidential
candidates. The unsuccessful
candidate(s) are allowed to petition the Governing Board to be allowed to run
for another office. This continues thru
the Senior Vice President and the Treasurer.
Only the unsuccessful candidate(s) for secretary have no other office to
run for.
Once
the election is complete the meeting is adjourn and we hope there is still time
to find dinner somewhere as we take no breaks after the lunch break.
That
in a nutshell, is how a governing board meeting goes.
FAMILY REUNIONS
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana (Monday, August
27 thru Thursday, August 30th)
Summer 2013 –
Hutchinson, Kansas (Dates To Be
Determined)
Winter 2014 –
Perry, Georgia (Dates to be Determined)
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
I have received the
agenda for the Governing Board Meeting.
I will bring it to the Oak Grove so that anyone can look at the issues
and comment if they so desire.
Remember that I can
always be reached,
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
12648 170th Street
June 01, 2011
National Director’s
Report
A
lot of little things have been going on during the first five months of the
year. All of which is leading to the
Governing Board Meeting in Madison.
For
those of you who were not able to attend either the April Rally and/or the May
Rally, I will briefly review what information I gave.
FMCA RALLIES
Between
Albuquerque and Redmond we lost almost $2.4 million dollars, but we made $277K
profit from the Perry, GA Rally this spring which, if you remember, is the
last, scheduled, winter rally.
At
Perry, we had a trial program where we allowed nonmembers with towables to
attend with the hopes that they would enjoy the FMCA and go out and buy a motor
home. Depending upon the source for
information, we had at least eleven, but no more than seventeen towables in
attendance. With an attendance exceeding 2,500, 11 or 17, per rally isn’t very
many.
Madison,
WI was going to have a special registration packet for parking with electricity
for everyone. It was decided not to
push the idea so you need to signup for general parking with electricity. The rates are the same. We just saved money by not running the
promotion.
When
the contract was let for the Indianapolis Rally for 2012, it was decided to
have this rally coincide with the Fourth of July holiday. There were so many complaints from the membership,
vendors, and manufacturers that the date has been changed to the last week in
August 2012 (8/27 – 30). I question the
wisdom of this late date as many people travel with their children and/or
grandchildren during summer. By late
August many children are back in school so this date could hurt attendance so I
would not be surprised to see the date change again.
FMCA FINANCES
The first quarter
of 2011 saw the FMCA realize a profit of $27K.
This is the first quarterly profit in several years so we hope this is a
trend that will continue.
Several changes in
the operation of the FMCA helped to realize this profit which includes:
·
The “Readers
Service Card” has been eliminated from the magazine. Most people who want information go to the advertiser’s website
to gain the information they want.
There is an electronic version of the “Readers Service Card” at the
FMCA’s website. What hasn’t been
addressed is those members who are not computer literate or do not own a
computer.
·
In the past,
prospective new members were sent 3 copies of the FMCA magazine, at no charge,
in hopes that this would encourage them to join. Now we will send them only 1 magazine.
·
Many
dealerships include a free, one year membership, in the FMCA when they sell a
coach. These new members received the
FMCA plates as part of their welcoming package. For reasons yet to be determined, most of these memberships did
not renew after the free year which caused a burden on the FMCA because the plates
had to be purchased by FMCA. Now, these
members will only receive the FMCA plates after they have paid to renew their
membership.
FAMILY ASSIST
For
many years MEDEX provided the emergency transportation services for FMCA
members when they were away from home and could not drive their motor home for
any of a number of reasons. The cost of MEDEX became prohibitive so FMCA
solicited bids and found a new service provider.
Along
with this new service, FMCA Assist was created. FMCA Assist is what you see as providing the emergency
services. The actual provider of these
services will change from time to time as the economy dictates. We started with the new provider this
January and it soon became apparent that what they were providing was not what
we negotiated for. Therefore the
provider was terminated on April 1st and a new provider is on board
for the remainder of the year.
FAMILY REUNIONS
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Charlie Adcock was
elected to the position of South Central Area vice-president. Charlie will take office at the Governing
Board Meeting in Madison. Fred Kennedy
will become the immediate past VP and will still be active in the Six-State
Rally Association.
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Shawnee,
Oklahoma (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
Next month I will
be receiving the agenda for the Governing Board Meeting. I will bring it to the meeting so that
anyone can look at the issues and comment if they so desire.
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O. Box 157
De Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s
Report December 02,
2010
Last month I wrote
“Short report this month as the “Big” meeting is towards the end of the
month.” Never in my wildest imagination
would I have come up with the changes I am going to tell you about.
FMCA PRESIDENCY
First, just as the
meetings were getting ready to start, Charlie Schrenkel announced his immediate
resignation as president due to health reasons. Judy Czarsky who was the Executive Vice-President and a current
candidate for president took over the reins of the FMCA and conducted the
meetings. Due to our recent rule
change, if Judy is elected president at the August meeting, the time she spends
filling out the remainder of Charlie’s term will not count against her right to
serve as president for a total of four years.
FAMILY REUNIONS
FMCA stands for
“Family Motor Coach Association”.
Family and friends often travel to gather at a location to do things
together for fun and relaxation. With
that in mind, the FMCA, on the National level will no longer use the word
“Rally”. Starting immediately, the term
“Rally” will be replaced by “Family Reunion”.
As members of FMCA we are all family and when we travel to get together
it is a reunion.
Also, at the
National Reunions, the vendors and motor home displays will now be considered a
“Showcase”. If you are still with me,
last month I would have written the 85th International Rally in
Perry, Georgia. Now, I write that it
will be the 85th Family Reunion and Motor Home Showcase in Perry,
Georgia.
Now for the big
news items. It will start as a trial at
Perry, Georgia, but you may now invite friends who are non-FMCA members and own
towables (travel trailers and fifth wheels) to attend the Family Reunion. They will have their own parking section and
you can elect to park with them. The
reunion fee will be $50 more than what an FMCA member pays, but they will
receive a one year subscription to the FMCA magazine at no charge.
Also, FMCA
Associates members who own a towable will now be allowed to attend the family
reunions (“A” members previously were not allowed to park a towable at an FMCA
reunion).
There is now a new
class of parking at the rallies.
Everyone is familiar with “General” parking and the ability to upgrade
to electric for an additional $175. Now
we have a new class called “Preferred”.
For $240 additional to the general fee, you will have full hookups. Yes, water, electric and sewer!
That is it for
now. Depending upon how soon the
reports are ready, I’ll have a lot more for you in January.
FAMILY REUNIONS
The following is
the International Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase schedule thru 2012.
There are currently no reunions scheduled after 2012.
Winter 2011 –
Perry, Georgia (Monday, March 14 thru Thursday, March 17)
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Reunion sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Wichita
Falls, Texas (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
November 16, 2010
National Director’s Report
Breaking news hot of the
press:
Charlie Schrenkel has resigned and Judy Czaryski is now the
National President of the FMCA.
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O. Box 157
De Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
November 09, 2010
National Director’s
Report
Short report this
month as the “Big” meeting is towards the end of the month.
For the past two
reports I have mentioned that we lost $500K for each of the two International
Rallies this year. The updated reports
are now in and thru the use of creative bookkeeping the loss for Albuquerque is
only $315K and Redmond is not complete yet, but appears to be around $262K.
Accompanying this
report you will find a packet of resumes for the National Nominating
Committee. I have to vote for five (5)
out of all those, or add a write in. I
do not have any recommendations as to who would be better than any other. I need to know if you have any preferences
as to who I should vote for by December 1st. On the second I shall cast my ballot and if
I do not have any input from the membership I will vote my conscience.
That is it for
now. Depending upon how soon the
reports are ready, I’ll have a lot more for you in December and/or January.
CONVENTIONS
The following is
the International Rally schedule thru 2012. There are currently no rallies
scheduled after 2012.
Winter 2011 –
Perry, Georgia (Monday, March 14 thru Thursday, March 17)
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Wichita
Falls, Texas (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O. Box 157
De Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
October 14, 2010
National Director’s
Report
This is the quiet
time between the Governing Board Meeting in Redmond and the Executive Board
Meeting in mid November. For those that
haven’t heard, the board has decided to cancel the Winter Rally in Pomona,
California scheduled for 2012.
We have taken this
action because attendance has been below expectations for the last three
rallies and we lost approximately $500K on both the Albuquerque and Redmond
rallies. Until further notice the FMCA
we only have one rally a year and that will be in the summer. This doesn’t mean that the winter rallies
are gone for good, but until the economy strengthens there will be no winter
rally.
The FMCA is debt
free and has over seven million dollars in assets, but we cannot continue to
loose $500K every six months without running into problems.
The other news of
interest is that we have determined that the FMCA’s mail forward charge is
higher than our competitors. Effective
immediately the monthly charge for mail forwarding has been reduced by $2 to $8
from the original $10. This service is
a benefit for mostly full timers, but anyone can use it when they are on
extended trips of three or more months in length.
CONVENTIONS
The following is
the International Rally schedule thru 2012. There are currently no rallies scheduled
after 2012.
Winter 2011 –
Perry, Georgia (Monday, March 14 thru Thursday, March 17)
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Congratulations to
Bill Keegan, Norma Robbins and all those that helped them. The Covered Wagons were the first place
winners at the 2010 SRA Chapter Fair and the talk of the rally. Even the Cruisin Cajuns, who thought they
would win handily, congratulated us every time we met on a job well done.
Officially there
were 15 Covered Wagons families in attendance, but we know there were
more. Many FMCA members belong to two
or more chapters. On the registration
form for all rallies is a place to indicate what chapter you’re attending
with. If you don’t indicate Covered
Wagons then your attendance is written down with the general population. So for Madison and Hutchison please be sure
to indicate that you are attending with the Covered Wagons Chapter.
Future Six State Rally
sites:
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
2012 – Wichita
Falls, Texas (Wednesday, September 26 thru Saturday, September 29)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O. Box 157
National Director’s
Report August 21, 2010
The Redmond
International Rally has come and gone and was overall a good rally. The Governing Board meeting this year took
only half the time as last year, but I believe we accomplished more. The following is a brief highlight of events
from that meeting.
First, the three
proposals:
PROPOSAL #1 – This proposal changes the term
length of the National officers from one, two year term, to three, one year
terms. In 2005 we changed from two, one
year terms to the current one, two year term, because it was felt that the
officers could better serve the organization by concentrating on their jobs
instead of being reelected. Going to
three, one year terms would make the matter worse.
I recommend that a “NO” vote be cast for
this proposal.
This proposal never
made it to the floor. Instead a
substitute proposal was offered to allow the National Officers, with the
exception of the National Directors, to serve two “Two Year” terms of an office
in a life time. The four years do not
have to be consecutive. The rational
was that the Governing/Executive Boards already set the agenda for the
following year before the elections are held, thus the office holder actually
has only one year when they are actually active in the policy making for which
they would be responsible for carrying out.
The National Directors do not have any term limits and can serve
unlimited terms of office.
This proposal
passed unanimously.
PROPOSAL #2 – This proposal would change the
FMCA’s fiscal year from January – December to October – September. Supposedly this change would allow more
up-to-date information to be available for making up the next year’s
budget. I see no reason not to vote
“YES” on this proposal.
There were no
objections to this proposal.
PROPOSAL #3 – This proposal would have the
National Secretary Cast one vote when there is only one candidate for an
office. Currently, if there is only one
candidate for any office, all the National Directors still must cast a vote and
then the votes need to be tallied. This
takes about an hour per candidate. I
would definitely vote “YES” on this proposal.
The National
Secretary objected to the wording because, if she ran unopposed, she would be
in effect casting a vote for herself.
The wording was changed to read that the unopposed candidate would be
elected “By Acclamation. The proposal
was updated unanimously.
FMCAAssist ©
Note the use of the ”©“. MEDEX was a service
that FMCA paid for and made available to the membership at no charge. FMCAAssist (FA) is a program designed by the
FMCA to provide the members with emergency medical evacuation services that we believe
are necessary. We presented our requirements
to several insurance companies and had then bid to provide the services. The major change is that they are providing
what we want, not us accepting what they can offer.
FA is still a work in progress and will take
effect January 01, 2011. The following
are just a few highlights of the new program:
·
Pays for
transport from the scene of the accident/illness to an emergency medical
facility
·
Pays for
transport from the emergency medical facility to an accredited hospital
·
When
conditions warrant, will pay for transport to a hospital/long term care
facility near your home
·
Finally, will
pay for transport to your home for final recovery
·
Each FMCA
member must declare a “Home” address.
Mail forwarding service or national post office boxes will not be accepted
·
Pays up to
$5,000 to transport children/grand children home
·
Will arrange
to have pets transported home, but will bill for reimbursement
·
Supplemental
International Travel Insurance is available immediately. I will ask that the details of this insurance
be placed on the Covered Wagons website.
FMCA
Financial Health
The FMCA is in good
financial health at this time. We have
assets in excess of $7,000,000 and no liabilities. We passed a deficit budget of $92,000 based upon everything working
out as expected. I can tell you that
Albuquerque experienced a loss of $482,000 and attendance at Redmond was 1,000
coaches below the breakeven point so losses will occur there.
Here are some brief
highlights of our cost cutting plans:
·
17 vacancies at
FMCA headquarters will not be filled
·
The offices at
“Round Bottom” are being offered for long term lease.
·
We have
written off the royalties from FMC allowing a refilling of the past years
income tax returns with a resultant $1.2 million dollar tax refund.
·
We have
partnered with GMAC so that we receive a royalty payment for each policy sold
to an FMCA member
CONVENTIONS
The Convention
Committee has been given the task of reviewing all of the factors of an
International Rally which include:
·
One or Two a year
·
Months to be
held
·
Type of
entertainment
·
Where they
should be held
·
Hours for
vendors and coach display
The committee is to
present their recommendations to the board in January for discussion and
adoption in Madison.
It was brought up
that only 5 out of the 48 states are “Friendly” to FMCA International Rallies
which limits where we can currently go.
The following is
the International Rally schedule thru 2012. There are currently no rallies
scheduled after 2012.
Winter 2011 –
Perry, Georgia (Monday, March 14 thru Thursday, March 17)
Summer 2011 –
Madison, Wisconsin (Wednesday, August 10 thru Saturday, August 13)
Winter 2012 –
Pomona, California (Thursday, April 19 thru Sunday, April 22)
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2010 – Shreveport,
Louisiana (Wednesday, September 29 thru Sunday, October 3)
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Wednesday, September 28 thru Saturday, October 1)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O. Box 157 DeSoto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s
Report April 17, 2010
The 2010 RV season
started with the Winter Rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico and moved into full
swing from there. For those of you who
still have the February 2010 issue of Family Motor Coaching; please look at the
article entitled “Albuquerque Daytime Entertainment” on page 62. If you look closely at the photo that spans
the two pages you will be able to pick out the Keegans, the Marlowes and
several other Covered Wagons members.
Although the article leads you to believe that the photo is associated
with Albuquerque, it actually was taken during the daytime entertainment at the
St. Paul Summer Rally.
REDMOND, OREGON
The summer rally in
Redmond will be here before you know it.
I hope everyone plans to attend.
It is beginning to look like we will break last year’s record for the
length of the Governing Board Meeting.
I already have three proposals that I will have to vote on and many more
are to come.
As always, I ask
for your guidance in how to vote. If
you have no preference, then I will vote my conscience.
PROPOSAL #1 – This
proposal changes the term length of the National officers from one, two year
term, to three, one year terms. In 2005
we changed from two, one year terms to the current one, two year term, because
it was felt that the officers could better serve the organization by
concentrating on their jobs instead of being re-elected. Going to three, one year terms would make
the matter worse.
I recommend that a
“NO” vote be cast for this proposal.
PROPOSAL #2 – This
proposal would change the FMCA’s fiscal year from January – December to October
– September. Supposedly this change
would allow more up-to-date information to be available for making up the next
year’s budget. I see no reason not to
vote “YES” on this proposal.
PROPOSAL #3 – This
proposal would have the National Secretary cast one vote when there is only one
candidate for an office. Currently, if
there is only one candidate for any office, all the National Directors still
must cast a vote and then the votes need to be tallied. This takes about an hour per candidate. I would definitely vote “YES” on this
proposal.
MEDEX
On April 2nd a
letter was sent to MEDEX formally notifying them that the FMCA is cancelling
its contract effective December 31, 2010.
As of January 1, 2011, the FMCA’s Medical Evacuation Benefit will be provided
by Global Underwriters. Much more to
follow in the upcoming months!
CONVENTIONS
The following is
the International Rally schedule thru 2012.
Summer 2010 –
August 11 - 14, Redmond, Oregon (Wednesday – Saturday)
Winter 2011 –
March, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2011 – July,
Madison, Wisconsin
Winter 2012 –
March, Pomona, California
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2010 – Sept. 29 –
Oct. 1 - Shreveport, Louisiana (Wednesday – Friday)
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Tentative)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
December 27, 2009
National Director’s Report
2009 is now history (almost) as the first truly
good snowfall of the season occurs. A
lot has happened in the FMCA since my last report.
First, many of you have meet Don Eversmann, the
FMCA’s Executive Director, at one of the six-State Rallies. Don resigned unexpectedly at the beginning
of November. The Executive Board is not
rushing to replace him, so the Executive Board is acting as the “Executive
Director” until they find a suitable replacement.
Financial things appear to be getting better. We are still projected to lose $1.3 million
dollars this year, but that number has held for six months so there is nowhere
to go but up from here.
NEW MEMBERSHIP
There are a few changes/additions to new membership
promotions.
1. You probably remember that when the chapter
first started we would get a supply of FMCA items to use at our meetings as
door prizes. These door prizes were
stopped as of 2008. The new plan is
that the door prizes package will be sent upon a chapter signing up its twelfth
member in the calendar year. Also, the
chapter receives five certificates for new members so it should not be that
hard to find 12 new members. When you
think of it, there are 500 FMCA chapters.
If each chapter signs 12 members that will increase our ranks by 6,000
members.
2. To
save money, FMCA will no longer issue a new member the “Goose Egg” or
“Football” as some people call it.
These emblems cost $25 a piece and if the new member doesn’t renew then
it is money down the drain. The new
policy is to give a new member and FMCA decal to display. Upon renewal, then the plastic emblems will
be sent as it is assumed that the member plans to remain associated with FMCA.
3. Speaking
of emblems, the current emblem, which resembles an old Greyhound bus, has been
in use since the FMCA was founded.
Under Connie Pool’s leadership a committee was formed to design a more
modern emblem that will help to attract new members. The Governing Board voted in 2008 to disband that committee and
not to make any changes to the emblem.
The current Executive Board has decided to overrule the Governing
Board’s decision and is now proceeding with the development of a new emblem.
If you think about the issue of the emblem for a
moment, most major corporations in America update their emblems periodically. The FMCA’s logo is a nostalgic part of our
history, but some believe that it gives the impression to the younger
generations that we are stuck in the past.
It can’t hurt to try a new emblem as we can always revert to the old one
if the situation so warrants.
MEDEX
FMCA has requested bids from eight companies,
including MEDEX, to provide our emergency coverage starting in 2011.
NATIONAL CONVENTION REGISTRATION: The cost of each registration classification
will increase by $15 starting in the 2010 fiscal year.
NATIONAL DUES:
This past week, the Governing Board voted to
increase the National dues by $5 to $50 effective March first. By FMCA rules you can purchase as many years
as you want before March 1st at the current rate.
CONVENTIONS: The Executive Board voted to continue
with two conventions a year even though the Governing Board voted to cut back
to one convention a year at last year’s Governing Board Meeting. The thought being that the membership would
not be satisfied with a single rally each year.
Also, note that Redmond will be a change in the
days a Convention is held. Wednesday
thru Saturday is a first with the Governing Board Meeting following the
Convention’s conclusion instead of preceding the start of the Convention.
The problem that I see for the working people is
that you used to have the weekend following the Convention to return home. This year you will have to use the weekend
before the Convention and the weekend after the Convention plus a day or two of
the next week to return home. Of course
this has no effect on those who no longer enjoy the working world.
The following is the International Rally schedule
thru 2012.
Winter 2010 – March 22-25, Albuquerque, New Mexico
(Monday – Thursday)
Summer 2010 – August 11-14, Redmond, Oregon
(Wednesday – Saturday)
Winter 2011 – March, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2011 – July, Madison, Wisconsin
Winter 2012 – March, Pomona, California
Summer 2012 – Indianapolis, Indiana
ENTERTAINMENT:
One of the entertainment nights will be changed to an FMCA Member Talent
Night (Shades of American Idol)!
SIX
STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2009 Six State Rally was held in September 23
thru the 26th in Shawnee, Oklahoma at the “Heart of Oklahoma Expo
Center”. There were a total of 730
coaches in attendance including 187 “First Timers”.
With the election of the Northern Vice-President,
Chuck Adcock, to Senior Vice-President, the nominating committee was tasked
with finding a replacement for the remainder of Chuck’s term as Northern
Vice-President. This position has now been filled by Rod Sartell.
There were a total of 337 quilts donated for the
“Charity Quit” program with one chapter donating 180 of those quilts.
I would like to thank Jean Brown for her leadership
in running the Covered Wagons quilt program for the Six-State Rallies. Even though we probably will never break the
180 quilt total, I hope Jean will carry on for many more years leading this
endeavor.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2010 – Sept. 29 – Oct. 1 - Shreveport, Louisiana
(Wednesday – Friday)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
David
R. Marlowe
October 01, 2009
National Director’s
Report
The time between
the end of the Summer National Rally and the November meetings is always a slow
time. Right now the newly elected FMCA
officers are trying to attend as many area rallies as possible to meet the
general membership and try to ascertain the likes and dislikes in the way the
FMCA is being operated. Charlie
Schrenkel and Judy Czarsty visited in length with the members of the Covered
Wagons Chapter while they were at the Six State Rally in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
MEDEX
On Saturday night the Covered Wagons Chapter
had an informal get together to celebrate several birthdays and just to
socialize. It was at this gathering
that I found out that a majority of the chapter members either didn’t know they
had MEDEX and/or didn’t know how MEDEX functions so I will try and explain it.
First, MEDEX is a
“Service” not an “Insurance” plan. If
you are injured, become ill, or worse at any place away from home, MEDEX will
arrange for you and your family to be flown home or to a medical facility that
can treat the problem. MEDEX will also
arrange to have your coached returned to your home. Both activities are carried out by MEDEX personnel.
To obtain service
at the time of the incident you must show the first responders your MEDEX
card. It assumes that if you are
incapacitated, your significant other or someone you are travelling with will
know that you have MEDEX and will tell them.
Second, as I said
MEDEX is a “Service” and not an “Insurance” plan. You cannot be transported by someone else and/or have your coach
driven home and then expect MEDEX to reimburse you for any costs. MEDEX will reimburse you absolutely
nothing. You either use their services
or you are on your own.
In 2008, there were
only four instances were FMCA members needed MEDEX, but the average cost for
each incident was over $38,000!
It was also
mentioned that some of the members did not have MEDEX ID cards. I will have MEDEX ID cards with me at
Carthage. If you cannot make Carthage,
contact me and I will arrange for you to receive your ID card. Please note that each person must have their
own card on their possession at all times.
NATIONAL
CONVENTIONS:
The following is
the International Rally schedule thru 2012.
Winter 2010 – March
22 - 25, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 –
August 11 - 14, Redmond, Oregon
Winter 2011 –
March, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2011 – July,
Madison, Wisconsin
Winter 2012 –
March, Pomona, California
Summer 2012 –
Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2009 Six State
Rally was held in Shawnee, Oklahoma at the “Heart of Oklahoma Expo
Center”. The annual meeting of the
association and elections were held.
To those not
familiar with the Six State organization, it looked like everything was rushed
thru, but actually 90% of what we do at this meeting has already been handled
by mail and we just go thru the formalities at the meeting
Half of the
officers are elected each year for a two year term. This year we elected Charles Adcock as Senior Vice President,
Irene Renfro as Secretary and Dan Couch as Treasurer.
Not publically
discussed, but acted upon was the financial report for 2008. AS we all know the Little Rock Rally didn’t
make any money. It cost $213,893 to put
on and the income was $213,417, resulting in a $276 loss. This is the first loss in the association’s
history. Previously, the rallies had
netted over $20,000 per year.
Overall, the
association had an income of $3,557 and total expenses of $4,788 for a loss of
$1,231. In previous years the
association has had an average income $12,000 and an average expense of $5,000. Again, it was the loss of profit from Little
Rock that did the association in this past year.
Future Six State
Rally sites:
2010 – Shreveport,
Louisiana (Sept. 29 – Oct, 1)
2011 – Hutchinson,
Kansas (Tentative)
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter
National Director
National Director’s
Report August 01, 2009
The 82nd
FMCA International Rally is now history.
It will be a rally that will not be forgotten for a long time! The seminar and vendor facilities were
excellent, but were a long distance from where the coaches were parked which
caused a lot of people to drive or take the busses to and from the events. The college being in session did not help
either.
I had the pleasure of
attending the longest, one day, Governing Board Meeting in FMCA’s history. Sign in started at 7 AM and it was 9:14 PM
when we finally adjourned. A lot
happened and I hope to pass on the highlights now and fill you in on the other
issues as time permits.
BUDGET: The original plan was to make cuts in the
budget to get it balanced. Instead, the
Executive Board voted to have a $300,000 deficit in the proposed 2010
budget.
The Executive Board made a
decision to drop MEDEX. MEDEX costs the
FMCA almost a half million dollars a year and only a few people have ever used
it. The majority of the Governing Board
felt that MEDEX was a member benefit that FMCA needed to provide so they voted
for MEDEX to stay in the budget. The
prevailing thought was that we would lose a large portion of the membership by
not offering MEDEX. I would like to
hear from anyone that feels they cannot do with out MEDEX as I am sure that the
suggestion will come up again next year.
We decided to increase
the rate of the mailing forwarding service from $5 to $10 a month. This should allow the service to cover its
costs.
With all the cuts and
additions, the 2010 budget has a deficit of almost one million dollars. The deficit will be paid out of the reserve
funds. It is the hope of all that the
RV industry will come back in 2010 and the FMCA’s ad revenue will begin to
climb once more. If the industry is
still down in 2010 then the Governing Board will have to take a close look at
all of the expenditures and make some very unpopular cuts.
NATIONAL CONVENTION
REGISTRATION: The cost of each
registration classification will increase by $15 starting in the 2010 fiscal
year.
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS: The
Executive Board voted to continue with two conventions a year even though the
Governing Board voted to cut back to one convention a year at last year’s Governing
Board Meeting. The thought being that
the membership would not be satisfied with a single rally each year.
The following is the International Rally schedule thru 2012.
Winter 2010 – March 22 - 25,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August 11 -
14, Redmond, Oregon
Winter 2011 – March, Perry,
Georgia
Summer 2011 – July, Madison,
Wisconsin
Winter 2012 – March, Pomona,
California
Summer 2012 – Indianapolis,
Indiana
ENTERTAINMENT: One of the entertainment nights will be
changed to an FMCA Member Talent Night (Shades of American Idol) to save on the
costs of hiring entertainment.
DUES INCREASE: At this time there are no dues increase
planned. The treasurer showed us where
the dues would need to be raised $27 per year to balance the budget. We knew that $27 a year increase was too
much so we decided to continue using the reserves.
Proposals were made to raise
the dues anywhere from $5 to $20 a year, but none of the proposals had much
support. The Governing Board will discuss in the fall about a possible $5
increase in mid 2010, but there is nothing “officially” in the works at this
time.
ELECTIONS: The election of the National President did
not go the way all the so called experts thought it would go.
Nelson Stubbs, the outgoing
Senior Vice President was considered a “Shoe-In” for election to the office of
President. We had four candidates
running and FMCA’s rules state that a candidate for the office of President
must have at least 51% of the vote to be elected. Out of the four candidates, Nelson received the least amount of
votes and was eliminated in the first round.
George Schipper was also eliminated. The second round was a runoff
between Doug Key, the outgoing Treasurer and Charlie Schrenkel, the past
Southeast Area Vice President. Charlie
easily defeated Doug so Charlie Schrenkel is our new National President.
Judy Czarsty received the
overwhelming number of votes for Senior Vice President and Joanne Durbin was
re-elected as the National Secretary without any opposition.
Will Young was elected
National Treasurer. He ran on a
platform that he wants the budget to be balance in 2011 instead of continuing
to operate on a deficit using up our reserve funds.
SIX
STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2009 Six State Rally
will be held September 23rd thru the 26th in Shawnee,
Oklahoma at the “Heart of Oklahoma Expo Center”. Bill Keegan will be leading our caravan from Guthrie to the Expo
Center.
The Six-State Rally
Association collects quilts and blankets donated by the various chapters and donates
them to emergency relief organizations located in the area where the rally is
being held. Most donations should be
baby/child size, but some adult sizes are also needed for our military. It is not too late to start making yours as
there can never be too many to donate.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2010 – Shreveport, Louisiana
(Sept. 29 – Oct, 1)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas
(Tentative)
Remember that I can always
be reached at my phone number listed in the directory or my email.
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
National Director’s Report June 01, 2009
As I said last Saturday in Hutchinson, that there would
probably be a letter from FMCA when I got home and there sure was! Basically, everything that I have told you
in the last six months has changed. So
here, in no special order, is the latest from national.
BUDGET: The original
plan was to make cuts in the budget to get it balanced. Instead, the Executive Board has voted to
have about a $300,000 deficit in the proposed 2010 budget. The deficit will be made up by drawing from
the FMCA’s operating reserve account.
MEDEX: A decision
was made to drop MEDEX. MEDEX costs the
FMCA almost a half million dollars a year and only a few people have ever used
it. Although it is a great savings for
those who have need of it, the FMCA cannot justify the high cost anymore.
NATIONAL CONVENTION REGISTRATION: The cost of each registration classification will increase by $15
starting in the 2010 fiscal year.
NATIONAL CONVENTIONS: The Executive Board voted to continue
with two conventions a year even though the Governing Board voted to cut back
to one convention a year.
ENTERTAINMENT: One
of the entertainment nights will be changed to an FMCA Member Talent Night
(Shades of American Idol)!
The entire report from National is 28 pages in length. I will bring it to Smithville for your
leisure time reading pleasure.
The following is the International Rally schedule thru
2012.
Summer 2009 – July 20th thru 23rd,
Bowling Green, Ohio
Winter 2010 – March, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August, Redmond, Oregon
Winter 2011 – March, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2011 – July, Loveland, Colorado
Winter 2012 – March, Pomona, California
Summer 2012 – Indianapolis, Indiana
SIX STATE
ASSOCIATION
The 2009 Six State Rally will be held in September in
Shawnee, Oklahoma at the fairgrounds.
On the bright side, the Covered Wagons will not have to volunteer their
services again until 2015.
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and blankets
donated by the various chapters and donates them to emergency relief
organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. Most donations should be baby/child size,
but some adult sizes are also needed for our military. It is not too early to start making your
quilts as there can never be too many to donate.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2009 - Shawnee, Oklahoma
2010 – Gonzalez, Louisiana (Sept. 29 – Oct, 1)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
David R.
Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
May 04,2009
National Director’s
Report
FMCA has this habit
of always sending me information when I am at a Covered Wagons rally so that I
cannot bring you up to date information.
This month (April) was no different, there was an envelope from National
in my mailbox when I got home.
FMCA Election
Fred Kennedy is
running for re-election as the South Central Area Vice-President. Most of you have met Fred at either the Six
State Rallies or at a National Rally. I
need to cast my ballot for or against Fred before the Covered Wagons meet
again. At this time I plan to vote for
Fred’s re-election. If anyone has a
valid reason as to why I should not vote for Fred, please let me know no later
than Friday, May 15th by e-mail or telephone.
Covered Wagons
Membership
FMCA has certified
that we had 63 valid family memberships as of January 01, 2009 and I am sure
that number has increased with late renewals and new memberships including the Sidwell’s
who joined us last week.
FMCA Executive
Board
The FMCA’s
Executive Board met at the Spring Rally in Perry, Georgia. The following are a few highlights of that
meeting:
·
Due to the
loss of revenue from commercial vendors and RV manufacturers the FMCA budget
for 2010 will have to be $8,800,000.00 or less
·
Major
membership benefits will NOT be cut
·
MEDEX is being
reviewed to see if a less expensive alternative is available
·
$1,700,000.00
will need to be eliminated from the 2009 budget to reach the 2010 goal
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter
National Director
April 05, 2009
National Director’s Report
RV season is here!
It is April, the grass is green, the trees are budding, and the snow is
falling. There is a lot I need to do
between now and the governing board meeting in Bowling Green, Ohio so I need to
disseminate the following information and request your input by July 1st.
FMCA Elections
We have five people currently running for
office. Two of which are very well
qualified. They are Doug Key the
current FMCA Treasurer and Nelson Stubs who is currently the FMCA’s Senior
Vice-President. I am disappointed in
that they are both running because we will loose one of these two fine men when
the election results are tallied.
Three people are running for Senior Vice-President
including Judy Czarsty who has visited the Covered Wagons a few times.
Joanne Durbin is running unopposed for the office
of FMCA Secretary and Bernard Dobrin is running unopposed for the office of
FMCA Treasurer.
A resume for each candidate will be published in
the May 2009 issue of Family Motor Coaching.
For those of you not familiar with the way the FMCA
operates, only the National Directors vote for the candidates. We are supposed to solicit your input and vote
accordingly. That is why I need your
input. I know who I would vote for as
of this time and I would be glad to explain my reasoning’s to you at any of the
upcoming rallies.
National Bylaw Amendments
There are eleven Bylaw amendments that I will need
to vote for. Briefly, they are as
follows:
Proposal #1 – New Article
· The
Governing Board shall have the authority to recognize FMCA member(s) or
non-member(s) for exceptional contribution(s) to FMCA or to motor coach owners
in general
· The
Executive Board shall have the authority to recognize outstanding act(s) by an
FMCA member(s)
· The
bestowing of awards shall be in accordance with the Member and Volunteer
Handbook
Proposal #2 - Chapters
· In
each fiscal year, a Chapter shall hold at least 1 business meeting at which a
quorum is present. Said meeting shall
be duly announced in advanced to the membership
Proposal #3 – Associate Chapter Concept
· A
Chapter provides opportunities for fellowship and interchange of ideas among members
who share mutual interests, geographic or otherwise
· A
Chapter is an organization of members with a scope within the United States and
Canada. An Associate Chapter is either
an organization of members with a scope within the United States and Canada, or
outside the United States and Canada.
The areas of activity and objectives of a Chapter are not limited by
governmental boundaries
· Any
group of 20 or more voting memberships may petition FMCA for a charter for the
creation of a Chapter. Any group of 10
or more voting memberships may petition FMCA for a charter for the creation of
an Associate Chapter. All Chapter or
Associate Chapter members must be FMCA members in good standing. An FMCA member may join more than one
Chapter
· In
each fiscal year, a Chapter shall hold at least 1 business meeting at which a
quorum is present. Said meeting shall
be duly announced in advance to the membership
· A
Chapter shall elect a President, 1 or more Vice Presidents, a Secretary, a
Treasurer, a National Director, and an Alternate National Director for a one or
two year term. An Associate Chapter
shall elect a President, 1 or more Vice Presidents, a Secretary and a Treasurer
for a one or two year term. An FMCA
member may hold no more than 2 offices in the same Chapter, and may not hold
office in more than 1 Chapter
· In
the event of a vacancy, permanent or otherwise, in the position of National
Director, the Alternate National Director shall promptly fill the vacancy
· All
Chapters must maintain a minimum number of memberships in order to retain their
accredited status
· A
Chapter must maintain a minimum number of 15 FMCA memberships. A Chapter that fails to maintain the
required number of memberships shall revert to inactive Chapter status, and the
national Director or Alternate National Director elected by the Chapter shall
have no vote in the proceedings of the Governing Board
· An
Associate Chapter must maintain a minimum of 7 FMCA memberships. An Associate Chapter that fails to maintain
the required number of memberships shall revert to inactive Associate Chapter
status
· Within
30 days of election, each Chapter Secretary shall furnish the National Office
of FMCA with a list of list of newly elected officers
· For
certification purposes, each Chapter Secretary shall furnish to the National
Office of FMCA the required records for certification as cited in the Member
and Volunteer Handbook
· An
inactive Chapter will return to regular status after it meets requirements
cited in these Bylaws
· A
Chapter remaining inactive longer than 2 years shall no longer be considered a
Chapter of FMCA, and shall be dissolved
· A
Chapter shall present its Bylaws to FMCA’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee
for its review
· The
fiscal year of a Chapter shall conform with that of FMCA whenever practical
· No
more than once a year, a Chapter may change its status to an Associate Chapter,
or an Associate Chapter of members with a scope within the United States and
Canada may change its status to a Chapter
Proposal #4 – President’s Council
· Change
the name of President’s Council to FMCA Review Council
Proposal #5 – President’s Council
· The
FMCA Review Council shall investigate complaints filed with the FMCA Review
Council. All such investigations shall
be carried out in accordance with the Member and Volunteer Handbook
Proposal #6 – President’s Council
· The
FMCA Review Council shall consist of 5 members whose term of service shall
commence following the Annual Membership Meeting in odd-numbered years. The selection of the members to the FMCA
Review Council shall be in accordance with the Member and Volunteer Handbook
Proposal #7 – President’s Council
· The
FMCA Review Council shall report to the Governing Board in accordance with the
Member and Volunteer Handbook
Proposal #8 – Disciplinary Actions
· Upon
recommendation of the FMCA Review Council, the Governing Board shall have the
responsibility of taking disciplinary action against any member, Chapter or
Area Association for any of the following reasons:
1. Violation
of the organization’s Constitution, Bylaws, or FMCA Member Code of Ethics
2. Conviction
of a felony or any conviction of an indictable offense
3. Established
guilt of action contrary to the best interests of the FMCA
4. Established
guilt of unbecoming conduct rendering him/her unfit to continue in an office or
position within FMCA
· Members,
Chapters, or Area Associations who have been found guilty of any of the above
offenses shall be subject as appropriate to a written reprimand, suspension,
expulsion, revocation of charter, and/or removal from any office or position
within FMCA
· The
Governing Board shall establish procedures to investigate and resolve
disciplinary actions. Such procedures
shall be set forth in the Member and Volunteer Handbook
Proposal #9 – Indemnifications
· Except
as prohibited by Chapter 1702 of the Ohio Revised Code and subject to the
provisions therein, FMCA shall pay the legal fees of any officer, director,
employee, or volunteer incurred in the defense of a complaint or civil action
against any such individual which directly relates to any such individual’s
acts or omissions made in the individual’s capacity as an officer, director,
employee, or volunteer, as applicable, of FMCA. Any payment of legal fees or other indemnification made pursuant
to this section shall only be made in accordance with Section 1702.12 of the
Ohio Revised code
Proposal #10 – Interactive Electronic
Communications
· Any
Area, Chapter, related organization or individual FMCA member must get FMCA’s
written approval prior to developing, posting, or maintaining any type of interactive
Web site, or similar service (“Interactive Electronic Communication”) which
relates to or represents the views or practices of FMCA
· Without
such written approval, an organization or individual must disable such
Interactive Electronic Communication.
In addition, any violation of this Bylaw may result in the suspension of
that organization’s or individual’s membership in FMCA and may subject them to
action under Article XVII (Disciplinary Action)
· The
FMCA is not responsible for the contents of any Interactive Electronic
Communication which is not approved in writing. Organizations, their representatives and any individuals agree to
fully indemnify FMCA for violations of this article as further clarified in the
Member and Volunteer Handbook
Proposal #11 – Nominations and Elections
· Elections
will be by mail ballot with space provided for write-in candidates for each
position
In other happenings, the FMCA has had to cut its
budget an additional $859,000 since November 2008 due to a continued drop in
revenues.
As most of you know Monaco Coach Corporation has
filed for bankruptcy. Navistar is
investigating purchasing some of Monaco’s assets in the motor coach area of the
business.
The following is the International Rally schedule
thru 2010. There are no rallies set for
after the 2010 Summer International after which we should be switching to just
one International Rally a year:
Winter 2009 – March 16th thru 19th,
Perry, Georgia
Summer 2009 – July 20th thru 23rd,
Bowling Green, Ohio
Winter 2010 – March 22nd thru 25th,
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August 12th thru 14th,
Redmond, Oregon
SIX
STATE ASSOCIATION
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and
blankets donated by the various chapters and donates them to emergency relief
organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. Most donations should be baby/child size,
but some adult sizes are also needed for our military. It is not too early to start making your
quilts for next year as there can never be too many to donate.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2009 – September 22nd thru 26th,
Shawnee, Oklahoma
2010 – Gonzalez, Louisiana (Tentative)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
Remember that I can always be reached at dmarlowe@ksbroadband.net
and by telephone, 816-797-4404.
Covered
Wagons Chapter
Chapter of the FMCA
COVERED WAGONS
P.O. Box 157
De Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National
Director’s Report December 27,2008
I hope that all of the members of the Covered Wagons enjoyed a happy holiday season and are looking forward to 2009. During the third week of November the Executive Board of the FMCA was very busy. The following report will attempt to bring you up to speed as to what is happening on the National level.
I am sure that most of you remember that I went into the Governing Board meeting in St. Paul looking at the need for a dues increase from $35 to $49 dollars a year. The National Directors were able to eliminate the need for a dues increase by cutting $500,000 from the 2009 budget. It was everyone’s belief in July that the economic future was looking good for 2009, but now, only 5 months later we need to cut another $800,000 from the budget just to break even and this is based on the premises that the economy will not worsen.
The following are some of the plans to help reduce the budget. They are in no particular order. Your comments and suggestions would be appreciate so that I am prepared for the next meeting, which currently is planned for the Bowling Green Summer Rally.
· The 2009 travel budget for the four National Officers was reduced by 50% ($40,000 to $20,000)
· Executive Board members will have the mileage reimbursed at the IRS level instead of double as has been the practice
· The Executive Director (Don Eversmann) has been directed to look at all aspects of the FMCA to come up with the $800,000 in deducts by March 1st
· The Executive Board authorized the President and Treasurer the authority to approve budget cuts before March 1st if it will help the financial position
· FMCA has suspended the annual door prize package, coffee pot, or banner that was given to the Chapters each year
· Each Chapter will be given five free FMCA memberships to help attract new members who do not now belong to the FMCA
· The National Director or an officer of the chapter will have a sign in their coach window reading “Ask Me About FMCA” to help attract new members
· The FMCA currently has cash and investments totaling $10.8 million dollars which is down $2 million dollars from last year
· There will be a new category called the “Associate Chapter”. The Associate Chapters will have all the rights and privileges of the regular chapters with the exception that they will not have a National Director and will not participate in the governing decisions of the FMCA. There will also be other changes.
· The RV Safe Driving Course and the RV Weight and Tire Safety Programs have been cancelled for 2009
Needless to say, the FMCA is changing its way of doing business because it is being affected by today’s economy just like you and me. The FMCA is NOT going out of business, but I am sure you have noticed how thin the magazine is getting. The loss of advertising is the biggest problem that the FMCA currently faces.
The following is the International Rally schedule thru 2010. There are no rallies set for after the 2010 Summer International after which we should be switching to just one International Rally a year:
Winter 2009 – March 16th thru 19th, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2009 – July 20th thru 23rd, Bowling Green, Ohio
Winter 2010 – March, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August, Redmond, Oregon
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
There has been no news from the Six State Rally Association since the close of the Little Rock Rally.
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and blankets donated by the various chapters and donates them to emergency relief organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. It is not too early to start making your quilts for next year as there can never be too many to donate.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2009 - Shawnee, Oklahoma
2010 – Gonzalez, Louisiana (Tentative)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
Chapter of the FMCA
COVERED WAGONS
P.O. Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report
The 35th Anniversary Six State Rally in North
Little Rock is now history. For those
of you who couldn’t make it, Bill Keegan did us proud! The City of North Little Rock was not
prepared for us to arrive in the numbers and as fast as we did.
The parking crew was lead by Steve Pickens who literally was
laying out parking spaces just as fast as he could. Bill organized the Covered Wagon parking teams to keep up with
the flow. At times tempers became
heated and not so friendly words were said, but by the time the rally started
everyone was in a better mood. The
teams worked 4.5 hours a shift and Bill worked almost ten hours a day nonstop. Unfortunately Bill and Sharon had to leave
the rally early so they could not partake of the friendly greetings we received
at the evening entertainment events. I
was stopped many times by people I didn’t know and they thanked me and the rest
of the Covered Wagons for the great job we did under difficult conditions. Bill is the one who deserved to hear all the
accolades not me!
Steve Pickens was elected as the new Southern Region Vice
President. He defeated Wood Payne by a
vote of 35 to 10. Other than the
election, the Governing Board really didn’t do much in our meeting but talk.
There is nothing new on the National level at this
time. The next update from Cincinnati
is due in November and there will probably be many news worthy items at that time.
The following is the International Rally schedule thru
2010. There are no rallies set for
after the 2010 Summer International after which we should be switching to just
one International Rally a year:
Winter 2009 – March 16th thru 19th, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2009 – July 20th thru 23rd,
Bowling Green, Ohio
Winter 2010 – March, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August, Redmond, Oregon
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2009 Six State Rally will be held in September in
Shawnee, Oklahoma at the fair grounds.
On the bright side, the Covered Wagons will not have to volunteer their
services again until 2015.
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and blankets
donated by the various chapters and donates them to emergency relief
organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. Most donations should be baby/child size,
but some adult sizes are also needed for our military. It is not too early to start making your
quilts for next year as there can never be too many to donate.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2009 - Shawnee, Oklahoma
2010 – Gonzalez, Louisiana (Tentative)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report
The 80th International Convention of the FMCA is now history. Let me tell you first that there will be NO dues increase for 2009. Unfortunately only time and the economy will tell if we need to revisit the dues issue next year.
The Governing Board was faced with a dilemma. We had to either approve a dues increase to a minimum of $49.00 a year or cut over $508,000 from the proposed budget. We chose to cut over a half million dollars so that the dues increase would go away.
Briefly, these cuts included:
1. We cancelled the proposal to give each new member a 2009 Road Atlas
2. We eliminated the travel expenses for the outgoing officers
3. We eliminated FMCA staff expenses from attending Area rallies
4. As of September 1st there will be 5 vacancies at the Cincinnati office. These positions will remain vacant unless the Executive Director deems it necessary to fill the vacancies
5. The National Directors forfeited their electrical reimbursement
6. We cut $30,000 from the entertainment budget for each International Rally. The convention committee has the option to either cancel one night’s entertainment per rally or find less expensive entertainers
7. Cease all efforts to design a new logo for the FMCA
The Governing Board made the flowing recommendations to the Executive Board to take effect in 2011:
1. Eliminate the Winter International Rally
2. Find new sites for the Summer International Rallies that are more travel convenient for all members
3. Request that the Motorhome manufacturers cease supporting pre-rallies
This year we concluded all business in only 8 ½ hours. Next year is an election year and a new budget, so a two-day meeting is not out of the question.
The rally by all standards was small. Slightly more than 2,300 family members attended. The display coach numbers and the number of commercial vendors were down. The most striking absence was Monaco. They did have their service crew there, but Monaco is normally a “Five Star” sponsor for the entertainment and other member support and this year they were not sponsoring anything. Also, Monaco normally has a “Company Store” in the vendors building that sells logo clothing, accessories, et cetera with each of the Monaco brands so that you can personalize your attire, but this year the “Company Store” was absent. The word also was given that bimonthly the brand specific magazines that Monaco brand owners receive has been canceled. There was talk about Monaco being in a hard financial position, rumors flew, but nothing official was presented.
The following is the International Rally schedule thru 2010. There are no rallies set for after the 2010 Summer International after which we should be switching to just one International Rally a year:
Winter 2009 – March 16th thru 19th, Perry, Georgia
Summer 2009 – July 20th thru 23rd, Bowling Green, Ohio
Winter 2010 – March, Albuquerque, New Mexico
Summer 2010 – August, Redmond, Oregon
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2008 Six State Rally will be held in September in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Covered Wagons is one of the host chapters and we will be responsible for parking the attendees coaches. Our activities are being coordinated by Bill Keegan. Please contact Bill and volunteer your services to this endeavor.
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and blankets donated by the various chapters and donates them to emergency relief organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. Most donations should be baby/child size, but some adult sizes are also needed for our military. If you cannot help make a quilt you can purchase one at your favorite store and donate it.
For those of you interested in making a quilt, Jean Brown has offered to lead the group in assembling blankets/quilts at the next two Covered Wagon rallies. Please contact Jean directly for details.
Future Six State Rally sites:
2009 - Shawnee, Oklahoma
2010 – Gonzalez, Louisiana (Tentative)
2011 – Hutchinson, Kansas (Tentative)
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
National
Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
For those of you
who have not been able to attend the last two rallies, most of what I have
discussed was published in the June issue of Family Motor Coaching. To
summarize, the FMCA is losing money due to the loss of membership, the
reduction in the ads sold in the magazine, and to the loss of motorhome
manufacturers who are commercial members of the FMCA.
To date: Alfa
Leisure, Travel Supreme and National RV have gone out of business. Coachmen, Fleetwood, Monaco, Winnebago, and
Country Coach have all cut back on building coaches and have laid off
employees. Western RV (Alpine) has ceased manufacturing coaches, but has not
gone out of business as of this time.
I think Doug Key,
National Treasurer has summed it up very well in his introduction to the 2009
FMCA budget, “FMCA for the past several years has been steadily losing members
(+20,000). In addition to losing
members, FMCA has experienced significant reductions in magazine advertising
from troubled manufacturers. The
combination of these events has generated operating loses over the last two
years.”
The 2009 budget I
will be asked to approve in July at the St. Paul Rally will contain an
operating loss of over one half million dollars. Obviously we cannot continue this way. Therefore, the Executive Board has voted to increase the dues by
40% starting January 1, 2009. This will
be an increase from $35 to $49. With
the dues increase, the operating surplus for 2009 will be one hundred thousand
dollars, which is not very much!
Now let me assure
you that FMCA is not going out of business.
They have sufficient cash reserves and investments to operate for many
years. The problem is that when you tap
your reserves you either have to cut services or start charging for some that
have been free. One service that will
change as of January 1, 2009 will be the Mail Forwarding Service. This service has always been at “No Charge”,
but by January, the board will devise a fair market value for this service.
The key to the
FMCA’s long life and prosperity is new members. The goal this year (and every year) is for each member to recruit
one new member. Please do your best to
help the FMCA grow.
SIX STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2008 Six State
Rally will be held in September in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Covered Wagons is one of the host
chapters and we will be responsible for parking the attendees coaches. Our activities are being coordinated by Bill
Keegan. Please contact Bill and
volunteer your services to this endeavor.
The Six-State Rally
Association collects quilts and blankets donated by the various chapters and
donates them to emergency relief organizations located in the area where the
rally is being held. Most donations
should be baby/child size, but some adult sizes are also needed for our
military. If you cannot help make a
quilt you can purchase one at your favorite store and donate it.
For those of you
interested in making a quilt, Jean Brown has offered to lead the group in
assembling a quilt or quilts at the next two Covered Wagons rallies. Please contact Jean directly for details.
The 2009 Six State
Rally is now officially scheduled for Shawnee, Oklahoma. There will be more info in the following
months.
SUMMER NATIONAL RALLIES
In a little over
three weeks fifteen families from the Covered Wagons will head north to the
2008 Summer National Rally in St. Paul, Minnesota. Points of interest along the
way will be Terrible’s Casino in Osceola, IA and the remaining covered bridges
from the movie “Bridges of Madison County”.
And, of course, no trip is complete without a stop at the famous Spam
Museum in Austin, MN. This is the meat
from the Hormel Company not the junk on your computer. Loretta is in the process of cancelling the
extra reservations we have along the way, so if you want to join us you will need
to make up your mind this week.
Also, there will be
an open discussion at St. Paul to help guide the FMCA for the next ten
years. If you have any thoughts on what
the FMCA can do to improve itself, or add new services, please e-mail me your
thoughts by July 12th.
FUTURE FMCA
INTERNATIONAL RALLIES
2009 will take us
to the Louisville, Kentucky area and 2010 will see us back in Redmond, Oregon.
The 2009 winter
rally is scheduled for Albuquerque, New Mexico.
David R.
Marlowe
Covered Wagons
Chapter National Director
Not
much has been going on this winter at the National Headquarters. The national officers held their two-week
long meeting in Cincinnati in November.
This was the first time that the new officers and committeemen got
together for planning sessions. Most of
their decisions were in the realm of operations, not much to affect the regular
members at this time.
The
Six-State Rally in Sedalia was very successful. The rally had an overall surplus of $24,000 with $17,000 of that
amount being distributed to the chapters that supplied volunteers to help with
the rally.
In
April, President Virgil Paulson will lead a delegation of Covered Wagon members
to North Little Rock to help plan the 2008 rally. As you know, the Covered Wagons are one of the volunteer host
chapters so we will participate in the sharing of the surplus based upon the
services we provide. There will be more
on this subject in May.
The
following is a synopsis of the schedule for the Six-State Rally in North Little
Rock. A registration form should be on
the Covered Wagons website shortly.
Wednesday,
Sept. 24 – Arrival Day. All attendees
should be registered and parked by the end of the day.
Note: As volunteers we will most likely have to be
parked and working a day to a few days before the first rally day, depending on
what jobs we are assigned.
Thursday,
Sept. 25 – Golf Scramble, Arkansas Market Expo, Motorhome Dealer Block Party,
Opening Ceremonies, and Evening Entertainment
Friday,
Sept. 26 – Motorhome Show, Vendors Displays, Seminars, Red Hat Luncheon Cruise,
Veterans Recognition, and Evening Entertainment
Saturday,
Sept. 27 – Six State Rally Board of Directors Meeting, Motorhome Show, Vendor
Displays, Seminars, Ice Cream Social, Volunteer Recognition, and Evening
Entertainment
Sunday,
Sept. 28 – Buffet Breakfast, Church Service, Motorhome Show, Vendor Displays,
Seminars, Ice Cream Social, Member Appreciation Night, and Evening Entertainment
Monday,
Sept. 29 – Depart for home or wherever your next destination may lie.
Note: Originally Six-State had this day included
as one of the rally days. They have
changed their minds – the last official day of the rally is now Sept. 28.
The
registration form will give you greater detail.
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report August 31, 2007
The summer rally in Redmond, Oregon is now behind
us. Attendance was disappointing;
about, 2,500 families at last count which is 2,000 less than they had hoped
for. I am sure that the high fuel
prices had a lot to do with it, along with Good Sam having their rally at the
same place just two weeks before and also that this is the third time in six
years that we have held the summer rally in Redmond, Oregon. Although Redmond is an excellent rally site
I am sure that some people just didn’t get enthused about going again so
soon. For those in eastern Kansas it
was a 4,000 mile round trip. I met one
person from Florida who said that he had spent $1,800 on fuel just one way!
On Sunday, August 12th we had a chance
to meet and ask questions of seven of the eight people running for national
office. George Schipper was hospitalized earlier Sunday morning with a
suspected coronary which fortunately later on turn out to be low blood sugar
and stress from the campaign, so he was not able to be there.
Monday, August 13th was the day of our
big meeting. We were asked to sign in
at 7 AM and didn’t leave the room for good until 6:20 PM that evening. The main
highlight of the meeting was the election of the new National Officers for a
two-year term. Although not all of my
choices were victorious, we did elect four very good people to lead us thru
2009. Those elected are:
National President – Connie Pool
Senior Vice President – Nelson Stubbs
Secretary – Joanne Durbin
Treasurer - Douglas Key
A good portion of our meeting was working on the
budget for 2008. I have already
mentioned that the attendance was down for Redmond, but it was also down almost
50% for Perry last winter. A fair
portion of the FMCA’s money comes from these rallies, but the larger portion
comes from the advertisers in the Family Motor Coaching magazine. Most people have noticed that the magazine
is getting thinner every month. With
the current state of the economy and motor home sales down over 10%, the
advertisers have been very tight with their money.
The hope is that this is just a temporary
situation, but we made a lot of difficult decisions in where to make cuts in
the budget. The only cut that the membership will notice is the January issue
of the magazine. In the past this issue
has contained the FMCA’s directory of services and membership listings. By cancelling this special issue we were
able to save over $210,000. The
directory will only be available as a “PDF” file on the website for downloading
with your PC.
We also completely changed the 2009 rally
schedule. The winter rally in
Albuquerque, NM has been cancelled in favor of Perry, Ga. The summer rally originally planned for
Louisville, KY was cancelled in favor of going to the Bowling Green University
in Ohio. Bowling Green in just south of
Toledo, OH.
Finally, for those of you who have attended
national rallies in the past, you have received a commemorative pin to mark the
occasion. This spring the executive
board voted to do away with the pins and tried to cancel the order, but 1,000
pins had already been made so they were sold at the rally for $2.00 each. As you can surmise, the pins sold out two
days before the rally even started.
There were so many complaints that additional pins were ordered and will
be sent to all those who listed their names for them. This situation turned into a two hour debate at the governing
board meeting as to whether the pins should be abolished, sold, or given out
with registration at no charge.
Effective with the winter rally in Pomona, the pins will once again be
available to all rally attendees at no charge.
The only difference will be is that you will need to ask for the pin at
the FMCA; they will not be included in the packets as some people do not like
the pins and just throw them in the trash.
Finally, the new National President, Connie Pool,
will be attending the Six State Rally in Sedalia so anyone who cares to, can
meet her in person.
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report July 11,
2007
SIX
STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2007 Six State Rally will be held in September
at the Missouri State Fair Grounds in Sedalia, Missouri. One of the features this year will be a
Costume Day. This contest will be on an
individual basis. The themes are: anything
related to “Rail Heads”, “Trail Heads”, or “Wagon Trains”. The winners will all receive cash prizes.
A related event will be a pet costume parade. All pets entered in the parade will receive
a prize.
The Six-State Rally Association collects quilts and
blankets donated by the various chapters and gives them to emergency relief
organizations located in the area where the rally is being held. Most donations should be baby/child size,
but some adult sizes are also welcome.
For those of you interested in making a quilt, Jean Brown has offered to
lead the group in assembling a quilt or quilts at the next two Covered Wagon
Rallies. Please bring 1 1/2 yards of
fleece to the next rally to make quilts.
Thanks! Please contact Jean
directly for details.
Loretta is planning a caravan into the fairgrounds
at Sedalia on Sunday the 23rd.
If we arrive together, we can park together. The rally will run from the 25th thru the 28th.
In 2008, the Six State Rally will be in the Little
Rock, Arkansas area. The Covered Wagons Chapter has been selected to
participate in this rally and we will receive compensation based on the number
of hours we volunteer. It is too early
to know just what they will want us to help with, but you can rest assured that
it will be neither physically or mentally challenging; just good old FMCA
family fun.
The 2009 Six State Rally is now officially
scheduled for Shawnee, Oklahoma. There
will be more info in the following months.
SUMMER
NATIONAL RALLIES
In a little over three weeks five families from the
Covered Wagons will head west to the 2007 Summer National Rally in Redmond,
Oregon. Loretta is in the process of
canceling the extra reservations we have along the way, so if you want to join
us you will need to make up your mind this week.
Everyone should have read the biographies for the
National candidates in their June 2007 issue of the FMCA magazine. If you have any preferences for who I should
cast my vote for, please contact me.
Also, there will be an open discussion at Redmond
to help guide the FMCA for the next ten years.
If you have any thoughts on what the FMCA can do to improve itself, or
add new services, please let me have your thoughts by the July rally.
FUTURE
SUMMER RALLIES
The 2008 rally will be in St. Paul, Minnesota. 2009 will take us to the Louisville,
Kentucky area and 2010 will see us back in Redmond, Oregon.
The 2008 winter rally is scheduled for Pomona,
California and the 2009 winter rally is tentatively scheduled for Albuquerque,
New Mexico.
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
National
Director
COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report: Update June 10,2007
This is just a quick note to let everyone know that
Fred Kennedy was elected the South Central Area Vice President and he will be
taking office at the Six State Rally in Sedalia, Missouri in September.
David R. Marlowe
Covered Wagons Chapter
National Director
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
National Director’s Report June 03, 2007
Last month I would have sworn that this was 2008,
but our president made me see the light, so here are the corrected dates.
SIX
STATE ASSOCIATION
The 2007 Six State Rally will be held in September
at the Missouri State Fair Grounds in Sedalia, Missouri. Loretta is planning a caravan to arrive in
Sedalia on Sunday the 23rd.
The rally will run from the 25th thru the 28th.
In 2008, the Six State Rally will be in the Little
Rock, Arkansas area. The Covered Wagons Chapter has been selected to volunteer
in this rally and we will receive compensation based on the number of hours we
work. It is too early to know just what
they will want us to help with, but you can rest assured that it will be
neither physically or mentally challenging; just good old FMCA family fun.
The 2009 Six State Rally is tentatively scheduled
for Shawnee, Oklahoma. There will be
more info in the following months.
SUMMER
NATIONAL RALLIES
Everyone should have received your June 2007 issue
of the FMCA magazine by now. In it you
will see the biographies for the FMCA National Officer candidates that will be
voted upon, by the National Directors, in Redmond. After reading the biographies, please either e-mail me if you
have a preference for any candidate.
Also, there will be an open discussion at Redmond
to help guide the FMCA for the next ten years.
If you have any thoughts on what the FMCA can do to improve itself, or
add new services, please let me have your thoughts by the end of July.
Loretta is planning a very interesting caravan/sight
seeing trip thru Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon to reach the rally site in Redmond,
Oregon. You can find complete details
regarding the caravan at the covered Wagons Website” coveredwagonsfmca.org”.
FUTURE SUMMER RALLIES
The 2008 rally will be in St. Paul, Minnesota and
Loretta has already started laying out that caravan/sight seeing trip.
2009 will take us to the Louisville, Kentucky area
and 2010 will see us back in Redmond, Oregon.
The 2008 winter rally is schedule for Pomona, California
and the 2009 winter rally is tentatively scheduled for Albuquerque, New Mexico.
David
R. Marlowe
Covered
Wagons Chapter
National
Director