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COVERED WAGONS
Chapter of the FMCA
P.O.
Box 157
De
Soto, Kansas 66018-0157
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
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