The events unfolding in 2020 have caused adjustments for seemingly everyone, including those within the ranks of FMCA.
National President
Jon Walker, F269778
jwalker@fmca.com
August 2020
This summer certainly hasn’t turned out the way most of us planned. As I write this, Sondra and I are at our Michigan home rather than out traveling in our RV. We had expected to attend area rallies this summer and, of course, we would have been gearing up for FMCA’s international convention in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Those area rallies and the August convention had to be canceled because of concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to impact our world. That said, I’m thankful my family remains safe and healthy even as the number of cases in our area, and in other places around the United States, is increasing at the time of this writing.
Because the summer convention had to be canceled, FMCA also will not have a Governing Board meeting this year. FMCA’s Bylaws allow the Executive Board to act on behalf of the Governing Board between meetings and also include provisions for the Executive Board to have electronic meetings. No such provision for electronic meetings exists for the Governing Board, so that meeting will be delayed. The Executive Board met in May using Zoom, an online meeting platform that has become even more popular with companies and also friends and families who have been using it to stay connected during the pandemic.
FMCA has been using this platform for workshops and meetings in between our meetings that take place in Cincinnati and at conventions, so we had some practice operating this way. Still, it was unusual not to be making the spring trip to Cincinnati, where we would all be together to discuss FMCA business and to socialize. The Zoom meeting served its purpose, though. The Executive Board reviewed the fiscal year 2021 budget presented to them by the Finance Committee, made revisions, and then approved it, and took care of other FMCA business, all from their homes or RVs in locations across the United States and in Canada.
Because of an increasing number of reported COVID-19 cases in the area where the FMCA national office is located, at this writing the FMCA staff continues to work from home. This has worked remarkably well, and FMCA has barely skipped a beat during this global health crisis.
The staff also has been using Zoom to connect, as well as Microsoft Teams, a similar platform. It’s definitely a new world!
Lisa and Brad Cox responded to my member recruitment challenge and introduced a new family to FMCA.
Membership challenge accepted! In my April 2020 “FMCA Update” column, I issued a challenge to members and asked all of you to pledge to recruit at least one new FMCA member this year. One FMCA couple took that to heart and has done their part. Brad and Lisa Cox, F474722, are full-time RVers who host a Facebook group called My RV Group. They have more than 2,000 followers at the time of this writing, and that number continues to grow! They also maintain a website and post their adventures on their YouTube channel. The Coxes don’t do this for financial gain. It’s simply a hobby for them and a way to keep an ongoing bucket list of places they and their followers want to visit.
It turns out the Coxes already have been encouraging people to check out FMCA’s many benefits and to join. They noted that they believe Family RVing magazine “is worth the price of admission.”
So, to answer my recruitment call, they decided to reward the 1,800th person who followed their Facebook group with a one-year FMCA membership to help further our organization and its mission. It turns out that person already was an FMCA member. So, they came up with a new plan to give away that membership and ultimately awarded it to Greg and Anita Gibbs from Alabama. The Coxes sent in the membership application and payment to FMCA so staff could get Greg and Anita signed up. They now hold FMCA membership number F508960.
I contacted Brad and Lisa personally to thank them for answering my recruitment call and for their promotion of FMCA in the process. But I also wanted to thank them via the pages of the magazine. They did not do this for personal gain. They simply wanted to extend the gift of FMCA membership to others. Thanks so much, Brad and Lisa. Safe travels as you continue your RV adventures!
Satellite distant network signals update. In November 2019, FMCA joined a coalition of RV industry representatives in signing a joint letter in an effort to convince congressional leaders to keep provisions that allow RVers, truckers, and residents in certain rural areas to have access to distant network signals via their satellite service. FMCA members were encouraged to write to their congressional representatives and ask that the Section 119 license not be removed.
That effort was only partly successful. The Section 119 license was made permanent for RVs. However, provisions were such that it is available only to companies that serve all 210 U.S. television markets. Dish serves all 210 markets under a deal they made with Congress in 2009. DirecTV does not; they serve 198. DirecTV officials noted that launching those last 12 markets would be cost-prohibitive. So, they examined options to try to continue to provide network programming to their RV customers.
Meanwhile, DirecTV sent out notices to customers that the distant network signal access would cease at the end of May 2020, and some members wrote to FMCA to express their concern about this. Of course, the timing of this loss of service was unfortunate. RVers and others have been relying heavily on network stations for news and entertainment.
So, that same group of RV industry companies signed another joint letter asking Congress to extend the provisions of the license at least until the end of the year. Nothing has resulted from that yet, but DirecTV continued to work toward a solution.
Thanks to the efforts of many people and organizations, including FMCA and its members, and some pressure from lawmakers on Capitol Hill, three of the four major networks (CBS, NBC, and Fox) have reached private deals with DirecTV to allow the company to continue to provide network signals to RVs and long-haul truckers, as well as to residents in rural areas who don’t have other options. The one holdout at this point is Disney, the parent company of ABC, and ABC is now dark for RVs that have DirecTV service. Disney officials previously had indicated that if the Section 119 license were to sunset, they would provide a voluntary license for all of 2020 to satellite providers.
On behalf of FMCA, I recently signed a joint letter with the Escapees RV Club that was sent to Disney CEO Bob Chapek, encouraging ABC to join the other networks in extending service to RV owners.
FMCA members are encouraged to contact their own representatives to ask that they take action to make permanent changes in the Section 119 license to prevent RVers from losing service. Members can find contact information for their congressional representative via www.house.gov and their senators through www.senate.gov.
As you can see, FMCA is continuing its efforts to serve RVers as best as we can.
Whether you are venturing out in your RV again or sticking close to home, I wish you good health and happiness.