Today is Father’s Day, as I write my last Family RVing magazine article as FMCA national president. I will be out of office when you read this, since these articles have to be written more than a month prior to the issue’s publication date.
This enduring yucca plant was a gift to Jon Walker from his father years ago.
Many years ago, when Sondra and I purchased our lake property in Michigan (where we now live in retirement), my father brought a strange-looking plant up here on one of his many visits to our lake house when he was alive. Dad told me that he was going to plant a yucca next to our mailbox by the road leading to our house. He said that since I did not have a “green thumb,” he was planting something that would require little or no care from me — and that if I was lucky, this plant would bloom around Father’s Day each year in this part of the country.
How correct he was. I have had to do nothing to nourish the yucca plant except to cut it back before winter each year — a job that Sondra does — and to watch it grow, bloom, and multiply as the years go by. This it has done.
As I sit here writing this article, I am looking at the full, blooming yucca that my dad gave me many, many years ago. Not only am I thinking about the many memories my dad and I shared as he went to five FMCA summer conventions with me years ago, but I am also thinking about the many friends we have met on our FMCA journey. I cannot count the number of great people we have encountered and become friends with along the way. It has been so rewarding, this RVing lifestyle journey!
Not only have we enjoyed meeting and becoming friends with many, many people, but I also have had the honor of leading this organization as your national president. When I took office four years ago on July 15, 2017, I had three goals that I shared with the Governing Board and our Cincinnati staff: 1. To do everything possible to keep our membership numbers climbing upward; 2. To completely stop the use of our reserve funds to subsidize our operational business budget; and 3. To make sure our operations broke even. I believed that if we could achieve this, our nonprofit organization would recover from many years of degression.
It has been a hard task, but I am so proud to be able to state that we have achieved the goals I set out so long ago. The achievement of these goals would not have been possible if it were not for the skill and dedication of your national office staff and the expertise of your FMCA national committees. All of this is only possible because of their hard work on behalf of FMCA.
My charge to the new president and the Executive Board is to CONTINUE to do what is necessary to keep our membership growing and to keep our finances solidly in the black. It is a hardship in some ways in the short term, but it will reap many rewards in the long run.
My term has had many challenges related to dealing with the terrible effects of COVID-19. We had to cancel two international events — something that never has happened before in our history. When that occurred, we also saw the financial fallout of having lost so much money overnight. That was because we were (and had been for years) “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul” and using convention revenue for overall expenses. We have learned from those experiences, and as we look forward, we will not make those types of mistakes again.
The last item that I want to state before my time is gone is this: FMCA cannot operate or survive without the thousands of volunteers we have. At the chapter level, the area level, and the national level, we rely on volunteers for everything we do. I am so thankful that in my years of experience, I have never really been turned down when I have asked an FMCA member for help. Thank you, FMCA members, for making this the greatest RV organization in the world.
So, as I look at my blooming, hardy, and strong yucca plant, I will always think about FMCA and what it has meant to Sondra and me. I wish everyone safe travels, and Godspeed.