By Charlie Adcock, F311374
FMCA National President
January 2017
Hello, My Fellow FMCA Family. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. All of the associated festivities are now in our rearview mirror, and it is time to start talking about New Year’s resolutions.
You may remember that two years ago, I talked about my New Year’s resolution and an idea I wanted to pursue within FMCA — an education program designed especially for people just entering or relatively new to the RV lifestyle, or for those looking to refresh their knowledge. So, in the past 2 1/2 years, we have met, talked, planned, and discussed many ideas about how to implement a “school” for RVers.
Well, we finally hosted a hands-on driving class in Perry, Georgia, in March 2016. The driving class was very well received and very successful. The only problem was we could only handle 42 students with this format. That’s not very many participating, so I still wanted to do something to accommodate more RVers.
My dream is coming true this March just prior to FMCA’s 95th International Convention in Chandler, Arizona. We are going to conduct a two-day session that we are calling RV Basics. We have our very best professional instructors lined up to lead the classes on March 5 through 6, 2017.
We have veteran firefighter and RV fire safety expert Mac McCoy (also known as “Mac the Fire Guy”); “RV Doctor” Gary Bunzer, one of the latest inductees into the RV/MH Hall of Fame; and Walter Cannon, executive director of the RV Safety & Education Foundation. In my opinion, we have three of the best in the business.
I am so excited to finally get this off the ground. RV Basics will be limited to the first 200 to register. I sure wish I had taken part in something like this when I started RVing. You all have heard about some of my experiences. Some lessons were learned the hard way, and others were fairly easy. I received a lot of information regarding my motorhomes by talking with other RVers and learning from their experiences. As business mogul Warren Buffet said, “It’s good to learn from your mistakes. It’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes.” Well, I’ve done both! After 16 years of driving a motorhome, I do have some knowledge that I could have gained a lot sooner from going to classes such as those we’ll be offering during RV Basics in Arizona in March. For more information, visit FMCA.com/academy or call the Events Department at (800) 543-3622 or (513) 474-3622.
Well, my time as FMCA president is running short. This will be my last January column to write. I can’t think of enough words to thank each of you for allowing me to serve you as your president. This has been the most wonderful experience of my life. Our motorhome is two years old, and we have put 46,000 miles on it. I have met so many wonderful people in the past 3 1/2 years. I have been all over the United States. I have seen mountains, prairies, forests, lakes, rivers, national historic places, and national monuments. I’ve had a great time meeting others who are enjoying the RV lifestyle. I also have talked with many people who don’t yet own an RV and explained to them what a wonderful time I’ve had traveling.
We are so blessed to be able to roam from coast to coast across the United States and Canada, enjoying the scenery and meeting new friends and seeing old ones.
Now to talk a little bit about what happened during 2016. FMCA has been growing and getting better, and, of course, we keep having more and more fun. We have witnessed the positive results of some of the programs we have put into place. We created a special member care group within the Member Services Department at the national office and added staff to allow us to reach out to every one of our new members by phone and talk with them. We also are sending a series of emails to new members to explain all of the benefits available to them.
One of the big undertakings this past year was to send an FMCA member packet out to every member in FMCA, new members and renewing members alike. This kit includes a newly designed membership card and a condensed version of the member benefit handbook. We asked each of you to call us when you received the packet so that we could update all of your membership data.
The IT staff have been working at warp speed to update the FMCA website and make it more user-friendly. More changes will be forthcoming as this work progresses. Many hours have been spent writing computer programs for things such as allowing members to opt for a payment plan when registering for international conventions. The IT staff also has created a state-of-the-art Internet telephone system for the FMCA national office that will save the association a significant amount of money, and they continue to tweak the call center software to make it more efficient.
Registrations for FMCA’s 95th International Convention — “Rally in the Valley” — are running ahead of our expectations. This is thanks in part to FMCA’s marketing partner, Membership Corporation of America, and our Events Department staff working hand in hand. Plans are taking shape for a really fun and educational event at the Rawhide Western Town and Event Center in Chandler, Arizona. There should be something for everyone at this convention, set to take place March 7 through 10, 2017. If you haven’t already registered, please do so, as the early-bird registration deadline is January 6, 2017. I am hoping to see and meet everyone at the Rally in the Valley!
Various registration options are available. We’d love to have you come stay with us on-site, of course, to maximize your fun. But, if you’ll already be wintering in the area and don’t want to move your motorhome, please check out the Passport options. A registration form appears elsewhere in this magazine. Register online at FMCA.com or call the Events staff at the FMCA national office (800-543-3622, 513-474-3622).
Gloria and I will start our new year by traveling to Indio, California, to attend the Western Area Rally, January 11-15. From there we’ll head to Quartzsite, Arizona, for the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show, where we plan to meet and greet as many FMCA members as we can. The dates of this show are January 21 through 29. After that, we will be traveling to Lakeland, Florida, for the Southeast Area Rally, February 2-5, and then we’ll head back west to Chandler, Arizona, for the 95th International Convention in March. We’d love to see you at all of those places. If you will be at any or all of these events, please be sure to grab me and say hello.
As always, remember, “It is all about having fun!”
Hello, My Fellow FMCA Family. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. All of the associated festivities are now in our rearview mirror, and it is time to start talking about New Year’s resolutions.
You may remember that two years ago, I talked about my New Year’s resolution and an idea I wanted to pursue within FMCA