Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Northeast Area Rally - 2017

August brought 12 Fingerlakers' coaches to the New York State Fairgrounds for the Northeast Area 
Rally. Along with 6 coaches from the Niagara Frontier Travelers, we staffed the FMCA Store Thursday through Saturday and helped area and national officers with the membership booth.
Unlike the National Rallies, we were also responsible for managing the computerized I-PAD based cash management system. Considering the short learning curve (less than 24 hours), folks did a excellent job learning on the fly. During the 3 days, we sold $3127 worth of merchandise. THANK YOU all!
On Wednesday night, a severe thunderstorm rolled through threatening the tent and canceling the entertainment.
Thursday night, we managed to get all 34 of us together and celebrate a little before the entertainment - which was cancelled again because of severe weather warnings.
The annual meeting was normal with the exception of one twist - Tom Ziobrowski (outgoing president) was elected a vice president. (Yes, it's perfectly legal).
There were some glitches supporting arrivals, but they managed to be resolved by area officers. Also, we found some problems with the store software and documentation. It was documented and sent to FMCA.
Pictures may be viewed full screen by "clicking" on one.

Octoberfest Highlights

This July, once again, we returned to Oswego for Harborfest.
This is a multi-chapter rally including many of us from the Fingerlakers. The Fingerlaker tent is the center of activity, as it has been in the past visits to Oswego.

Organized by Jim and Sherry Miller, we ended up with about 90 coaches. The amount of work they do to accommodate this group is hard to emulate.
The pictures can be seen full screen by "clicking" on one.


 

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Indianapolis FMCA Highlights

Some rain

We had 7 Fingerlakers willing to travel the 500+ miles to the Indiana State Fairgrounds for the FMCA 96th International. We managed to get together for dinner a couple times at Golden Coral and Chili's. Most of us parked inside the sulky race track - which meant our campers got muddy trying to cross it to get to the infield.
Governing Board meeting
Weather was in the 80's most of the week. So, generators got a workout if you didn't have electric (we didn't).
There were about 1350 coaches and several hundred vendor coaches.
Barbara Smith was officially sworn in as President of the Northeast Area.
Below is John Pangburn's (ND) summary of the Governing Board Meeting.


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The 2017 Governing Board meeting was started promptly at 9am. There was a bit of a new twist this time as we had a workshop on the day before.  It was a very good idea.  Although criticized  by some Charlie Adcock took a straw vote to see if the proposition 3 would likely pass.  Proposition 3 was the by-law change to allow towables in FMCA.  It did certainly appear there were enough votes to pass. The remainder of the workshop was spent developing a definiton of what recreational vehicles are that we will admit.  The working definition is “defined as a self-contained, wheeled vehicle that includes permanently installed cooking, sleeping, and sanitary facilities”.  The definition is subject to review at future gb meetings. The proposition did receive the necessary 2/3 margin receiving 277 yes votes out of 308 total.  Of interest to us attending was what President Adcock referred to as the roast of the executive board. The fisrt 2 propositions for by-law amendment put forth as approved by the executive board; during discussion were obviously not favored by the executive board..The question was then raised of why the 2 proposals were even on the agenda which amounted to a waste of time for the governing board. The discussion was ended there. The decision to add towables is not over yet.  Now the question goes before the membership.  If you all approve the measure in November, we will begin adding towables in December.  This action was the high point of the meeting in my opinion.  The remainder of the meeting was taken up with the usual housekeeping of updating policies and procedures.  The meeting ended with the report of the nominating committee. Our new national officers will be

                                             President Jon Walker
                                             Vice President Erretta Porter 111, Rett
                                             Secretary Gaye Young
                                             Treasurer John Reynolds

There was a nomination from the floor for vp but the candidate select was as above.  I will bring the GB agenda to our meeting in September should anyone be interested to review the details of the meeting including my thought as it progressed.  I was really amazed the progress that has been made since the last time the idea of towables was brought up.  Most of those attending expected a long and very heated meeting, although there was an oppsition present the measure very easily and swiftly passed. Hopefully if approved by the total membership FMCA will begin a new concept for the future.

Although brief I believe this sums up the main points of of the meeting. I am hopeful President
Walker will continue the practice of  workshop prior to the meeting.  I believe this was the reason the proposal was acted upon so quickly.  In any case Our new president has a tough act to follow.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

45th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FINGERLAKERS

The agenda for the 45th anniversary of the chapter is on tabs above.
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU.