Highlights from Perry - from Walt Linden

New name for Family Motor Coaching: Family RV
Changes are coming to the magazine.
2904 total attending the 97th rally
2518 member owned, 386 commercial
1100 towables have joined the FMCA. 
FMCA will operate in the black this year.
Russ and Dorothy Taylor bought a new coach. Another Newmar.

Thoughts

Do any of our members have interest in traveling to campgrounds focusing on families - like we did 30 years ago?
My children camp, aren't afraid of campground prices because food costs are main detriments. Food would be more along the lines of pot-luck. They also want activities.
Any interest by you or your offspring, please let me know.
I have sent an email to Batavia Downs regarding a possible rally in May. Children under 18 can't get into the casino. So, my thought above doesn't apply.
Tom

South East Area Rally Highlights

The week after we got together for lunch, Lindens, Harold Wollaber and Roules went to the "Sun in Fun Southeast Area Rally" in Lakeland, FL. Harold drove the trolly while Roule's worked security. We must be innocent - because we thought

it was lots of fun.

There were about 540 member coaches attending. Clearly, it was a reduction from previous SEAR's. Many indicated was smaller than usual because they didn't want to commit to two rallies (the other Perry) close together. However, the entertainment was great and there are things to do in the area. There was a Ford Tri-motor available for rides as well as other activities, tours of the air field and classic planes.
My understanding is - the area has committed to 5 years.

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO VIEW FULL SCREEN

Florida get together - 2018

On February 3rd, thanks to Dan and Carol Begy, we returned to the Golden Coral in Winter Haven, FL for our annual winter get together. There were about 40 of us attending.
One observation of changes that have occurred, the majority now have places in Florida. So, it's great to see them. Just a few of us are hobo's moving place to place.
We pick the Golden Coral because the provide a room and as always, the variety food allows us to satisfy a variety of appetites.

Unless, someone volunteers to do it somewhere else, Dan is willing to set up another event for 2019.

THANK YOU, DAN AND CAROL

January 1st, 2018

Happy New Year.
We hope you had a great holiday season.
We received a very nice certificate from Tom Ziobrowski and Lou Snow for all your efforts to help make the 2017 Northeast Area Rally a success. Below is a copy.

Once again, Thank you.

Forest River Forum

Forest River (RV manufacturer owned by Birkshire Hathaway - Warren Buffet) has a forum similar to ours. This hit the forum within a couple hours of the announcement.

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The FMCA Has Voted To Open Membership To All RV's

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The Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) membership has voted to open the organization to all types of RV's, not just motor homes. Prior to the vote the FMCA was restricted to motor homes with the exception of some legacy members who had owned a motor home previously but now have a TT. See Here for the FMCA FAQ's about the announcement.

So why does this matter? The FMCA offers some very good benefits to its members that all RVer's will soon be eligible to access. For a list of current benefits See Here. I've found the FMCA a very viable competitor to Good Sam / Camping World as far as benefits.

I'm glad to see this change to the FMCA. Quite frankly I've thought it was too biased towards Class A's and it needed the diversity this change should bring. The FMCA has also installed new leadership so this will be an interesting time!

If you have any questions please contact the FMCA Here. I'm not a member of a FMCA Chapter, 70% of the FMCA membership isn't, so I'm probably going to have to plead ignorance on most questions. 

Vote Results - Towables

JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS. ===================================

Hello Committee Members: I wanted to make everyone aware that the vote passed. It mirrored the Governing Board vote. Approximately 70% of members were in favor, and we received a little under 10,000 votes total. The first step is for FMCA's attorney, Scott Gilligan, to file changes with the state of Ohio to change our Articles of Incorporation. He expects that to go into effect sometime next week. We had originally planned to make the announcement on December 8. That is a Friday, so I think it would be in our best interest to make the grand announcement on the 11th. We will do a press release, social media posts and a detailed email to membership. Today, per the bylaws rule that membership must be informed right away, we will send a brief email to all members. The next big push will be paid advertising through Google and Facebook. This will not occur until we finish the new website, which is expected to be done on December 20. We want to put our best foot forward by directing potential members to a new, user-friendly website.  This is a big, yet exciting, change for FMCA. We are ready to welcome all RVs to the family, and at the same time keep serving our current motorhome members. If you have any questions or suggestions, I am all ears. Call or e-mail me your thoughts. Thank you,

Chris Smith Executive Director/CFO 513-388-5217

February get together

Dan and Carol Begy have made reservations for our February luncheon in Florida - date is February 3rd.

Having started with a few Pen-NY Mixers and Fingerlakers, this event has grown to include many folks from the Northeast in the past 20 years.  This will be the first time is several years that we can meet before the Southeast Area Rally - just in case we want to gather for it.

Below are the details.

Location:

Golden Corral

5722 Cypress Gardens Blvd

Winter Haven, Florida 33884

Phone: 863 324 5600

Date: 2/03/2018, Saturday

Time: 1:00PM

Tell them you are with the Dan Begy group. If you show up too early, they could hit you with the Brunch price - $2-$3 MORE.

Please let Dan know if you plan to attend by January 30th. So, he has an idea of the count. Below are his phone numbers and email.

email: danbegy@aol.com 

Cell Phone: 585-316-0720

This information is repeated in the Get Together tab above.

Clarification of Cancelation of NEAR-2018

Dear Northeast Area Chapter Presidents and National Directors,

Please share this letter with your chapter members.

I am writing to update you on the latest FMCA Northeast Area happenings since the annual meeting in Syracuse.  First, I would like to thank each and everyone who attended and volunteered for “We love N.Y. 2017”.  I particularly want to thank the board members and volunteers who put in countless hours to make the rally a success.  We had 344 camping units including FMCA members and guests. Over 100 volunteers helped with all facets of the rally. We had a couple of bad weather evenings but made the best of it. Participating RV dealers sold at least 1 motor coach and 4 other RVs.

It is with a heavy heart that we make this announcement that the Northeast Area Rally (NEAR) has been cancelled for 2018.  We understand many are disappointed and it's contradictory to the Northeast Area's mission, but we will make 2019 a great rally.  We heard that water and electric (sometimes sewer connection) is preferred. We heard that you want to wait before going back to Essex Junction, VT.  We are evaluating several possible locations, but rally venues that are large enough to handle our numbers fill up fast for the summer season and many desirable ones are already taken. If we had chosen Syracuse again, a large building construction project was scheduled to begin next to the campground.  We did have front door access issues to our major building due to construction beside and in front of the building and dates for 2018 did not work out despite our research and investigation. They also conflicted with the national convention calendar.

For 2019 several locations and rally types are possible. We could do another rally in the Syracuse location, or we could do a destination rally with more adventures but fewer seminars.  We could move the rally to June or September. However, that might preclude members with school age children from coming.  We would like to have the new rally location decided on by spring, so we can begin putting our chapter volunteer teams together. The board tells me that it takes over 1.5 years to plan a rally of this size. 

However, we will have a 2018 annual meeting. Dates and the location will follow. Northeast Area Executive Board members are discussing our options.

If you have questions please contact me.

Sincerely,

Barbara Smith
National Vice President
Northeast Area
bsmith@fmca.com
978-764-7484