smithy

We have programs in place with many manufacturers and dealers. We offer comp memberships to their buyers, and we convert those comps into paying members at a pretty enocouraging clip. Much better than other associations.

Didn’t mean to inisnuate we have other fully thought out plans. It was a generic statement. Again pointing to the financials, the current level of benefits and services would have to be modified. Revenue is not keeping up with those costs.

We have many member benefits that are all coming to fruition at the same time. Many of them will be very attractive to younger potential members. Stay tuned. Throwing in the towel isn’t even a thought that has crossed my mind or the executive board’s mind.

Since FMCA is a non profit, we qualify for government accounts with Verizon.

It is a fact sir. Verizon agreed to let us sell our government contracts to our members. Problem is you can’t resell government contracts, and Verizon somehow did not realize that until after they agreed and it was pushed live. No scapegoat. That is what happened. Beginning and end. i didn’t say you provided that explanation. You did offer up many explanations in this and other threads that were inaccurate. FMCA did not violate any terms of the agreement. Verizon made an unfortunate mistake.

Absolutely!

Soft launch was done to make sure we were ready for the full launch. We learned from our mistakes, and it will be a much smoother rollout. Stay tuned.

Be on the lookout for big news coming soon regarding this topic. BillAdams- None of the speculation and conspiracy theories you posted in this thread are fact. You can't resell a government contract, and no one at Verizon caught this until it was already being offered. End of story. That is the explanation. Not that FMCA violated the agreement, were allowing people to take sign up that Verizon didn't approve of, etc. etc. etc.

I will not be doing a running tally. Have no issue sharing total number of ballots sent in. As of today 4,049 have been received.

Hello all- Just received a call from Mandel and Associates. A member contacted them trying to push for the vote tally so far. Please do not call them directly.

I have been here four years total, 1 in this position, and there has not been a positive financial year. Didn't go back and look at the post you referenced, but it is incorrect. I am paid to do a job along with the other staff members. My point was I nor any other staff has a final say in anything. Non-paid elected members, IE the executive board and governing board, decide the direction and have final decision on issues that we are discussing. They have no financial gain in making those decisions. My job is to execute their directives. No one from the chapter called you back? If you want to send me an email at csmith@fmca.com, I would be glad to reach out on your behalf. The chapters have meetings and discuss issues like this, so it's a shame if the chapter members are letting the chapter president decide their vote at the governing board level. We can agree to disagree on the board pushing for towables. They see an unsustainable financial situation, and have provided a possible solution. Membership has the final say. If they don't care to vote, that is a shame. This is not the only solution. Just one that was presented. I think Area VP's and the executive board would disagree with the statement about them making decisions contrary to what membership wants. These individuals visit chapters and hold area rallies all the time. They take their jobs seriously, and they are all members, so I see no reason they would not have the members best interest in mind. Their decisions effect them as well as you. We pay an audit firm a lot of money, and they do this all day every day, so I doubt there would be a miscount. I don't want anyone to take my responses as argumentative. I want to be informative and answer questions. Felt a need to step in to clarify remarks I was seeing in this thread.

FMCA is a member-owned non-profit. Our main goal is not to make as much money as possible. It is to provide members with as much value for their membership while breaking even. That has not happened for years. Our financials are public knowledge. All of the decision makers are non paid elected volunteers. No pockets to line or protect. We will absolutely do what our stockholders(members) tell us to do. That is why we are putting this to vote for membership to decide. That is why we have an executive board and governing board. Chapter officers vote the way the chapter members tell them to. When the vote is done at the governing board, there is not a recording of how each chapter voted. No one is lying about our financial situation. Again you can look over financials if you like. The ballot is not counted by FMCA. Check the return address on your ballot. It is sent back directly to Mandel and Associates. They are an independent audit firm who only shares results with us. We don't physically handle or see the ballots. The topic of electronic voting has been brought up many times. Would have loved to do that, but our governing documents forbid it and only allow for paper ballot. We have to follow the governing documents.

Towables have been allowed to attend rallies for the four years I have been with FMCA. To add to this, area rallies are not run by FMCA management. Each Area VP plans and executes their rallies.

What Brett deletes and closes isn't a matter of opinion. There are forum rules that he enforces, which everyone agreed to when they signed up.

The only change to the active member count occurred this year in January. We eliminated grace members, which dropped around 1,000 members from the active count. When RVillage was introduced to me, their active count was around 31,000. It took quite a while to put ink to paper, so by the time the agreement was eventually signed, the active count could have been 44,900. Don't recall what it was when the deal was signed. Let me find the historical member figures, and I can tell you loss/gain by year since 2004. Pretty staggering. Which also makes it much more amazing that we have had two positive years in a row. Still a lot of ground to make up to get back to 130,000 at the peak of membership.

It can absolutely be tracked by those who fill RVillage in that box. My guess is not everyone fills that in, so it would paint an incorrect figure. Keep in mind that was a one time expense, so we will never pay for advertising on RVillage again. At 60 per new member, we would need to obtain roughly 4,200 members to break even. That is not counting convention and RV Basics registrations that we receive as well. Very confident we will get our money back and more over the life of the agreement.

The agreement was done before I became Executive Director, so I was not privy to all the details. I can say the intent was never to invest in RVillage. It was booked as a marketing expense, and the auditors insisted it be classified as an investment.

Hi Don. I try to stay neutral, but I think you are posting some dangerous misinformation in this thread. One that comes to mind is from a few pages back. You said that we had two positive years when we didn't have a medical assistance program. That is simply not true. In fact, until fiscal year 2016, we had membership losses every year since 2004. So FMCAssist has helped. I am also taken aback by the statement above. There were months of study and preparation done to make sure we had a good handle on towables. If it passes, our magazine, events and membership departments will be more than ready to welcome them in. I can't speak much on RVillage. I was not part of the conversations and negotiations on that deal. I can tell you since the deal was made, the user count on RVillage has gone up 150%. We do gain new members and convention attendees by having our ads prominently placed on every page. In the last year nearly 5,000,000 ad views have occurred. As they grow we grow. It is a good relationship for FMCA to have. Also wanted to speak on the member that said they joined with a fifth wheel a few pages back. I am also confused about how someone could join and not realize it is a motor home association. But it does happen. We do have people periodically email membership and ask to cancel because they own a fifth wheel. That post was not a hoax and not planted by an employee or executive board member. As I read through this thread, I keep seeing that the fix is in. I don't quite understand that sentiment. Reasons were given as to why the change was proposed. That has to happen. It was also said that if the proposal was voted down, FMCA would survive. Maybe not with the offerings we have today, but it would survive. FMCA has done everything in its power to tell membership to vote. We have roughly 3,500 ballots returned so far, with two months to go.

Jeff- We are doing our best to spread the word. It's in bold red lettering on the magazine cover. It's a highlighted announcement on the home page of the website. We have included it in the newsletter. On social media. Not sure what else we can do to let membership know.

We have had meetings to discuss what needs to change IF the vote goes through. We can't wait until December 1st to decide changes that need to be made. With that said, we have spent nothing on ads, programs or solicitations. Contrary to popular belief, nothing is being presumed. I hope everyone understands that we must have discussions and plans in place whichever way the vote goes!

I can say with 100% certainty that the magazine you receive in December will look exactly like the one you have now. The vote is open until November 30th. The December magazine has to be to the printer in early November. As of last Friday we have had 1,568 ballots returned.

Alflorida and Manholt- if you are having issues opting out of emails, please contact the membership department at 1-800-543-3622. Manholt- If you ever receive 12+ emails a day, please forward them to me. Csmith@fmca.com. That is a problem if true, and I honestly can't think of why that many would be sent in one day.

I run the reports every weekday morning. Our year starts October 1st. From 10/1/16 through 8/30/17, we were up 3,412 members.

Seven Corners has found a couple companies that will transport coaches older than 10 years. That was one of the big complaints that members had regarding FMCAssist, and Seven Corners stepped up and found a solution.

We will be doing an announcement on social media, and are considering sending an e-blast out as well.