rossboyer

The packets for Governing Board members have been sent and those that haven't should receive them soon. Back to the issue of the Governance Tab on the web site. While there is some sensitive information that should not be open to all members just because it is premature to be announced. I do feel that the Articles of Incorporation, Constitution, Bylaws and the Member and Volunteer Handbook (which contains the Policies and Procedures) should be available for all members. Minutes of meetings (once approved) should be available, too. The Governance of FMCA: The Governing Board is the highest authority of the organization. The FMCA Executive Board members (15) and the Chapter's National Directors are members of the Governing Board. The National Directors elected by their chapter to represent the chapter at the Governing Board meeting which is held once a year at the summer convention, this year Indianapolis on July 12th. The Chapter also elects an Alternate National Director that should attend the Governing Board meeting. If the National Director is not present or has to leave the floor of the Governing Board meeting, the Alternate has voting rights to represent the chapter. If neither the National Director or Alternate can attend the meeting, the chapter can elect a temporary Delegate to be the chapters representative. If for some unforeseeable event happens, the Chapter President can appoint a temporary delegate, but only in the window of 22 days through 7 days before the Governing Board Meeting. During this years Governing Board Meeting, the issue of towables is of concern for may members. The actual change is from 'motor homes or motor coaches' to 'recreational vehicles". As National Director, I think we should vote to recommend to the membership adoption of the changes to the Articles and the Constitution. The Bylaw changes if approved by the Governing Board will be Provisos pending the approval by the membership of the Articles and Constitution which will be in the September issue of Family Motor Coaching sent to the members. The majority of the returned ballots will determine the outcome. Back to the Governance: Between Governing Board Meetings the FMCA Executive Board acts for the Governing Board to conduct the business of Family Motor Coach Association (the not for profit part of the business) and Family Motor Coaching (the for profit part of the business). The FMCA Executive Board members are the President, Senior Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and 10 National Vice Presidents. The 10 National Vice Presidents are elected by their respective Area Associations. The four officers are elected by the Governing Board at the Governing Board meeting. Next are the 10 Areas which are geographical except for the INTO area which include all of FMCA. The National Vice President is also the President of the area's association. The chapters within that geographical area belong to that area association. The chapters that belong to the INTO area are usually special interest or manufacturer brand specific. And finally the individual members are represented via their National Director elected by their chapter. Less than 40% of the membership belongs to a chapter; therefore, what about the remaining members, how are they represented? The National Vice President for their area is their representative. And don't forget the membership has control of the organization by their vote on Articles and Constitutional matters. Hopefully, this information will aid in understanding the architecture of our organization.

That is what I said. Changes to the Articles of Corporation and the Constitution are voted upon by the whole membership. The Governing Board either votes to recommend the changes to the membership or rejects it. If the decision is to recommend, then a ballot would be sent to the membership in the September (I think) magazine. But the Governing Board can also approve or reject the Bylaw changes as a Proviso. If the membership approves the Constitution change and the Governing Board approved the Bylaw Provisos, the Bylaws will be changed without further action. While there are three documents included in the Proposal 3, I do not see any issue in doing so.

The proposed change to the Constitution is voted upon by all members. The proposed changes to the Bylaws is voted upon by the Governing Board not the Executive Board.

I cannot help you picking a model, but our Samsung RF197(no longer produced) is on it's third year on a XANTREX 2000 MSW inverter, no extra batteries. When on the road we run the inverter and when stopped we use shore power or the generator. If on the generator, we can turn off the frig and only gain about 2 to 3 degrees overnight. Best improvement we ever made.

You are correct. I still like the AF-1.

How about Statts Mills RV Park at Ripley, WV 304-373-0030. I have never been there, but my phone app states that they accept Big Rigs.

By personal experience I have had a professional driver pick up a members coach to drive it from Indiana to Florida. A pre-drive safety check was conducted including fluids checked. It took the driver 3 days to deliver the coach which is very reasonable. The firm was Horizon from the Elkhart. Brett is correct that you can have driver of your choice, but you may not have a legal recourse if an accident happens. So far I have not heard any negative comments about the FMCAssist drivers.

We cannot attend. Melanie and I are hosts for the Past National Office Chapter dinner from 4-7.

We have found good results baking convection only by lowering the temp 25 degrees. We do have a oven under the cook top that stores pans and snacks. I think we actually baked in it twice and found that the bottom gets too hot. The convention is much more uniform cooking.

When I buy new tires I specify that they have to been produced with in the past 12 weeks. So far, I have succeeded except for one tire was 13 weeks. One note the week number can be 1 to 53 because part weeks are counted within a calendar year. That is why one of my tires was different in that it was produced in one of the last 3 days of the previous year.

Yes, I will be at Indianapolis. I have volunteered for Communications/Radios Chief. I did find the discussion interesting and helpful at Chandler. There my comment about marking all read was somewhat rejected. I did find out after the meeting that several others were having the same problem, but didn't want to speak up. That issue has been fixed on the site. I have sent via the Contact tab at the bottom and via personal email to one of the moderators requesting that the Indianapolis Convention 2017 be added to the list of Conventions. That seems to me to be the best location for discussing that convention, not elsewhere in the Forums. IE: General Discussion, Motorhomes or Towables, etc. I haven't seen it added.

The real problem is us. If every member recruited 1 member, we would have 140,000 members. How many members have each of the posters recruited in the past year? Are you a Rally Booster to promote attendance at the convention? When you travel do you give a magazine to your neighbor and ask them to join? Whether it is a paper magazine or online advertising, the more members an organization has then more suppliers will advertise. Which lowers the cost to the members. Probably we will see a double to triple charge increase for FMCAssist. Are we willing to pay $65 to $70 per year dues to maintain this benefit? Every dues increase results in about a 5% decrease in renewals. Can we continue a downward spiral? Sure, right in to non-existence.

I have a conflict and will not be able to attend. Would it be possible after the seminar to post it for us to read? Also, take notes of questions and answers and post those?

The magazine is online for members to read.

FMCA does offer to Dealers free memberships for them to give to buyers of motor homes. The last I heard Lazy Days in Florida is the most effective. But most dealers are mostly interested in closing the deal, not promoting FMCA. FMCA also gives a member that recruits a member a $10.00 coupon that can be applied to dues, convention registration, area rally registration and FMCA merchandise. So, 5 new members would get you a year of free dues, not just 50% as someone suggested.

I have had a braking system similar to the Roadmaster, but now have the Air Force 1 which I have used both for more than 50,000 miles each. I had one failure on the similar system and a lock up the caused complete rotor and caliper replacement on the front wheels. I have not had any problems with the AF1. Also, the AF1 is made near Evansville, Indiana, so parts or support is easy to get if you have a problem.

I have a 2006 Fleetwood Expedition with two heat pump air conditioners. A few hours after I get to the convention and get connected, I can run them both on 30 amp. The delay is due to recharging batteries. Total load with both running is 24 amps. I do turn one off to run the micro wave, but that is usually a short period of time.

AT&T allows internet connection (data) and phone (voice) at the same time, but not on their unlimited plans. We use our iPhone as tethered hot spots which is faster than wifi connection to our pc's. I have found that I can get data service even when voice is marginal.

We can go 5 to 7 days without dumping black tank. So I leave gray open until a day or two before I want to dump black. Doing so allows me to dump black and the flush hose with gray water.

Another volunteer position is monitoring seminars. Also, there are approx 428 full hook up sites at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. More than half are 50 amp, but the others are 30. I would call FMCA to see if you can get one of those.

Doubt censorship. The system was down, and probably required a restore from a previous backup which did not include the thread.

YES, YES

Many sites at INDIANAPOLIS are full hook up sites. Maybe you should call FMCA Convention DEPT and ask if one is reservable that meets your needs. I have requested a 50 amp full hook up site. Hope to see you there.

Years ago we had AAA road service worked for our small gas motor home. Since then we have had Coach Net that has served us well on several calls in 9 years. Because of Coach Net's increase in price, I started researching other providers. At the FMCA Convention in Chandler I went to the FMCA Roadside Assist presentation. The questions I had answered satisfied me. I have now signed up. The only difference between FMCA Roadside Assist and Coach Net that I found was that FMCA Roadside Assist covers listed vehicles and Coach Net covered any vehicle I was using. That limitation is not worth double the cost.

Yes, by using https://community.fmca.com/discover/unread, I do get a list of all the postings I have not read. What we use to have was a listing of the categories that had an unread posting. I could then enter a category that is of interest to me and ignore the other categories. When I have read the ones of interest, I could at the top or bottom of the screen mark all (complete site) read. PS: I do not find Mark all read at the top right. I have to open the 3 bars, then select Mark all read. An unnecessary step.