Allowing Towables Vote At Indianapolis In July

[wolfe10]

4 hours ago, hyco2000 said:

True a 22.5 tire won't benefit a Class "B" or "C", HOWEVER, Michelin makes smaller tires for these vehicles and I am Sure they have some type of Fleet Discount Program these members could participate in, or maybe they could design some type of rebate program, or maybe they could create some type of discount code that gives FMCA Members 10% off of the retailer's Best Pricing. Point Being, There is a way to extend the tire program to the smaller tires used on Class "B"s and "C"s !!!!!

The FMCA Michelin program has always included tires for all motorhomes and many other vehicles as well. A's, B's and C's. Same for the FMCA Continental tire program.

[Jaxon]

Our vote would be to keep FMCA "Motor Coach"....  or... "you dance with them that brung ya".  Towables, as we all know, are very different than a motor coach which I'm assuming was one reason the organization was started in the first place.

 

If the issue is membership then come up with marketing strategies to address that.  Changing the basis of the organization is certainly an easy way to temporarily increase membership but in my mind, it also changes the organization - membership-wise, mission & objective and purpose-focus.  But then, we become just another RV group competing for the same market.  

[hyco2000]

6 hours ago, manholt said:

hyco2000.  Welcome to the Forum!

Now, that you have read it all, I hope you understand why we did not want to start over, under general discussion!  Motor Home is the generic description of Class A, C, B and Conversion's!  Motor Home is any unit that has a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living area, that you can get to from the driver seat in an upright manner, with out going outside! 

The group or chapter that I represent as National Director, was fine with the original proposal of a separate unit for towable under the FMCA umbrella...now, they want no part of the current proposal as we don't need another Good Sam!  Or another Escapees!  I'm a member of both.

There is no difference between Class A, C, or B, gas or diesel, we have the same inherent problems!  There is, however, a huge difference between what you and I have and a pop up trailer, Casita or a tear drop!

Carl

Thank you for the welcome Carl and others!

[dons2346]

The question that was brought up in an earlier post about how many current members will drop if towables are brought in does hold merit. I for one, know five that will drop FMCA if this happens. Reasoning being why pay $60 for what I can get from Good Sam for $20. The only thing that would be different is the assist but that can be had pretty cheap on the secondary market

[BillAdams]

I don't know.  With this new Verizon wireless plan I might have to stay even if half of the organization is worthless to me.  This might be the FMCA saving grace as a whole bunch of RVers are feed up with campground wifi and sketchy service from AT&T and Sprint.  Hopefully, FMCA will get a nice taste from each subscriber plus the yearly dues required to maintain the plan.  Good job guys.  I just cancelled Sprint and will sign up for this plan shortly.

[scotttami]

Class C's were brought up a few posts ago.  How many do you see at the big rallies? 1-2% of attendees at best.  Guess who the typical buyer of class C's are?  Families with kids.  Guess how many class C's were built in 2015 (22100) vs. class A's (21900). FMCA currently has access to the very people they say they need to join, but very little is being done to get them on board.  They are kidding themselves if they think young trailer owners are going to sign up when they can't get young motor home owners to do it.  We have a room full of older FMCA members (executive board) thinking they know what younger potential members want,  but they don't have a clue. They can't see thousands of motor home owners who we could sign up. 

[desertdeals69]

1 hour ago, scotttami said:

Class C's were brought up a few posts ago.  How many do you see at the big rallies? 1-2% of attendees at best.  Guess who the typical buyer of class C's are?  Families with kids.  Guess how many class C's were built in 2015 (22100) vs. class A's (21900). FMCA currently has access to the very people they say they need to join, but very little is being done to get them on board.  They are kidding themselves if they think young trailer owners are going to sign up when they can't get young motor home owners to do it.  We have a room full of older FMCA members (executive board) thinking they know what younger potential members want,  but they don't have a clue. They can't see thousands of motor home owners who we could sign up. 

I agree.

[hermanmullins]

Scott,

I have parked many Class "C" coaches at National Rallies. Many of older folks will down size to Class"C"s. They still want to go and it is smaller it is easier to drive and get into and out of. 

Never try to get us to stop, slow down a bit but not stop.😉

Herman 

[jleamont]

1 hour ago, scotttami said:

Class C's were brought up a few posts ago.  How many do you see at the big rallies? 1-2% of attendees at best.  Guess who the typical buyer of class C's are?  Families with kids.  Guess how many class C's were built in 2015 (22100) vs. class A's (21900). FMCA currently has access to the very people they say they need to join, but very little is being done to get them on board.  They are kidding themselves if they think young trailer owners are going to sign up when they can't get young motor home owners to do it.  We have a room full of older FMCA members (executive board) thinking they know what younger potential members want,  but they don't have a clue. They can't see thousands of motor home owners who we could sign up. 

Agreed! 

Bill A, you may be onto something, I saw that also. 

[BillAdams]

While I am not a fan of siding with FMCA, a Class A, Class B or Class C RV has always been considered a self-contained motor homes in the FMCA family.  I have never seen any discrimination  between these various models (not classes as the title might imply) on the FMCA platform.  However, there is such a huge gap between the motorized RV and the trailered RV that it is hard to imagine how you integrate the 2 without becoming "just another Good Sam" group.  There are separate groups that are Class A only but that's a bunch of snobs that very few people (who don't own a class A) want to be dissociated with,

[scotttami]

I didn't say they weren't there Herman,  but if you look at percentages, class A's outnumber them by a substantial number.  Meanwhile more class C's were produced than A's. Why is FMCA going after trailers so hard when they haven't tapped the motorized market yet? 

[manholt]

Scott.  That's been my main question, since this whole thing got started.  Who stands to gain?  What do they gain?  If it's not RV's, then what?

Carl

[isaaac1]

I know I am a relatively new FMCA member, and have a bit of an outside perspective, but perhaps the view is not to actually recruit younger membership, but to recruit more people that fit the same demographic as the current membership other than owning a motorhome.  There are plenty of retired couples out there that opted for the $140,000 5th wheel being pulled by their $80,000 pickup trucks instead of a diesel pusher motorhome to do the same sort of traveling, to mostly the same sort of places.  After all as this thread has shown the current benefits offer little to the younger members.   Take those same benefits and apply them to the retired 5th wheel owners demographic and you likely get a better fit than you do with the younger motorhome owner demographic.

[dons2346]

If the documents are approved as presented to the GB, someone with a sea do can become a member. Remember the wording is "recreation vehicle". There is zero deffinition of what a "recreation vehicle" is. Heck, if I wasn't a current member, I could join with my boat!

[rfsod48]

Follow the money, someone has something to gain.

[jeff753]

On May 31, 2017 at 1:14 PM, Isaaac1 said:

As an empty nester, I feel in between on these issues, sure there is a lack of family activities, but from what I have read there is also a lack of activities at the rallies geared towards even people in my age range (coming up on 50 very soon).  My wife who works full time as an administrator at a local public agency sees the "ladies activities" in the rally promotional material and has no interest in any of it, of course she is not into arts and crafts stuff much anyway, unlike her sisters.  Still to people like us these activities sound like things that should be on the event planner for a local elderly activity center.  This is not to say that white water rafting is our thing, however we did enjoy a nice leisurely guided half day float trip down a river in Saratoga, Wyoming last summer where the guide did all the rowing.  This is not to say activities have to be outdoors, museums can be nice too, and then there is a whole movement in this country towards activity classes where people do things like learn to cook chili, or perhaps something a little less digestively sensitive (I am almost 50 after all, and have my collection of medication I take daily including stuff for acid reflux)

Check out FMCA ENERGIZED and our plans for Indy.  Bring your bike and cocktail glass 

[aztec7fan]

On 6/14/2017 at 6:07 PM, BillAdams said:

While I am not a fan of siding with FMCA, a Class A, Class B or Class C RV has always been considered a self-contained motor homes in the FMCA family.  I have never seen any discrimination  between these various models (not classes as the title might imply) on the FMCA platform.  However, there is such a huge gap between the motorized RV and the trailered RV that it is hard to imagine how you integrate the 2 without becoming "just another Good Sam" group.  There are separate groups that are Class A only but that's a bunch of snobs that very few people (who don't own a class A) want to be dissociated with,

I agree, with towables in FMCA, how do we distinguish ourselves from Good Sam?  The only differences I see is the FMCAssist benefit, the "stoppin spots", and the Michline Tire Advantage discount.  Not much else keeps us from becoming "another Good Sam".

Charlie Adcock's April 2017 article "FMCAs Future" was educational, but I still have lots of questions.

He says there are fixed costs, but what are they?  What positions in FMCA are paid positions and which are volunteer?

Do the chapters get any financing from FMCA?  There are a lot of chapters that overlap areas and interests. Can we save some $$ by merging a few of them?

He says we spent alot of $$ on marketing efforts.  Where are we advertising?  How well is that advertising working?  Spending almost $270K to gain 616 members doesn't seem too affective.

Sorry to be so blunt, but before we change our core mission, to cater to motorhomes,  I think we need to question everything to try to make the existing model work

Thanks,

Chris Guenther

F3508s

[popatop]

I don't know about the cost. but I would like to see a camping directory listing only camps that can handle Motor Homes.  This might be a sourse of income if the financial situation is feasible.  I would pay for a directory like this and the camps that advertise would pay.  Just a suggestion.  But keep FMCA for Motor Homes.

[rossboyer]

In the FMCA Atlas, FMCA campgrounds are indicated. Those will handle motor homes. Of course there are non-FMCA big rig, too. 

[elkhartjim]

2 hours ago, popatop said:

I don't know about the cost. but I would like to see a camping directory listing only camps that can handle Motor Homes.  This might be a sourse of income if the financial situation is feasible.  I would pay for a directory like this and the camps that advertise would pay.  Just a suggestion.  But keep FMCA for Motor Homes.

Are you asking for a lisitng of rv parks that only allow motorhomes? In my 30+ years of rving, I've never seen a park that only allows motorhomes but then I've never looked.

[rossboyer]

There are a few that do just that, but I have been uncomfortable in some of those. Tended to want only $1m motor homes and wouldn't let in high dollar Class C's like Renegade. 

[manholt]

Ruidoso Motor Coach Ranch in Ruidoso, NM is that way, Class A  DP's and large Diesel Class C's...was there for 4 weeks last year and a week last month.  Have not met a "Snob" yet.  $85 + tax = $93 a night and worth every cent.  We will be back for 2 weeks over labor day.

From what Joe and Keon tell me, the cost is about average in PA, MD and most of New England.

[rlbarkleyii]

First I want to say that I think FMCA should stay the way it is, motor homes only. However I am going to throw a NUKE into this question by talking about something no one feels comfortable talking about.  It is understood we need to increase the number of members to improve the benefits to members and insure the continued viability of the association. I don't think we members and local chapters are doing enough.

As you might have noticed by my photo, and some of you know me, I am African American. Some might say, what has that go to do with accepting  towables?  I belong to a Afro-Centric Motor Home  club call the US CLUB, (80-100 coaches strong) we have rally's mostly in the north east and south. Of course I also belong to FMCA, I have tried to find a local FMCA chapter in GA that my wife and I would be comfortable in. No such luck.

Lazy-Days RV dealer in Tampa FL recognized that minority folks buy motor homes too and have sent the latest motor homes and sales people to the US Club and many other minority club rally's and have sold quite a few units that way. There are manufacturers that appoint and support financially, minority volunteers, owners of new equipment to travel around and mix it up with minority clubs to show new MH's and get sales, and they are getting them. 

The point here is FMCA and the local chapter's have to be more  outgoing and identify groups of people that are not well represented in FMAC and make a concerted effort to go out and  recruit them into the chapters and FMCA. I am not by myself in this regard, there are literally thousands of folk who would join FMCA if chapters would show themselves to be friendly.

Many of the comments on this subject have indicated that the Rally is not the center point of the younger up and coming members, My opinion is the FMCA local chapter is the real backbone of FMCA and most that join the chapters enjoy the local motorcades,  and weekend rally's, freindship and such. So, the fate of FMCA is in the hands of the local chapters, they need to go out and drag in ALL the potential members from all walks of life and all social and economic groups into their chapters to breath fresh life into the FMCA.

There is no excuse for a local chapter to not reach out to members at lodge in their area not belonging to a chapter, or potential new members to invite them into their chapter for a "Look See". Recruiting new members has to become a important part of chapter activities, and sometime we need to just be more inclusive to win friends and members for life.

[wildebill308]

rlbarkleyii, I agree with you. 

Bill

[gulya]

Rlbarkleyii you are right on. Mostly chapters go after other existing FMCA members i.e. Chapter Fairs etc. which is good, however every time you meet an rver you should be recruiting for fmca and your local chapter.