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Trouble at FMCA
More sad news for FMCA. Over the years my wife and I attended many FMCA rallies. Well organized events, always something to do.
FMCA, the Family Motor Coach Association, is in the midst of a perfect storm — a troubling decline in memberships and an estimated loss of $700,000 in potential income from the cancellation of its two international rallies in 2020. The 57-year-old club informed members who pre-registered for the first event last month in Tucson that it could not afford to refund their registration fees, which ranged from a few hundred dollars to a thousand dollars or more. FMCA had no event cancellation insurance.
FMCA noted recently that it would rely more heavily on income from its international rallies than ever before due to revenue loss from its once highly profitable magazine. The next rally is scheduled for March 10-13, 2021, in Perry, Georgia.
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19 Replies
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One of many businesses in trouble today. But in addition to current affairs, they went and diluted their magazine with all types of RV’s and changed their classified and other formats. I stopped reading it a while ago.
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FMCA committed suicide when it catered to old white haired farts instead of encouraging new younger members, and then, as if their self inflicted wound wasn’t fatal, they opened the group up to camper trailers.
RIP FMCA.
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It’s my understanding that at least one of the Prevost converters relies on the FMCA to provide insurance for their rallies. If the FMCA goes under, I wonder who will pickup the slack?
And yes, they aren’t making the members happy by not refunding deposits for cancelled events. That’s not going to help in getting these members to renew the memberships. I’ll guess that even if they had insurance, it wouldn’t have covered a pandemic.
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It’s somewhat surprising that insurance was not in place to cover what is most often referred as “acts of god”.
Had that been in place no problem returning money to members,I assume.
Now, no money remains for refunds FMCA has been able to really upset many long term members.
Does not look good for the once big FMCA as we once knew it.
Many of us might remember the Country Coach rally years ago where no down payment was ever placed to hold the rally site and money sent in was lost. Long story only funds paid through credit card got anything back.
Might be the case with FMCA. today.
AL
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Haven’t been to an FMCA Rally in many years and have no desire to go to another. Jon and Al will remember, we were in Indianapolis and I made the mistake of being near the venue that announced free donuts and coffee, it was very scary.
Bye bye, FMCA..
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FMCA has been struggling for years. The move from a Motor Home business to an RV (any RV) business appeared (to me) to be doomed from the start. I was an FMCA member from 1994 with an F# of 192XX. I was a loyal member right up to the point where they decided to be just another Good Sam club.
Some say I am a class A snob but that does not explain my position at all. I will never own a class C, a trailer, a 5th wheel or anything else and I am not interested in reading articles about any of these products.
I “used” to love FMCA. I dropped my membership immediately when FMCA decided to put profit as their only focus. I predicted the demise of FMCA when they made this unfortunate decision and it appears my predictions are coming true.
It’s such a shame. FMCA “was” an amazing organization. They put too much money into the Assist program and the business ended up collapasign upon itself.
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I too have been a loyal FMCA member since the early 90’s and was disappointed with FMCA’s decision to include “all” RV’s as well. However, I understand the money situation they were in that forced their hand.
I have a weakness for RV’s. ALL RV’s.
My journey began with dad and I camping and hunting in a 1960 Shasta trailer, to a mobile home on the lake for fishing, to a 33′ – 1973 Foretravel that had a Dodge 440 in it between the two front seats. Boy that engine sounded great and ran like a bat out of xxx. That rv got 4 mpg on a good day !!! Five class A’s later, I am the proud owner of a Prevost today. Not everyone can start with a class A or a Prevost, it’s just one step at a time.
Because of my love of all rv’s (rv addiction), I also owned and operated a pre-owned rv lot for a time. I too wish FMCA had never changed the membership, however including ALL rv’s in one show plants those seeds for the future. You hear it as you walk around, “Wow, I want one of those next time”.
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
Lots of misinformation in this thread. I am a national director of FMCA and serve at a national level on the Review Council which functions much like an Attorney General for the organization. If you are curious as to what the real story is with anything to do with FMCA I would be happy to provide some facts or answer your questions.
Jerry
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It’s somewhat surprising that insurance was not in place to cover what is most often referred as “acts of god”.
As many travelers with insurance policies have learned, unless it’s specified otherwise, pandemics are typically on the list of exclusions and not covered.
I’m booked on a June Caribbean cruise out of Florida and while I have little doubt that it will be cancelled, I need to wait for the cruise line to issue an official cancellation to get a full refund. The cruise line has already cancelled sailings for the month of May and offered passengers the option of a refund or a 125% credit towards a future booking. When I’m presented the opportunity, I’ll take the refund as until there’s a tried and tested vaccine, I’m not going anywhere near a cruise ship.
I also have a trip to France on the books for October and while I was looking forward to it, I am not planning on attending. I prepaid the airfare with American Airlines and when I spoke to the travel agency to check my cancellation options a few weeks ago, I was advised that although I had a full fare ticket, no refunds would be available. While it was not offered when I booked (and in all fairness, I didn’t ask), the only “no questions asked” cancellation policy that I could have purchased would have been equivalent to 40% of the price of the ticket. At this point, if I chose to cancel, I would be issued a credit that had to be used on the same routing within 12 months of the original booking date. Considering the virus may reappear, I made the decision that should that occur, I have no desire to be out of the USA.
A week later the agent called to tell me that American changed the outbound flight by three hours and that it would affect the connections. Since the change was more than 60 minutes, I now had the options of cancelling for a refund. Yes, I took the refund.
I don’t think I’ll get the 10% deposit returned for the France riverboat and will have to wait a while to get my hotel refunded.
The moral to the story is…Motorhomes are the safest way to travel as you are, for the most part, self sufficient and know who slept in the bed the night before. If I want to travel in the future, I may have to go motorhome shopping again!
Sorry for going somewhat off topic. While this is different from the FMCA situation, I’m really surprised they are hanging their membership out to dry and not offering any level of refund. I can only wonder if the sponsors are receiving refunds and if so, if that’s why there’s no money remaining for the members.
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Jerry, are you saying their now very slim magazine doesn’t have photos of white haired senior citizens and that their shift to including pop up campers along with every other type of RV is incorrect?
I was a member since 1990, and watched the decline until FMCA opened it up to everyone, at which point I did not feel membership was worth it.
I admit when FMCA held a convention in San Antonio right after San Antonio took a stance forbidding RVs in driveways I realized FMCA was not going to go to bat for its members, but was a potential source for information only.
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Does anyone have access to the FMCA financials? Is FMCA a for profit business? Not for profit (non-charity)? Non-profit (501(c)3 charity?)
Sounds like FMCA for some reason might have been too thinly capitalized and did not have enough cash in reserve to weather rough times.
I’m treasurer or an officer of three non-profit motorsports organizations (one is a true 501(c)3). They are fairly small in comparison to FMCA. Because of my back ground in banking everyone looks to me for advice and counsel on how much cash we should have. Frankly … cash is like horsepower at the race track: You can never, ever have enough.
My standard answer has been simple:
1. Presume no income for one or two years.
2. Presume full operating expenses during that time period, no attempt to reduce costs.
3. How much cash do you need to stay in business.
We’ve typically carried two to five years based on that for each organization. After concluding that discussion someone usually says, “Thank the good Lord we’ll never be in an environment like that ever.” Then everyone laughs and we move on to the next item on the agenda.
This year … NO ONE is laughing.
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Jerry,
Please tell us what information Al posted in the beginning of this thread is incorrect?
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I would very much be interested in what the FMCA poster above has to say. I’m confused why he would post what little he posted and just leave that unsaid fart just hanging out there!
2025 Marathon H3 / 4th Prevost
21 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel 4x4 -
To clarify my previous post a bit, I like all kinds of RV’s as well. That’s why I am also a Good Sam member. I get their magazine already and I get campground discounts at more places than offer FMCA discounts (at the same 10% rate). I just saw no value in now paying to annual fees for magazines that provide the same diverse RV information. I liked the specialty information provided by FMCA and usually signed up for membership for 5 years at a time. Once they became “just another RV” business, I lost interest.
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I have been a member since the 80’s. But have not been to a rally since about 1990. The entertainment was for people that enjoy funetals. Mostly have beens or never was. I used to enjoy the magazine but it is now worthless. At one time they had real paraprofessionals doing tech sessions. A GM engineer from the bus division. A Michelin engineer. Not anymore.
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