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Trouble at FMCA
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I fail to see where anything posted here about FMCA was troublesome. Most member opinions and we have a few.
Here is latest info on FMCA events from FMCA…
MARCH 2020
FMCA’s 101st International Convention
- March 26-29, 2020
- Tucson, AZ
JUNE 2020
Great Lakes Area Rally
- June 17-20, 2020
- Allegan, MI
JUNE 2020
Northwest Area Rally
- June 24-27, 2020
- Roseburg, OR
JULY 2020
International Area Rally
- July 2-7, 2020
- Calgary, AB
- Please contact George Schremp for more information at gschremp@fmca.com
JULY 2020
International Area Rally
- July 8-13, 2020
- Calgary, AB
- Please contact George Schremp for more information at gschremp@fmca.com
AUGUST 2020
FMCA’s Summer International Convention
- August 26-29, 2020
- Lincoln, NE
SEPTEMBER 2020
South Central Area Rally
- September 16-19, 2020
- Shawnee, OK
SEPTEMBER 2020
Eastern Area Rally
- Sept. 30 – Oct. 4, 2020
- Lewisburg, WV
OCTOBER 2020
Rocky Mountain Area Rally
- October 21-24, 2020
- Tucson, AZ
JANUARY 2021
Western Area Rally
- January 6-10, 2021
- Indio, CA
MARCH 2021
FMCA’s 102nd International Convention
- March 10-13, 2021
- Perry, GA
JULY 2021
FMCA’s 103rd International Convention
- July 7-10, 2021
- Gillette, WY
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FMCA is a member owned, member managed not-for-profit organization.
In recent years the membership has been growing, not declining. Of the close to 150,000 members (about 75,000 family memberships) members with towables are less than 10%. Other than the issues caused by this unfortunate virus stuff the organization has been financially stable in recent years – surprisingly so given the dramatic decrease in ad revenues from the magazine following the failure of so many motorhome manufacturers in the 2008, 2009 period.
FMCA is member owned and governed by volunteers who make all the decisions, establish budgets and sets policy. None of the national officers or directors are paid. There is a for-profit subsidiary that runs things like the magazine, events and member benefits (insurance and the like) and those are run day-to-day by a small paid staff, but everyone else is a volunteer so there is no profit motive driving decisions or policies.
Like most other event based organizations there is a written refund policy printed on the application for each rally. That policy has been followed for those who requested refunds prior to the cancellation date. For all others a coupon has been issued good for the equivalent service at a future rally which can be used for up to three years or which can be given or sold to another member. Very similar to what many other event based organizations have done for ticket sold to events that had to be cancelled as a result of the virus.
My comments here are not an attempt to defend the organization or to woo back those of you who elected not be continue your membership at some point in the past, only to put a little perspective into this thread.
Each affiliated club (FMCA calls them “chapters”) gets one designated Board member. The Board sets policy, approves budgets and elects the officers. The clubs are organized into 10 geographic “areas”. For ease of communications each area elects an FMCA Vice President who, along with the national officers make up the Executive Board who oversee day to day operations of the organization.
FMCA normally puts on 12 rallies per year. Two are called “International Conventions” and are conducted and funded by the national organization. Each of the ten areas puts on and independently funds one rally per year referred to as “Area Rallies”. All of these rallies are priced to break even at the estimated number of attendees. There is no co-mingling of funds between the areas and the national organization. Each sets the prices and policies for these rallies independently.
Any member can access the financials for the national organization and any club within an area can access the financials for that area.
Jerry
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Jerry:
Thanks for the thorough background on FMCA and its structure.
FMCA is structured very similar to the three motorsports organizations I’m an officer of. No employees, put on events, sell a few sponsorships, etc.
Structuring events to “break-even” is financial suicide for any organization unless it has deep pockets, a well healed affiliate, or very understanding sponsors.
In two of the three organizations I’ve involved in we have some vocal and influential members who thing profit is evil. (Yes, they are car people.) I’ve been involved in those two for fifteen years. Its taken a while, but more rational heads have prevailed and we have slowly gotten the “break-even” crowd to understand that having financial reserves to be good … especially during the 2008 to 2011 downturn in amateur motorsports and when we have terrible weather, have to pay massive track rental and only a handful of entrants show up.
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This image appeared on my Facebook feed. I’m not sure how to interpret this.
Here’s the companion video:
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