Letter From the President

We have just returned from the FMCA International Convention in Perry GA. It was so nice to see so many members from the Southeast Area attending that convention. As you know, I am seeking the FMCA National Presidents position, along with George Schipper, Nelson Stubbs, and Bob Beers from the Northwest. The candidate’s forum was well attended by voting delegates and the questions were well thought out.

We had a successful rally in Brooksville last month; however it was cold, very cold. We were able to obtain heating for the entertainment tent on the second night and it worked well. We can improve on that for next year, possibly at least two more heaters that will make it even more comfortable should we have cold weather. I had instructed every golf cart operator to pick up any one that wanted a ride and take them wherever they wanted to go. That also was successful. We expanded the handicapped golf cart system and made it a courtesy/handicapped system taking members, again, wherever they wished to go on the grounds. The courtesy booth in the vendor tent was a success as well again this year. You could leave your purchases there until you finished walking around the coach display and vendor tent and then when you were ready you could pick up your purchases at the courtesy desk and the golf cart would take you back to your coach.

 With the down turn in the economy and the fact that FMCA National was having their convention one month later in Perry GA, we had anticipated a down turn in attendance for our Southeast Area Motor Coach Association rally. Our rally and your Association exist solely from your participation. If you don’t support it by attending, we receive no other financial support. As I have said in the past, this is your Association, you own it. We did several things to help limit our expenses this past rally. We down sized the entertainment tent, down sized the number of golf carts and radios that we rent and also the number of Porto lets. We also put out the contract for radios and the sound system for bid again and saved in those areas. All in all we realized a savings of about $25,000.

The final attendance at the rally was 1250 family coaches. Down from 1663 last year. We had budgeted for 1200 coaches and expected a loss. Had we had another 150 coaches attend, we could have balanced out. A big item that affected the overall financial outcome of the rally was the fact that in late January, Lazy Days RV notified us that they could not attend our rally for financial reasons. To give you an idea of how this affected us, last year we realized about $26,000 from the coach display area. This year we realized about $8,900. The financial statement will be posted on the web site soon and I will be putting out a quarterly newsletter also in the next few days.

So when you take all of the above, the bottom line is we were short about $14,514.44 in revenue below break even for the rally. With the rents and other financial commitments for the year 2009, we are still very solvent. We have been able to put monies aside in the past and were prepared for this down turn in the economy.

Now for some happy stuff, we are currently working on next years rally, the theme of which is, “Clown around at SEA”. It will be a circus theme. We have a professional clown that volunteers here every rally and with his/her makeup on, it is difficult to know who it is.

The captains/chapter officers workshop with be the end of October, dates to be announced. We are also considering a talent night for entertainment. The winner of the talent night would go on to compete against the winners of other areas at the National Convention level. Please give me some feedback on this. If you think it would be fun or not.

Finally, some interesting statistics 1250 Southeast Area members attended the February rally in Brooksville. 1120 Southeast Area members went to the Perry FMCA convention. I’m sure some went to both, but off course some members chose between the two. I don’t blame them in this day and age. The total count for Perry was 2735. That means that the Southeast Area members were almost half of the attendees in Perry.

We are planning a chapter talent night at the Southeast Area Motor Coach Association rally next February 3 through 7, 2010 in the heated entertainment tent [if required by the weather]

This has been done successfully in other areas. The plan is for the winners of all of the areas compete against each other at our National Convention. That means our local talent will compete against the winners of the South Central, Mid West, Rocky Mountain and all of the other areas.

So, brush off you’re your harmonica, guitar, piano and banjo. Also if you are a mime, comedian, story teller etc. show us your talent and wow the audience!! Contact the Southeast Area office by phone at 352-796-0154 or e-mail at seafmca@mindspring.com. This will be discussed at the upcoming National Executive Board meetings the end of April also.

Safe travels

Charlie Schrenkel

President

Southeast Area Motor Coach Association

FMCA

 Home Page