Editorial

From the beginning, one of the questions that needed to be answered was - who's going to pay for it? The funding mechanism for the five million dollar a year campaign, as it turns out, calls for RVIA to add $22 to the price of the RVIA seals to member manufacturers. That $22 cost is then 'passed-on' to the RV dealer as a line item on the invoice each time a dealer buys a new unit from a manufacturer. In theory, then that invoiced item is added to the cost of the RV so that when the end user buys that RV, he actually funds market expansion through that purchase. Based on the number of new units shipped to dealers by RVIA member manufacturers, those pass-along costs in essence provide the funding necessary to launch the $5 million campaign. And that's a fair and equitable plan - clean and simple. The manufacturer pays nothing. The dealer pays nothing. And the RV industry gains a highly professional market expansion program.

Great, right? So what's the problem? It seems that the RVIA seal plan doesn't completely fund all the aspects of the market expansion program that we would like to have. So now we need more money.

State associations and other national RV associations are scrambling to come up with ways to contribute to the market expansion program to make up the shortfall. Fine. I like that idea too. The Florida RV Trade Association donated $5,000 and said they would come up with more. RV Indiana Council plans to donate $1 from the admission price for their association-sponsored consumer shows, so they've stepped up to the plate too. The Pennsylvania RV and Camping Association has pledged $5,000 a year for the next three years. Other organizations and companies have voluntarily pledged support that would further the efforts of the Go RVing program. The Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association has contributed $25,000 to the Go RVing Coalition and is developing supplemental, dealer based, fundraising efforts.

So far, what do we have? Individual RV manufacturers have not spent a dime, dealers have not spent a dime, and some companies and organizations have voluntarily pledged contributions of one sort or another. Okay, the playing field is still pretty level.

Here comes the interesting part.

Somewhere an idea blossomed to impose a mandatory 10-percent assessment on RVIA supplier members' and associate members' dues. Interesting, right? It doesn't end there. The plan also calls for supplier exhibitors to pay an additional $350 flat rate surcharge on all booth space at the annual RVIA show in Louisville. The assessments and surcharges are expected to generate $250,000 per year for the Go RVing Coalition.

What's wrong with the idea? It isn't equitable!

Everyone seems to be walking on egg shells around the issue that in fact the RV manufacturer has not paid anything for market expansion. True, the market expansion program could not have come about without RVIA backing, and we applaud the manufacturer members of RVIA voting to endorse the funding mechanism. But it's not costing any one of them a penny. Why, then, should manufacturers be exempt from a surcharge on dues or a surcharge on exhibit space equal to what suppliers and associate members are going to be asked to pay.

It's a sad, but true fact of life in this industry - suppliers pay for almost everything. Who buys most of the exhibit space at trade shows? Suppliers? Who pays for distributor shows and open houses? Suppliers. Who pays for distributor catalogs? Suppliers?

Suppliers are so used to having to foot the bill for so many so called industry sponsored events that we've often wondered when there was going to be a revolt. Should suppliers alone be asked to foot the bill for the additional funding needed for market expansion? We don't think so.

Any plan that is adopted where a surcharge is imposed on any one segment of the RVIA membership or participants in the RVIA show, then all members and all exhibitors should be willing to pay equally.

RV News believes that the proposed mandatory assessment on suppliers and associate members of RVIA is an ill-conceived and poorly thought out plan and we urge its defeat. And in the future, any proposal that calls for raising money by surcharge or assessment be administered equally over the whole spectrum of membership rather than singling out one particular group.

This year suppliers and manufacturers have contracted for 674,000 net square feet of exhibit space at the Louisville Show. If every exhibitor's display space was increased 50¢ a square foot RVIA would collect $337,000 for the Go RVing Coalition. That's $87,000 more than the proposed dues assessment and exhibit surcharge on supplier and associate members. And that, we believe keeps the paying and playing field level.

The market expansion program is a good idea and deserves everyone's support both financially and intellectually. But it won't help the unity of the industry if we start programs that are unfair to one particular group. This proposed plan is unfair.