Industry Citizenship

Over the years as RV News talked to various industry pioneers such as Warren Jones, chairman emeritus of Hehr International, about the challenges that have faced the industry , inevitably the name of Elden Smith, senior vice president of Fleetwood's RV Group, comes up. During those bleak days of the energy crisis in the mid-1970s, Jones recalls flying his private plane to some remote location around the United States, picking up Elden Smith and the two of them would fly into Washington D.C. and start knocking on Senator's and Congressmen's doors. It was a two-man lobbying team for the RV industry, working hard to improve the plight of the reeling RV industry. Neither Jones nor Smith ever sought any personal recognition for these efforts - it was something they felt that needed to be done, so they simply did it.

It is this kind of giving back to the industry that exemplifies industry citizenship at its best. And it is this kind of industry citizenship that Elden Smith and Fleetwood have been doing behind the scenes for years.

David Humphreys, president of the Recreation Vehicle Indus-try Association (RVIA) credits Smith with not only being one of the driving forces behind the founding of RVIA, but one of its staunchest supporters throughout its history. Humphreys explained that Smith has one of the best minds of anyone who has ever served on the RVIA board. He told RV News, "Elden could look at a problem, analyze it instantly and cut right through to the bottom line. I have a great deal of respect for him. He taught me more about managing than anyone I've ever known."

According to Humphreys, Smith has the ability to take off his Fleetwood hat and participate in the decision making process where the outcome was in the best interest of the industry, but sometimes not necessarily beneficial to Fleetwood.

Elden Smith holds a record for longevity of service on the RVIA board of directors, holding a variety of positions including chairman and treasurer. When RV News told Smith that Humphreys said that he had never missed a board meeting in over 20 years serving on the board, Smith smiled and said that was not quite correct. He had missed one meeting. That absence was because Smith's mother had passed away.

Smith recently resigned from the RVIA board of directors to focus more on Fleetwood and the challenges of the business. But when you talk to him about RVIA you sense that the association is very dear to his heart. And why not. He was part of the industry group that met in Los Angeles in 1973 determined to merge the Trailer Coach Association (TCA), a west coast manufacturers' association, with the Recreation Vehicle Institute (RVI), an eastern association, into one strong national association - RVIA. And after that was accomplished, Smith served on the board of directors until earlier this year.

"This is an industry of great people," Smith said. "I really enjoy working with them. There's no doubt that there are certain frustrations in it from time to time, but I'm sure from their prospective too, it can be frustrating. The diversity of this industry is one of its greatest strengths, both in terms of the products that we produce and the sizes of the companies that are in it. All of those things make it a fascinating and very interesting industry to be a part of."

Smith has strong convictions about what the role of an association should and should not be. He explained, "The important role of an association is to provide us with the vehicle to join together when we need to, to respond to some unusual circumstance such as when issues like the luxury tax on recreation vehicles come up. That's the primary responsibility of an association and the primary reason in my opinion for keeping a strong association alive."

Smith also believes that the leadership of the association needs to be constantly vigilant to assure that the association doesn't intrude into industry areas that should be left up to the ingenuity of individual companies.

"In those periods when times are good or there's nothing really threatening the industry, that's when the members of the association start looking for other things to do to improve the world -- I think that's when we face obvious dangers. I have always felt that an association should operate like a business; that it truly is a business. It should keep itself financially sound and not spend beyond it's means. If the association is providing the services that it's members want, they can and should charge for those services, and those services should be self-sustaining," he said.

"But associations tend to think a little bit like government. They get these high and mighty ideas as to what is good for the industry and they start down a path that is not self supporting. And it's very, very counter productive.

"I believe that the true road to success is through competition, and that while we have been a major player in this industry for a long time, it was not my position or my intent or my desire to ever use our size to make something happen. What should happen for this industry should be a matter of consensus of the leadership in the industry and those who have been given the responsibility for leading the industry.

"It bothers me when I feel that the role of the association is beginning to move into various areas that are competitive in nature and tend to take some of the tremendous opportunity out of it."

In Smith's mind there is a very thin but very distinct line between what an association should get involved in as far as product is concerned. He supports programs such as safety issues where the industry is self regulating and sets standards that must be met as a prerequisite for association membership. He points to issues relating to LP gas, plumbing, heating, and electrical standards for safety as examples of what the association should be involved in. But he doesn't believe the association should try to dictate how to build a good recreational vehicle, what size it should be or what size the chassis should be. He said if the association would have tried to impose regulation in these areas ten years ago, the industry probably wouldn't have been able to accommodate slide-outs or basement models or some of the other innovations that grow out of individual ingenuity.

"We fought very hard in the early stages not to get involved in those things," Smith continued. "Those who wanted to see the association deal with these kinds of issues knew a lot of great reasons for doing it. Citing products that were being poorly built, they would say, we have to control those people. The fact of the matter is, we could have probably controlled them, but who knows what we would have kept from happening.

"I have tremendous faith in the entrepreneurial spirit of this industry and it's ability to do the unexpected. And I think that if we too often start looking to the association to do things for us, we take some of that edge off of it. We need to be very careful about doing that. The other side of that is, there are those who feel that the more competitive it is, the less opportunity some companies have to compete with a Fleetwood, Coachman, Winnebago or Thor.

"I think it's exactly the opposite. The more freedom they have, the more opportunities they have. So I think they need to be very, very careful about what they're asking for. I think the association's role in this business should be small and not large." Smith's commitment to RVIA goes far beyond Fleetwood being the largest financial contributor to the association through dues and the purchase of RVIA seals. And it even goes beyond the commitment of his time and intellectual involvement. What Smith brought to RVIA was what might be best described as 'heart.'

According to Dave Humphreys, Smith, while serving as chairman of RVIA, is the only one to hold that position to ever come to the national office to attend the association's annual Christmas party. And he was the only chairman to regularly visit the association headquarters and spend extended periods of time with each vice president to make sure that he understood what they were doing and give them the opportunity to tell him if they were running into any problems. Smith is reluctant to take any bows for what Humphreys describes as extraordinary commitment.

He said, "When I was chairman, I worked with the association staff as though they were a part of our organization and put them in my schedule and put them in my thoughts and efforts in the same way I try to work with everybody. So, it might be a little bit unique in terms of style, I suppose, but it's the way that's most comfortable for me." Fleetwood's reluctance to endorse an industry-funded market expansion program is a matter of public knowledge so when Smith resigned from the RVIA board of directors earlier this year, it was assumed the move was a protest against the association's apparent determination to go ahead with the program.

"Well, it was a difficult decision," he said, "but I think it was fairly long in coming. And I don't think it is quite as abrupt as some people seem to feel. I think it's a matter of maybe it is the right time. My focus had to change. The performance of our organization here, while successful, hasn't been what I felt it could be, so the priorities of my time have changed.

"The other side of the question is when would it ever have been comfortable for Elden Smith and Fleetwood to back off from participation. I'm not sure that there is a good time so how do you pick it.

"Over the years it became easier and easier for too many people to 'let Elden take the stands'. I was very interested in what other board members thought, but I'm not sure they always expressed their opinions. It was a little bit easier to 'let Elden' carry one side of the debate and let someone else carry the other side.

"Well, that isn't what the organization is all about. So I believe that it is very positive for the association to be operating without Elden there for awhile because I think that there are probably people speaking up now that haven't spoken up for quite sometime.

"Times have changed. There's a new, very capable, strong group of people coming up. I think they're doing a great job. They don't have all the same beliefs and thoughts that I may have, but I'm not going to say that they are wrong. This industry has changed a lot in the time that I've been in it and I am comfortable with the leadership that's there.

"And I guess to some degree, I am content to look at the association as I have always looked at it, and that is as a provider of some very important services to us. We need to weigh whether or not it's worth the price we pay. And at this point I feel that it is. But the challenge I throw to the board and to the leadership of RVIA is to make sure that they continue to do that."

While Smith has resigned as a past chairman of RVIA, he has earned a lifetime membership on the board of directors, so he could exercise that option and return to the board of directors at any point that he chooses. Does he see a time that he would exercise that option?

"I feel very strongly that that's a tremendous privilege and it's not one that should be abused. I don't feel that I have finished making a contribution. I talk regularly to Dave Humphreys and others on the RVIA staff as well as some on the board, so I'm not completely out of it. I recognize the importance of our position in the industry and the contribution that we can make.

"Whether I or somebody else in the Fleetwood organization would participate on the board is still an open question. I don't know. If I really thought that there was a benefit to it - absolutely. I believe strongly in the association. But at this point I'm comfortable with the way things are going."