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Hail to the Heros |
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There's good news to report this month. And we are excited. The RVIA board of directors
met at their annual meeting in Hawaii and voted to approve the mandatory funding proposal for the
industry's market expansion program. Well, almost. What they really did was to vote to recommend
taking the issue to the membership for a vote. But after years of skirting the issue and walking on
egg shells, the board finally endorsed the idea of RVIA participating in an industry-wide market
expansion program. And unless there is an unforeseen upswelling of resistance from the general
RVIA membership, we are going to have a market expansion program. Among other things, one of the main stumbling blocks in the past was a fair and equitable method of funding such a program. And after many ideas were discussed and discarded, it finally came back to an idea that Tom Corson, CEO, Coachmen Industries, Inc., suggested to RVIA three years ago _ a surcharge of sorts on new vehicle sales _ $22. It will be collected by RVIA based on RVIA seal purchases by manufacturers, but not part of the cost of the seal. That will assure a foundation funding for the three years that the RVIA board recommended for a trial. RV News feels somewhat like a proud father, not that we are taking any credit for the successful effort, but that we have been a vocal advocate of market expansion for years. And when it appeared that the issue was dying, again and again, we made an effort to keep it on the front burner and top of the mind awareness by beating the drums through this column. But there are some real heroes that this industry should recognize and praise for this accomplishment. Many come to mind. There's Tom Corson who we mentioned earlier. He deserves credit because he was the first major manufacturer to take a strong stand in support of an industry-funded market expansion program. It took someone of Corson's stature to cause the program to get out of the talking stage and into the reality stage. But it might not have ever happened unless Tom Faludy, president of Carefree of Colorado, had not rescued it from the jaws of defeat when he proposed forming an industry-wide market expansion coalition. He is certainly a hero too. He not only headed that coalition, but nurtured it through its successful conclusion. One of the main contributions by the coalition was the Eisner proposal which captured a lot of the essence of selling the sizzle of RVing. Other people that fall into the hero category are Wade Thompson, CEO, Thor Industries, who championed the cause vocally. Wilbur Bontrager, president of Jayco, is another leader who helped bring the program finally to life. Virgil Miller, president, Newmar, is also a vocal advocate who made an impassioned plea to the RVIA board. And there are others too, but unfortunately space limitations prevent us naming everyone. But we do need to talk about some organizations that made major contributions to seeing the program come to life. Almost every trade association, both state and national, worked for and contributed financially toward market expansion. But few stepped up to the plate like RVDA. Mike Molino, president, and Tom Stinnett, chairman, were in Hawaii to present RVDA's plan for raising more money through voluntarily contributed funds from dealers on used RV sales. That went a long way toward swaying the RVIA board to give an affirmative vote. We applaud all those who helped, both those mentioned and those not. We see them all as heroes. But maybe the biggest hero is Fleetwood Enterprises. It's no secret that Fleetwood has been opposed to any industry-funded market expansion plan, citing companies should accept the burden of expanding the market themselves on an individual basis. It was feared by many RVIA members that if a mandatory funding mechanism was approved Fleet-wood would withdraw from the association which would have had a devastating impact on not only the prestige of the association but its funding as well. But on the eve of the RVIA board vote, board members received a correspondence from Elden Smith, vice president, RV Group, assuring members that while Fleetwood still opposed the plan based on previously stated objections, that in the spirit of industry unity his company would not in fact resign from RVIA regardless of the outcome of the vote. I think it showed a lot of class and grace on the part of Elden Smith and Fleetwood to give that assurance to the board. Frankly, it did not appear that the board had the votes to pass the measure before Smith's letter. And without that letter the vote on market expansion would have been evaded and the issue would have been one of industry unity. Elden Smith's letter allowed the board to consider the matter on its own merits and it passed. We are all the winners for it. How effective the market expansion plan will be will only be unfolded with time, but we finally have a plan and a way to fund it. And it took a lot of heroes to make it happen. We thank them all. RVN
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