First, there was the surprising departure of Camping World’s president Tad Donnelly whose official reason for "resigning" was to retire, buy an RV and enjoy the lifestyle his customers have long enjoyed.

A few weeks after that announcement, AGI announced that former Blockbuster executive Mark Gilman had been named to fill Donnelly’s shoes.

Then a couple of weeks later, Gilman, or more likely AGI, brought in a whole new team to lead Camping World to the next level – whatever that is. That team includes Jim Dale, vice president of information technology; Ken Marshall, vice president of finance and controller; Chad Selvidge, vice president of merchandising, and Bob Wasilewski, vice president of business development.

Then all of a sudden most of the remaining upper management team at Camping World, including Ron Chance, vice president of human resources; Dean Ewing, vice president and controller; Paul Konz, national service/install director; Steve Needham, vice president of merchandising; Steve Snodgrass, vice president of distribution, and Cindy Smith, treasurer must have gotten an uncontrollable urge to "retire, buy an RV and enjoy the lifestyle their customers have long enjoyed" because they too have now "departed."

And the reason why we believe that RV dealers may be mildly bemused by all this, is that they have seen it over and over again– people outside the industry coming in bent on teaching the old pros, like the RV dealers who have basically built the industry into what it is today, a thing to two about how things ought to be done.

Most of us remember Bill Collins, former auto manufacturing executive, who was going to manufacturer a new RV and sell it through auto dealers because, as he stated then, RV dealers’ businesses were just not up to his standards and he didn’t want his motorhome sold in gravel parking lots with chain link fences around them. But within a few short years he was knocking on RV dealers’ doors begging them to take on the Vixen line of motorhomes – and we all know Vixen eventually went out of business.

More recently, some well-to-do used car salesmen came into the industry with much fanfare and was going to revolutionize RV retailing through a nationwide network of dealerships. Well they took a solid company that Joan and Newt Kindland had nurtured for about 20 years and within an amazingly few months had all but destroyed Holiday RV Superstores, Inc. (Rec USA) and everything the Kinlands had built.

And even AGI itself, although they said after acquiring Camping World in the spring of 1997 that they wouldn’t do it, tried its hand at selling rolling stock through Camping World stores. In April 2000 AGI bought a San Antonio RV dealership and moved the operation into its New Braunfels, Texas, Camping World store. That didn’t last long. By early this year, AGI announced it was getting out of the rolling stock business. We think they learned that being an RV dealer isn’t as easy as running the Good Sam Club. What Camping World did and did better than anyone else in the world was to sell RV parts and accessories.

So RV dealers are used to outsiders coming in and trying to take away their business and Gilman may be just the latest in a continuing parade of well meaning, yet misguided, folks that believe RV dealers are going to give up their markets without digging in for a fight.

So the question now becomes what is Gilman going to do to take Camping World to the next level. If AGI holds true to its colors, chances are it has something to do with taking business away from RV dealers and putting that business into their own pockets.

Prior to high-tailing it out of the rolling stock business, AGI was competing with dealers at very level except RV rentals.

Now dealers, you’re going to laugh when you hear what the rumor on the street is and what Camping World’s new direction is going to be. The rumor is that Gilman is going to take Camping World to that so called "next level" by convincing RV dealers to put some version of a Camping World store inside their dealerships.

No, don’t laugh, I’m serious. . . We’ve been hearing these plans were on the drawing board at AGI for the past several years.

We’ve dubbed this the Trojan Horse concept of selling RV parts and accessories.

If this rumor is true and AGI seriously thinks that RV dealers are going to buy into it, it has to be one of two things. Either Mr. Gilman is the best salesperson in the history of the world, or else, AGI just doesn’t get the picture.

Why would any self respecting RV dealer even let some one in the door with a pitch like that, unless of course they were having a bad day and just needed a good laugh.

It isn’t bad enough that they’re down the street undercutting your prices and eating into your parts and accessory margins, doing installations for free or ridiculously cheap in their service bays, luring your customers into their service bays to do RV repair and maintenance while all the time trying to get your customer to refinance the RVs through their programs or switching to their insurance program. Now, if the rumor is true, AGI wants you to open your doors let them do it right inside your place of business.

Just how dumb do they think dealers are?

And yes there will be dealers who jump on the AGI bandwagon, there always are. Several come to mind, but they are probably also the same ones that come to your mind.

Also, don’t forget, a few months ago, Steve Adams invested a million five into the bailout of Rec USA. And even though AGI has stated publicly that this move was strictly an investment, there are lingering doubts in this camp.

Remember, AGI also said in they didn’t intend to take Camping World into the rolling stock business – but they did, didn’t they – albeit, not too successfully?

If AGI does come out with a program like is rumored, you can be sure of one thing – it will be to benefit AGI. So when and if this "opportunity" is presented to dealers, dealers must also look at what is the long term best interest of their businesses as well as what’s in the long term best interest of the industry as whole.

And if that happens, AGI will chalk up another failure.

We would like to make one side point. RV News has taken issue in the past with some of the decision being made at Camping World, but more specifically AGI. And in every case, we believed that those decisions, while they might be just dandy for AGI, were not necessarily going to be good for the industry.

And while we have publicly voiced those opinions, we always believed that Tad Donnelly was one of the brightest and classiest people in the industry. Tad will be missed. He devoted his entire professional life to Camping World and the RV industry and should be proud of his accomplishments. Whether as a man or the leader of Camping World, his shoes will not be easily filled, and it will take a person with integrity to walk in the shadow Donnelly cast.

Welcome to the RV industry, Mr. Gilman.