Despite last-minute cancellations, final attendance figures at the industry's recent RV Dealers International Convention showed a 13% increase in dealer attendance over last year's event in Orlando and a total of 637 dealers showed up compared to 560 a year ago.

The events of September 11th played a major roll in decisions on whether to attend the 2001 dealer convention at the Rio All-Suite Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV, in late September, but those 1,300 RV dealers and other industry representatives from across the U.S. and Canada who decided to attend brought with them a positive attitude and a new commitment of determination and cooperation.

As Coast's Tim McGuire noted: "People just seem to be much more civil to each other than ever before."

In his state of the association address, RVDA president Mike Molino told attendees "the power of every citizen to shape her and his own future is the power of the spirit of freedom.

"Our presence at this convention is a tribute to that spirit of freedom."

Incoming RVDA chairman of the board Craig Jensen of Blaine Jensen & Sons in Kaysville, UT, reinforced this spirit as he told attendees we have many positives in our corner.

"We have great RV products to sell, millions of baby boomers entering their prime RV buying years, the Go RVing advertising campaign that will help us tell our story of wholesome family travel to a national audience, and most of all, we live in a great country full of exciting places to use RVs," he said.

The convention was packed with information, education, new products and new ideas to help RV dealers make the most of opportunities in the months ahead.

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Molino, a former United States Army colonel, led the charge as he united some of the brightest and most knowledgeable men of all segments of our industry--Carefree of Colorado's Tom Faludy, Winnebago's Bruce Hertzke, Glendale RV's Terry Mullan, KOA's Jim Rogers, Coast's Tim McGuire and Monaco's Kay Toolson.

Although they all had their own unique style in making their points known, the overlying theme of each presenter seemed to be the necessity for all industry segments to work unilaterally and "think outside the box" to improve RV market share.