Repentance

Both RVIA and the Go RVing Coalition took great exception to our editorial in the August 1999 issue of RV News entitled, "What's in the J.D. Power Study that RV Industry Leaders Want to Hide?" and we have taken their comments to heart. We invite you to read their responses on the Letters page.

We were in error in suggesting that there may be something in the survey that they didn't want the rest of us to know about, and more out of frustration than good judgement, we were admittedly too flippant with the subject and somewhat reckless with our presentation considering the response. Our frustration was over being denied the opportunity to help present the findings of the survey to our readers, a responsibility that we hold sacred.

In the process, however, we neglected to consider how such a charge would sit with the many dedicated volunteers who worked so hard on the market expansion effort, which of course has great benefit to us all. Understandably they were hurt and upset.

RV News would refrain from anything that might hinder this effort either intentionally or unintentionally. RV News has long been and remains a stalwart supporter of market expansion for our industry.

Those that came in at the beginning remember that it was RV News that championed the cause of market expansion when it appeared that no one else was willing to speak out ­ but we kept plugging away and at times it seemed to us "as a voice crying in the wilderness."

And when the market expansion finally became a reality and the Go RVing Coalition was formed, many industry leaders credited our efforts as a significant cause of this ultimate success. We have never been so disillusioned to believe nor do we now suggest, that RV News was responsible for the market expansion program coming into existence - those honors go to the creative minds of people such as Coachmen's Tom Corson and Carefree of Colorado's Tom Faludy and others - however, we do believe that we played an important role. And we certainly feel some pride of ownership now that it has turned into such an outstanding effort.

And it may have been that mind set that lead us to believe that we could chide our leaders, as a parent would to a child, when an issue surfaced where we disagreed. Looking back we believe now that we probably overstepped our "parental" rights.

And while there remains some fundamental philosophical disagreements about how these survey results should be presented to the broadest possible audience in the industry, who we believe have a right and need to know how our customers perceive us and our products, the fact of the matter is that these differences in philosophy in no way diminish the high regard we hold for the leadership at both RVIA and the Go RVing Coalition.

We are convinced that the continuing efforts of a successful market expansion program far outweighs any single issue, and we are further confident that these organizations will continue to bring our industry greater and greater successes.

RVN