President’s Message
By R.G. Wilson, F21025
National President
February 2005
The Governing Board of the Family Motor Coach Association recently passed several bylaws amendments. Changes to Article VIII of the FMCA Bylaws specifically impact Executive Board member term lengths.
The Executive Board consists of the national president, senior vice president, secretary, treasurer, and the 10 area vice presidents, as well as the immediate past president. The Governing Board elects FMCA’s national president, senior vice president, secretary, and treasurer by majority vote during its annual meeting. If more than two candidates run and none receives a majority vote, there will be a run-off election between the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes.
Previously, officers serving as president, senior vice president, secretary, or treasurer could serve up to three one-year terms, with the requirement that they run for re-election every year. The amendment increases the term length to two years. The FMCA Bylaws were amended to read, in part, “An individual shall not serve more than 1 two-year term in each of the positions of President and Senior Vice President, respectively, in a lifetime. An individual may serve no more than 2 two-year terms in each of the positions of Secretary or Treasurer, respectively, in a lifetime.”
Guidelines were developed for the implementation of this bylaw change to protect the rights of the incumbents. In an office where an incumbent will be running for re-election, the term limits will remain the same. The new term limits go into effect immediately for any office where an incumbent is not running.
Since I believe that two years is long enough to serve in the positions of president and senior vice president, I will not be running for the third one-year term to which I am entitled. I thank the Governing Board and our membership for their strong support during the past seven years I’ve held a national office. I believe the administrations of which I have been a part have made many accomplishments in strengthening our organization and the service to our membership.
As I write this, the Nominating Committee is putting together the slate of candidates for the four national officer positions for the 2005-2006 year. You will be able to read the resume of each candidate in the June 2005 issue of Family Motor Coaching.
The current senior vice president has announced that he will not seek re-election for the position of senior vice president, but will seek nomination as a candidate for president. This will permit candidates for president and senior vice president to be elected to a two-year term as provided for in the new Bylaws.
National secretary and national treasurer incumbents have indicated that they will be running for re-election. Therefore, candidates for these two positions will each be running for a one-year term.
As amended, the FMCA Bylaws now permit the national vice presidents to serve two two-year terms. Each of the 10 national vice presidents is elected via mail ballot by a plurality of votes cast by eligible voting members within his or her respective area.
The Northwest Area vice president is now in his fourth and final year in that office. The International Area vice president has announced that he will not seek re-election for that office. Candidates for these two positions will be running for a two-year term.
The Western Area vice president is in his third year and will be an incumbent candidate running for his fourth one-year term.
The Eastern Area vice president is currently in her first year of office. She will be running for a one-year term, and the following year she will be eligible to run for one two-year term.
The six other area vice presidents currently are in their second year of office. Since they are eligible for a total of four years according to the new Bylaws, candidates for these positions will be running for one two-year term.
I was very happy to see these bylaws amendments pass with a strong majority of 83 percent for one and 87 percent for the other. (To read the bylaws amendments in full, turn to page 270 of the January 2005 issue of Family Motor Coaching; or, visit www.fmca.com and click on FMC Magazine, January 2005, and then on the article “FMCA Bylaws Amendments.”) I believe these two-year terms will take a lot of the politics out of running for office and enable the officers to concentrate on doing a better job. We always have had a good slate of candidates running for national office, and I believe these FMCA Bylaws changes will encourage this even more.
Safe travels, and thanks for your interest in FMCA governance.