By Charlie Adcock, F311374
August 2013
My Fellow FMCA Family Members:
As I write this, we are at FMCA’s 50th anniversary celebration in Gillette, Wyoming. As you can imagine, Gloria and I are still in awe of you electing me as your new president to usher in the next 50 years of FMCA history. On behalf of our new senior vice president, Jon Walker, and his wife, Sondra, Gloria and I want to express our gratitude for your support in this year’s election. During our campaign, Jon and I made several promises to you, and we expect you to hold our feet to the fire to fulfill those pledges. We fully recognize that we work for you, the member. Also, I want to congratulate Percy Bell on his election as our new national treasurer and Vicky Ferrari on her re-election as our national secretary.
I have been compiling a list of ideas and plans to present to the Executive Board for them to act on, with the goal of making our great organization even greater. I can hardly wait to get started, and we are eager to start building our team. I truly want everyone to join in.
As we concluded the last night of the 50th anniversary celebration in Wyoming, we reflected back on the history of Family Motor Coach Association. What a wonderful and colorful past we have had. We were honored with the presence of three charter member families: Genny Jennings, L26; Kirwan and Regina Elmers, L145; and Don and Molly Marsh, F171. They joined FMCA before January 1964 and were recognized at the general membership meeting as well as at Saturday night’s entertainment.
Special thanks to our Anniversary Committee, who did a great job helping us in our reminiscing. They set up a special Nostalgia Room with displays of memorabilia shared by our members to help remind us of our roots and good times past. Photos of all our previous national presidents and aerial photos of many of FMCA’s past conventions were on display in the vendor area. Six vintage Flxible buses were generously made available for browsing by their FMCA member owners. (A Flxible served as the inspiration for FMCA’s logo.) I really feel fortunate to have had my 13-year-old granddaughter and 16-year-old grandson with me at this rally. I have already reminded them that they will have to attend the 75th celebration so they can tell folks that Papa was elected president during the 50th anniversary!
The Family Reunion itself went well, and it looks like it will be profitable. At the meeting of the Governing Board, the national directors approved continuing with two international events per year, so our challenge will be to manage them so they will be profitable as well. Attendance at this Reunion has exceeded expectations, with nearly 2,300 family coaches participating. All meeting venues as well as vendor displays were centrally located, and attendees had a great choice of seminars, vendor displays, new coaches, and tours. The exceptional evening entertainment fit right in with our theme. The rock-and-roll fans were swingin’ to the music of the Buckinghams, and the country fans were tappin’ and clappin’ to Marty Stuart and the Fabulous Superlatives.
Overall, we had a great celebration in Gillette.
I’ve noticed that my calendar is beginning to fill up fast. Gloria and I, and Jon and Sondra, will try to make all the area rallies, so I hope we will see many of you there. Our first treks will be to the Northeast around the first of July, then back to Cincinnati for a week. Following in quick succession will be visits to the Midwest Area Rally (Manchester, Iowa), Northwest Area Rally (Albany, Oregon), the Six-State Rally (Sedalia, Missouri), the Great Lakes Area Rally (Goshen, Indiana), and the Eastern Area Rally (York, Pennsylvania). So, as you can see, things are already getting busy for us.
I would be remiss in not recognizing the immediate past president, Charlie Schrenkel, and his wife, Jean, for all the many years of tireless effort they have given to FMCA. Charlie will still be on the Executive Board, so we will still benefit from his contributions. Thank you, Charlie and Jean.
Again, I want to say how proud I am to be your president. I welcome your communication anytime.
Gotta go, but remember, IT’S ALL ABOUT HAVING FUN!