Executive Director’s Commentary: It Takes An RVillage — Building Community As You Travel

 

By Jerry Yeatts, F390000

FMCA Executive Director

June 2015

 

Executive Director’s Note:  This month’s Commentary represents the combined efforts of several members of the RVillage team: Curtis Coleman, F447048, RVillage founder and CEO; Hillary Murray, RVillage operations manager; and Alex Hodson, RVillage parks administrator; and me. I invite you to join RVillage and continue to network with other FMCA members around you.  Check out the FMCA Friends and Family group, where folks are eager to have you join in on the camaraderie and conversations.

 

One of the greatest things about being part of an RV club such as FMCA is the interaction we have with each other. The FMCA Family Reunions we attend are really just a wonderful excuse to meet up with each other and enjoy some quality time with old friends, and to make new connections as well. For many of us, the deep and long-lasting friendships cultivated in a community such as FMCA’s are reason enough for membership. It isn’t a stretch to believe that the connections and friendships we forge are by far the most stimulating part of life itself. And these connections can make travel so much more enjoyable as well. After all, it’s not just about the places we go; the real joy of travel comes from the people we meet along the way.

 

In 2013, one of our fellow FMCA members set out to create a platform designed to make this easier than ever before. Curtis Coleman, F447048, and a team of highly skilled computer engineers began building a free (yes, free), robust website whose goal is to assist RVers everywhere in finding something they definitely have been looking for — each other.

 

You may have already heard about the website — RVillage.com.

 

As we all find ourselves using technology more and more (especially in our mobile lifestyle), it only makes sense that a platform such as RVillage.com would emerge, making it easy for RVers to have “meet-ups” wherever we roam. With more than 20,000 members signing up in just a few months, RVillage is growing at a viral rate not seen before in the RV world.

 

At the March 2015 Family Reunion in Pomona, California, FMCA’s Executive Board met with Curtis and was interested to learn what RVillage could offer FMCA members. The Executive Board concluded that the RVillage platform could be beneficial to FMCA members’ unique lifestyle. They were excited about the possibilities and agreed that we should share news of this platform with the FMCA membership.

 

We have been working closely with the RVillage team to make sure that FMCA has a strong presence in RVillage. They, in turn, have helped to create wonderful tools that we can use to help keep us connected with each other online and offline.

 

The FMCA badge that you will find when you edit your profile on the RVillage.com site is an extremely important part of the FMCA involvement with RVillage. The United States alone is home to 70 million baby boomers, and they currently are retiring at an astonishing rate of 10,000 per day. These “boomers” are an adventurous bunch, eager to explore the world around them. They are hungry to learn about motorhome ownership. They have a ton of questions and are searching out experienced RVers such as ourselves to point them in the right direction.

 

As the baby boomer generation enters the RV world in record numbers, FMCA would like to be as visible as possible and to welcome them to a most exciting, and sometimes challenging, lifestyle in which we are all experts. 

 

We would love the opportunity to introduce FMCA and the many benefits of our unique membership to a new and rapidly growing audience. In the age of technology, FMCA’s presence within a platform such as RVillage can be paramount in our ability to be of great service to these information seekers, as well as a wonderful way to grow FMCA’s membership base. Early adoption with RVillage can help pave the way for a very bright future for our organization, one in which we’ll have the ability to pass on even greater benefits to a larger FMCA membership and family.

 

Adding your FMCA “badge” to your RVillage profile affords FMCA the ability to have that greater presence. This is similar to the reason we proudly display our FMCA membership emblems on our coaches. Many of us are also members of other clubs and organizations, and you can also badge your profile with symbols representing those groups, among them Escapees, Kampgrounds of America, and Passport America, as these other organizations have begun to introduce RVillage to their membership as well. FMCA is unique in terms of its motorhome affiliation, but, after all, we also are part of one really big family — the RV community.

 

Security is always a concern when introducing an online social platform, and that is one subject the RVillage team takes seriously. The RVillage.com website is hosted in “the cloud” for scalability, and they never ask for or store any identifiable information from you or about you. RVillage never sells any information about its users to any third party, nor do they allow advertisers to “mine” their data. Unlike other online applications, your location is always set by you, not the system. RVillage is built by RVers for RVers, so they understand these concerns and have developed the site to accommodate the RV community accordingly. You are always in the driver’s seat.

 

The RVillage team uses state-of-the-art tools to discourage abusers and spammers. RVillage is committed to maintaining a safe and fun place for us all to communicate with each other.

 

Following is some information to help you as you explore the RVillage website.

 

Groups

The “Groups” section includes more than 1,300 groups, all created by RVers like you. Various organizations and special interests are represented. Anyone can create a group. Please be sure to join the “FMCA Friends and Family” group as soon as you join RVillage so that you can connect easily with the broader FMCA family. 

 

RVillage has been working closely with FMCA to make sure that all the FMCA chapters and subgroups are searchable, allowing members to find their chapter or group easily and to use all of the mapping tools available on the site. 

 

All groups have a dedicated discussion forum, which enables FMCA members to better connect and discuss plans.

 

Each group has its own map of members, so you can see where everyone in that group is located around the continent.

 

Explore Map

Using the Explore Map, you can plan routes and find out whether other members are in your current area, along your route, or at your destination. 

 

It’s easy to find fun and sociable RV parks using the map tool. In the case of RV parks with three or more members staying there, a “green” flag will be displayed on the map. 

 

Get-Togethers

The RVillage Get-Togethers section makes it easy to create your own event and invite people around you or from across the country.

 

Get-togethers can be as low-key as a small potluck or as large as a national or international event. 

 

If your chapter has an upcoming event, encourage the organizers to add it to the Get-Togethers section. People can RSVP and discuss the event using the site’s tools.

 

Find events to attend during your travels by browsing the Get-Togethers.

 

Marketplace

The RVillage Marketplace allows you to search for member-recommended places and services as you travel. Every member has the ability to add their favorites to the database and to share those recommendations with others. Your recommendations are then “automagically” saved to your profile so friends can always find them.

 

Tutorials

Video tutorials throughout the site explain what each page does and how to navigate it.

 

Search

The search tool makes it easy to look for fellow FMCA members, to seek out someone who has the same coach as you, or to find any topic or comment that has been made about anything. Just enter it in the search field, and you will be taken to that information.

 

FMCA has coordinated with the developers of the RVillage site and is excited to be an early adopter. RVillage will be a wonderful tool to help us keep FMCA and its chapters strong and connected.