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Date Posted |
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RE: Chattanooga
Check the 2 state parks in the area, nice, cheap, we used the national park golden access card and got the sites for half price...
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mdock2
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11/24/08 03:56pm |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: One night Atlanta area stop
Make that 3 for high Falls State Park. We stayed there while awaiting a part for the RV. Was nice, no cell coverage..
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mdock2
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11/24/08 01:48pm |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: Washington DC area Campground????
Hey Everybody,
Thanks for the input, from what I can tell, the campground is Greenbelt. If I remember correctly, the CG billed it's self as being the closest to the DC area. But keep thinking it started with a "A", or was located in a area the started with a "A". But whichever, Greenbelt will suit the bill for July 09.
Thanks Again.....
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mdock2
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07/28/08 09:40am |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: Pac brake lubrication
and what if, as in my case where i got the unit used, and in the last year have put 5k miles on it and come to find out that the brake had frozen (rusted), so any ideas on how to correct this problem short of buying a new one for 1k plus.. Am taking it to the shop and having a cut off installed on the air line at the brake till I'm able to find a fix... Any other suggestions would help!!!!!
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mdock2
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07/27/08 09:36pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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Washington DC area Campground????
A few years ago, I found a Public Campground close to the DC area, but now I'm unable to remember it's name or where it's located, suffering from CRS, anyone able to assist.
tks
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mdock2
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07/27/08 09:17pm |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: escapee vs FMCA
My 2 cents worth. We're not members of Escapees, but a member of FMCA. We attended our first rally in Brooksville this past year. But in all fairness before I go on, the issues I'll address here were addressed with Connie Poole, and I received a response from her, and I have seen a few changes come down the pike for the upcoming Rally. As first time rally attendee's we found the Rally staff (volunteer's) that we had direct contact with to be be rude, uninformative, and it was as if they were looking down their nose at us, (we were some of the youngest members there (Late 40's). Everything that you could think of happen, from given wrong information at the Information desk, to being yelled at by volunteers. Needless to say, we were not happy nor were we impressed with FMCA or most of it's members. We were with 2 other couples, but since we didn't arrive together we were put into different locations (not a problem), but the other couples had the same issues as we did. All 3 couples wrote connie, and we all received responses back. Only time will tell if they listened to us, or just giving us lip service, but again in all fairness, it appears that some changes are underway..
If anyone would like to read the letters, please let me know and i'll forward them to you...
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mdock2
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06/30/08 06:31pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Total electrical failure in DutchStar
thanks for th4 input, will start looking for breakers from the rear forward. did find today that the exhust brake was stuck in the on position, which accounts for the added heat, after new one installed, will look for exhust leaks. Why don't they put all the breakers/fuse together in different locations in the MH, would make it a lot easier to fix things.....
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mdock2
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06/27/08 09:26pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Total electrical failure in DutchStar
We also have a 98 Dutchstar Cat, and are having the same problem. whatever it is trips when I'm puting the jacks down, 1 side ok, other side half way down will trip, and cause a total shut down. On our last trip out, the unit shut down just as we were rolling to a stop. It has only started the rolling shut down since i added a heat sheild in the engine compartment. The only thing in the area of the heat sheild is the breather, hoses and a computer module. out next trip out i'm going to put heat sheild over the module and see if that stopps the rolling shut downs. I've also noticed that the engine temp has gone up since adding the sheild also. Am thinking about adding fans after i have the engine checked for leaks. Any suggestions would help....
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mdock2
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06/26/08 10:51pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Surprise Surprise
just got back from trip to the mountains in 38'Dutchstarwith cat/allision in mode from Fl.(I-75 from G-ville to I-40 to Newport, Tn and Back), ran 1700rpms up with cruise, got 10.2mpg with dash air. trip back, used Genset with a/c and ran between 1800 and 1850 rpm, got 8.2mpg. in my book, 1700rpms is way to go, took longer, but cost less.
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mdock2
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06/24/08 08:24pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Just spent the night at High Falls state park in GA.
We spent the night at high Falls, while waiting for a part to come in. We were in D loop, it was nice. Had a little problem at the top of the hill making the right turn on the the d loop road, don't think it was set up for a 38 footer, had to go in on the left side (wrong way on 1 way street) and then turned around in one of the center sites. Had a great time, just wife and I. Was nice to have a late check out time. Will be returning to this campground..
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mdock2
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06/23/08 10:40am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: camping myrtlebeach
My 2 cents.. will never stay at Ocean Lakes again. Found it to be way over priced, access roads not suitable for big rigs. Security needs to learn a few things about big rigs. Was made to make a U turn and come in another open gate.
The 50.00 plus dollars a nite that we paid off season could well have been spent somewhere else and will be next time....
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mdock2
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06/20/08 12:13am |
Campgrounds, Resorts and Attractions
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RE: Addition of Insulation to Diesel Engine Compartment??
I had/have the same problem with my dutchstar, to the point that the bed it's self gets hot. i went to home depot and lowes and found a good heat sheild about 1/2 inch thick with aluminum on each side. I added it on to the doghouse walls and under the bed. It did work all but for a strip about 6 inches wide that I didn't see at the time, right at the endcap of the unit. The heat sheild cost 28.00 dollars and was well worth it. It is 24 inches wide, so 1 roll will do it. I just bolted to the walls. FYI, I'm also being told to have the unit checked as their may be a engine leak causing the heat build up.
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mdock2
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06/20/08 12:01am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: RV Mechanic needed - Atlanta, GA Area
We just had emergency work done this past Friday at Georgia Truck, R.V. & Performance Service center, Hwy 36 west, Jackson, Ga. Ph # 770-233-8170 on our unit. found them to be good and fair on prices. cost me 75.00 in labor compaired to Freightliner in Jefferson who wanted 415.00 for the same job...
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mdock2
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06/16/08 10:57pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Camping World St. Augustine,FL RV Sales
I live 30 miles from St. Austine CW, we spent 5 years looking for our dream, went to grand opening of St. A CW. told salesman what I wanted and what I WAS going to pay. Well he didn't take me for my word, and just had to show me these high end units. By that time we had already been looking for 3 years, and imho, most the new units we looked at were nothing but junk, fake this, fake that, etc. We left. Went back a few times after that, same song and dance. I believe in one simple business belief - - TELL the TRUTH - -. if i'm buying, I know what I want and what I can afford... Listen if you want my busines. By the time I got my unit here at a local dealership on consignment. I paid cash and I thint I got a good deal and we are very happy with our 1998 Dutchstar DP with 25k miles and A+ inside and out. We did find a unit at St. A CW, but then we could not find a salesman to answer our questions, but saw a number of Sales golfcarts running the lot, but no one stopped. The main thing I learned from those 5 years was that I DID NOT want nothing to with RV dealerships in Florida. but it's not only CW, we were in Jax., one afternoon looking at a HR with 88K miles, I noticed a tear in the flooring in the kitchen, and asked the salesman if that would be fixed. his response was NO, I was buying it as is.. well sorry, if I buying something for 100K, u damn well better fix it.. I just looked at him said, you just lost your deal, have a nice day and walked away, his response to us was, good luck, U not going to find anything for that price.... Sometimes they forget, They have jobs only because we have the money to spend on the products they are selling.
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mdock2
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06/16/08 10:42pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: FMCA
Someone had to ask.
Greetings Mrs. Pool, Mr. Stubbs, Mr. Eversman and Mr. Schrenkel ,
I just returned from the S.E.A. 08 Rally. As a first time attendee and the rally being my first exposure as a new member of FMCA, I must say that if everyone had the issues I had, I would really be impressed if the event draws half the coaches that were there this year. As said many times, if you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.
First off, I ask how do you put on a event and not know what the people want? No where did I see any means to provide feedback on regards to the rally. My wife and I sat in the tent for the meet your officers on Wednesday, and no time were we advised on how to address issues that came up with volunteers or how to provide feedback.
Second, Every volunteer but 1 that I had direct contact with I found to be very rude and unhelpful. Before I go any further, I do want to explain about the 1 volunteer that we ran in to that I found to pleasant and conducted himself in a positive manner. This gentleman was on the runway on Monday assisting with traffic control. While sitting in the coach waiting instructions, he step to my window and asked how things were going, where we were from, if we were a member of a chapter, and then encouraged us to join one to further expand our enjoyment in FMCA. Now on to the rest of the story. My very first contact with any volunteers was with the parking crew on Sunday afternoon, and the best way to explain this is to refer to the movie “Grumpy Old Men”, as that was the way they conducted themselves. After parking my coach, my wife and I went to check in at the information tent. We drove to the information tent to check in. I admit that I didn’t see the stop sign across from the Information tent, but I was going so slow that a volunteer from Security was able to step in front of my moving vehicle and step to the driver’s side window and began to yell at me that I needed to stop at that sign from now on or I would be asked to leave. This volunteer was so loud that people across the street stopped and turned in our direction to see just what was going on. We then went on to the Information tent. After turning in our locator card, I was directed to the other table for our “goodie bag”, before it was even handled to us the volunteer began to advise me that I was required to wear my name tag at all times, and because I didn’t have it on, she would be unable to give the bag to me, but could give the bag to my wife. After the lecture, I took my hat off, and showed her my name tag that was displayed on the front of my hat. Her only response then was “oh, I didn’t see it”, with nothing else said, we left. My next contact with a volunteer was on Tuesday, when I was waiting for a bus (I’ll address the bus issue later) as I sat for 30 minutes at a stop waiting for a bus, a volunteer in a cart stopped and yelled out if I wanted a ride, when I said yes, her next question was If I was handicap, which I am disabled, but I don’t use it for special treatment. When I didn’t answer at first, wondering what difference that made, she asked again, I responded by saying somewhat, she then told me that since I didn’t have the sticker on my name Tag, she was not to pick me up, but she would this time and if I was handicap as I said, I needed to go to some tent and get the sticker so people would know. I then went to the information booth and asked where one of the vendors was located, the volunteer looked at me and said, I don’t know, and then pointed out into the field and said out there somewhere. By this time I was already starting to get a sour taste in my mouth with the rally. I found the vendor on my own (was not in the direction the volunteer pointed to). I then went to my first class, which was titled Elec. Systems (another snake oil salesman). After that I went to another class, and after 20 minutes of him talking about the product he had for sale, I left. ! thing that my wife pointed out and wanted noted was that when we arrived on Sunday, there was no mention of the 1st timer ribbon, but on Wednesday, my wife saw our friends with them and asked where they obtained them from, she was advised that they had been given to them upon check-in. Well maybe had we been given the ribbons things would have been different, who knows. My next contact with a volunteer was on Thursday, when I was going out to the field where friends of ours were parked. I was stopped by a volunteer wanting to know where I was going and then went on to tell me that I was not allowed back there. When I asked why, he said that I had to part of the rally and not a visitor. I then showed him the name tag I was wearing around neck and pointed to the decal on the window, which had been placed in the center of the window in front of the mirror where I had been instructed to place it. His response was oh, I guess it’s alright if you go on then. Then Friday came along and another volunteer contact. My wife had been looking forward to the Ice Cream Social, but we were unable to locate our tickets. We approached the volunteer who was passing out the ice cream and told him that we had lost our tickets, he responded that if we didn’t have the tickets we couldn’t have the ice cream, as it was given by a sponsor and had to be accounted for. I then offered to pay for it. He said he didn’t know how much to charge, but without the ticket, we couldn’t have any. He didn’t tell us where to go to get more tickets, or anything, so we just left. Now for the best part, (and Yes Mr. Schrenkel, you are going to hear about it again), Saturday night after the show myself and 2 other couples were parked by the entertainment tent talking about where we were going to go for ice cream. We were not blocking traffic or anything, but all of a sudden, a cart comes racing up against the traffic flow, and this man starts yelling and jumping out of his cart, demanding that we move our vehicles as a rescue unit is behind him, he continues to yell at us demanding that we move right away. On the cart I see that it is the Safety Officer. We went on and my wife and I park by the main gate to wait for our friends, we waited about 10 minutes before the first emergency response vehicle arrived. And I’m still in a state of disbelief, the emergency vehicle arrived with it’s lights flashing and then was escorted by a golf cart at maybe 10 miles per hour. About 5 minutes later the rescue unit arrives and went onto the scene. Before I address a few issues, I must say that I am sorry for that families loss in the death of the gentleman in the coach. And now for The Safety Officer, one would think, that to be appointed to this position he would have the experience in dealing with people and stressful events, thus it’s no excuse for his conduct or demeanor displayed Saturday night, regardless of what was going on. Sunday morning when I went to discuss this issue with Mr. Schrenkel, I felt that the end result was me receiving lip service.
Now, you have read about my expenice at the rally, let me address a few things. But let me say, I realize how hard the volunteers work prior to during and after the events, and I do not believe in bashing them but in the cases I addressed, maybe the screening process of the volunteers needs to be reviewed or started and prior to the event a extended class on public relations and stress management maybe in order.
1. The volunteers are extensions of the FMCA President, what if I had been one of the sponsors? What would my impression be of FMCA.
2. In Emergency Services you are reactive, but in emergency management you are pro-active. So the response I received from Mr. Schrenkel was off the wall regarding the emergency vehicle having to be escorted to the scene because the crew didn’t know where to go.
First off, why wasn’t a detailed map of the event with the location of the coaches provide to emergency services prior to the event.
Second, why was a golf cart used to escort the emergency vehicle, why not a motor vehicle, as in any emergency minutes count. The time saved just maybe could have made a difference for this gentleman
Third, with the age of the membership present, why wasn’t a rescue unit on site for the entire event?
Fourth, signs could have been in place for directions for emergency services.
3. I’ve worked with volunteers for the last 18 some years, the one thing that I stress is that you have to make a good impression when dealing with the public, and if you have a problem with someone, do not be the bad guy, call the boss or make a note of it and let the boss take care of it later, cause that’s what he gets paid for.
4. It appears that we are not the normal FMCA member, as both of us are under 50, retired and already have our dream coach and are not full-timers. It seems that I read something not long ago about FMCA wanting to recruit younger members, well as part of that “target” group, with what I saw this past week, you have a long way to go and a lot of changes to be made to meet that goal.
5. This was my 3rd Rally, the 1st being the Good Sam rally in Daytona. We enjoyed ourselves so much, we flew to Redmond for last years Good Sam rally. Would I do that for a FMCA rally, NO!!! The sad thing was we had been looking forward to attending the S. E. A. rally, but then to be subjected to so many distasteful events during the rally, at this point I don’t see us attending another one, nor do I see us even recommending attendance at any rally or even membership in FMCA. I could have saved my money and drove down for the day, it would have been less stressful. What I don’t understand is why I saw so many coaches leave before the rally was over.
6. As I expressed to Mr. Schrenkel, Had I raised my voice to a volunteer, I would be having a 1 on 1 meeting with him, explaining myself, but it appeared to be common practice for the volunteers to conduct themselves in this matter, with no recourse. I retired after 28 years in a position that required that I be confrontational, now, that’s the last thing I want to do, but it appears that maybe that is the acceptable demeanor to have in FMCA.
7. We attend rallies to learn about the RV’ing lifestyle, and other aspects of RV’ing, I don’t want to pay to sit and listen to snake oil sales men tell me why there product is better then the other guys, I can research that on my own, I come to learn about RV’ing, my unit and to make new friends.
8. The Buses, If this years transportation plan was a major improvement over the years past, I would have hated to see what it was then. As I stated, I waited 30 minutes for a bus, during that time, I watched 3 buses go onto the west runway, never to return. A dispatcher is good to dispatch, but a schedule and a transfer point would have been better. One time, while I was on a bus returning to my coach, the bus I was on was on the rear bumper of the bus in front of us.
There is a lot more I can say, but I’m going to leave it at this, but I will issue this challenge to each of you. Explain to me why I should attend another rally or even continue my membership in FMCA, but please don’t insult me by giving the list of benefits in the book.
Please feel free to contact me for additional information.
Martin,
Thank you for taking the time to write about your experiences at the SEA 08 Rally. One of the purposes of the “First Timers’ Meet and Greet FMCA Officers and SEA Officers” is to let you know who the people are that can answer your questions, take your suggestions, receive compliment and complaints and work to correct situations.
I have known Charlie Schrenkel for a long time and I am positive he took your concerns seriously and did not give you what you believe to be as “lip service”. If he says he will take care of it, HE WILL TAKE CARE OF IT. He wants to hear the concerns and suggestions so he can make the SEA Rally even better next year. Charlie is the President of South East Area Association, one of ten areas within FMCA, and they works hard throughout the year to put on this event for the enjoyment of all.
FMCA relies a great deal on our volunteers in putting on an event such as the nine area rallies a year (SEA is only one of them) and two national conventions. At national conventions and most area rallies we do have a corps of supervisory personnel; however, the balance of our volunteers is first or second time volunteers. Although they receive some training for their volunteer position, there is no guarantee they understand the importance of people skills in doing their assigned tasks. Our volunteers come from all walks of life and we have a “limited” luxury of picking and choosing who can volunteer. We do refuse to use some individuals if they have demonstrated unfavorable performance in the past. Your suggestion of using a screening process in selection of volunteers and then provide an extended class on public relations and stress management are excellent ideas; however, we are unable to do so because of the nature of our last minute gatherings of the volunteers as they arrive at the area rally or national convention. Probably 50% are first time volunteers. It is apparent we need to increase our emphasis on personal interactions and greeting skills. We all continue to stress to our volunteers the importance of treating people the way they in turn would like to be treated. In the vast majority of instances, the volunteers do a superb job.
My husband, Corbett, has parked at national conventions in the past and he can tell you first hand, the parking crew takes a great deal of abuse from some of our members as they arrive. The members complain about long lines, sitting and waiting, how they are parked, where they are parked and so on. It is very difficult for the parking volunteers to always keep smiling when they have received a lot of verbal abuse. They are a very dedicated group of volunteers and it would be hard to hold any event without them. Charlie has assured me he will continue to put added emphasis on interaction with people as they arrive.
The stop sign you ran is at a very dangerous intersection with a lot of pedestrians, golf carts, cars, buses and trucks. It is a safety issue. No doubt it could have been handled more satisfactorily.
The information tent volunteer that said you could not have a goodie bag because you did not have a name badge was following the directions they received. Your badge needs to be readily visible so you can participate in all activities during the event and not be stopped and asked for your badge. If I recall it would be pretty tough for a person setting down to see a badge up on someone’s hat.
We have seminar volunteers that report back on attendance and content of seminar. The volunteers also reports if the seminar presenter is just selling their product. When we schedule seminar presenters they are instructed that it will not be “info commercial.” I have monitored seminars in the past given by vendors and the seminars are very informative with minimum reference to their product.
Emergency vehicles are escorted to the scene to insure they get to the right coach. We do not have site numbers and if is difficult enough for the emergency vehicle to find the lot and row let alone try to find the appropriate coach. It is faster to escort the vehicle to the site. The method of escorting will be reviewed for expediency and safety. The Safety Crews I have just appointed for the national conventions are both expertly trained; in fact both are professional trainers of fire departments and individual corporations. We also have onsite emergency medical personnel at all our national conventions. I will see what can be done to improve this area at area rallies under the leadership of the area Vice Presidents.
If you see or experience situations such as you did at SEA, please get the name of the volunteer and report it to those responsible for the rally. They can then try to get the situation corrected before it goes any further. The individuals responsible for the rally are sometimes hard to find, but you have the option to report the situation to any FMCA National Officer in attendance. At area rallies the National Officers are usually parked in a location easily accessible to all in attendance. At the SEA Rally, we were parked near the Entertainment Tent and had large red signs displayed on the front of our coaches.
I too am a baby boomer, having retired in 1993 at the age of 44. With my retirement, Corbett and I began volunteering at FMCA International Conventions and Area Rallies.
You are comparing the Good Sam’s “The Rally” to the SEA Rally which is one of areas rallies within FMCA. FMCA holds two International Conventions a year which are similar to “The Rally”. The FMCA International Conventions normally have 3,000 to 4,000 motorhomes in attendance, 600 to 800 display coaches, over 400 indoor vendors and 10 to 12 seminars going at the same time over a three day period. Our next International Convention is at Pomona, CA, February 25 -28, 2008, which is why I left the SEA Rally, Saturday morning. Our following Convention will be at St Paul, MN, July 14-17, 2008. These International Conventions are truly an experience that should not be missed. I hope you will plan to attend the St. Paul Convention and give FMCA a chance to show you just how good we really are. And don’t be foolish enough to discount those “benefits in the magazine”. Check out my article in the March magazine and see just how good they really are. Just to mention one, if you want to pay Good Sam $99 for emergency medical evacuation insurance that FMCA provides you FREE (at a cost of over $550,000.00 a year) that is also your option.
Martin, we do care. I sure hope you and Shirley come out to St Paul, relax, check it out and stop by our coach and let’s have your ideas first hand. Let’s also talk about how you as a volunteer can help make us a better organization that will appeal more to our age group. Oh yes, we have a critique sheet in the back of our convention program.
Connie
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mdock2
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02/22/08 03:01pm |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Perry RV show
Well, we'll be there also. Will be our 3rd GS rally, last year we flew to Redmond and did the day pass thing, the year before we day passed it also. We just got back from our first FMCA SEA Rally, most likly not be attending again, or renewing membership. to many rude volunteers. Am looking forward to GS Rally.
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mdock2
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02/17/08 12:02am |
Class A Motorhomes
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RE: Sprint Air Card
Million Dollar Question!!!
Can you use a air card (I have a sprint USB card) for vonage telephone service? 2 people have asked the tech's at vonage, and we got different answers, one was yes, the other no. has anyone tried it yet????
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mdock2
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02/14/08 10:14pm |
Technology Corner
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