Our first chapter rally is now history.  We had 37 who had signed for the rally, but we had two cancel because of illness and two no-shows, leaving us with 33 coaches.  (see report elsewhere)  I was certainly pleased with the response and I believe everyone had an enjoyable time despite the 95 plus heat.

      Our Chapter was highlighted in the Family Coach magazine in August, now everyone should know we are an International FMCA Chapter.  Thanks to Dutch Souder for the fine write up.  Several memberships were generated from this printing and some e-mails were received.

      We have had good response in people saying they will plan a rally and several rallies are listed in this newsletter.  We hope to see many more of you at a rally in the future.  If you are interested in planning a rally for your region, please let an officer know.

      Rumor has it that there may be a Branson, MO Rally in the future.  Is that true, John & Mary Boka?

      Will the couple that got the FMCA coffee mug with the crooked decal please let us know if you want to exchange it.

Happy traveling,

Jim Campbell

      The business meeting for our chapter was held at the International Convention in Ames, Iowa.  It was well attended with 80 family units represented.

      Prior to the opening of the meeting Ginger Painter, FMCA International Area V. President shared remarks.  Vince Monza, General Manager of Plant 44 of Fleetwood at Decatur, IN shared information regarding manufacture of Fleetwood products in Decatur.  He stated that in the future the Sales & Marketing Division would be working with the chapter.  The corporate office, engineering and design are located in Riverside, CA.  Larry Rogers, Service Manager and Mike Tribble, Product Sales Specialist at Decatur gave informative comments and answered questions, particularly regarding the 2000 series.

      The business meeting was called to order and the secretary's report was read and accepted.  The treasurer reported income of $3,715 with expenses of $726.22, with a balance of $2,988.78.  He also reported that we had a membership of 143 to date of meeting.

      The nominating committee chaired by Marilyn Souder presented the slate for officers.  Nominations were accepted as presented and elected into office by members present.

      Jim thanked Marilyn, Virginia Wampler & Willard Cazzell for the fine job of obtaining these people and their willingness to serve their chapter.

      Jim appointed a by-law revision and standing rules committee:  Dutch Souder, chairperson, Bob Nelson and Lois Campbell.

Standing rules passed regarding rallies:

1. Fees are set by the rally master

2. Fees shall cover all expenses of a rally

3. Refund policy:  Refund in full if cancellation is received and confirmed by the rally master two weeks before a rally unless contracted fees cannot be changed; then refunded will be at the discretion of the rally master.  Refunds will be at the discretion of the rally master for cancellations less than two weeks that are for medical reasons.

      Griff Livingston gave an excellent report on the Pre-Rally in Middle Amana and Ron Hyslop, National Director reported on the Governing Board Meeting of FMCA that he and Marilyn Souder attended.  (see report elsewhere)

Middle Amana Attendees

      The first Discovery Int'l. Rally was held July 22-25 in Middle Amana, IA.  There were just over thirty coaches from MA to FL and from MD to CA.  It was a great opportunity to place faces with names.  The rally started off in the afternoon on Thursday with an amazing array of goodies at our potluck social.

      Friday morning we headed to the Ox Yoke Inn in Amana for breakfast.  John & Grace Jailor made arrangements for this place to open just to serve us.  Everything that you ever imagined for breakfast was served up family style.  (After breakfast there were a lot of sightings of D owners across the street at the free wine tasking!)  The rest of the afternoon was spent on individual tours of the Amana colonies.  The day ended with a potluck supper and the beginning of many new friendships.

      Saturday was more discovering the Amana colonies and then a family style dinner at Zuber's restaurant.  Again thanks to the Jailor's for sharing this with us.  I know that so far, if you were not at the rally, you must be thinking all that we did was gain twenty pounds each!  But...

      There were some great seminars - coach customizing - there were four Discoverys on display with unbelievable upgrades - some homemade, some factory installed.  Many notes were taken on this one.

      Digital Photography--After all that food, Bill Scheerer still managed o pack 21 people into his D to give a very informative seminar on digital photography.

      Freightliner had a rep come and give another seminar with lots of questions to answers and answers to questions.  Fleetwood also gave a seminar and gave the D owners a chance to pre-register for service at the FMCA Rally.

      Speaking of the FMCA Rally...After having more food (donuts and coffee on Sunday morning), we dumped holding tanks, lined up and caravanned to Ames.  What a beautiful site, all those pretty D's in a row.  A lot of Iowa citizens stood up and took notice when we went by!  The trip to Ames was smooth and safe.  We arrived at the FMCA Convention and parked together as a club.

      Jim and Lois Campbell, Ron and Sarah Hyslop, Bill and Nancy Scheerer and John and Grace Jailor worked like crazy to get this off the ground and they did a great job!  I'm happy to report that there was much talk about future rallies.

Reported by Griff Livingston

      Mark your calendars for November 4, 5 & 6, 1999.  It's the dates for the "Fun in the Sun Discovery Rally," to be held at the Sunshine Travel Resort in Vero Beach, FL.

      Rally masters Bill & Nancy Scheerer have planned several activities to make this a memorable weekend. Starting on Thursday, we will have a Get Acquainted Party at 4:30 P.M. 'til?  Each attendant is asked to bring finger food to share, and your own beverage.

      At 10:00 A.M. Friday we will take a plant tour of Piper Air Craft to see how airplanes are made. Then at 1:00 P.M. there is the optional ($) Sebastian River Boat Cruise aboard the River Queen.  This is a 2-1/2 to 3 hour long boat trip seeing the wildlife of the river and some of the beautiful homes along the river shore.  Friday evening is open for dining out with your new found friends.

      Saturday morning is the DISCOVERY OPEN miniature golf tournament.  At 6:00 PM that evening will be dinner at the fabulous Captain Hiram's Restaurant on the Sebastian River.

      8:00 A.M. Sunday morning will be a pitch in breakfast.  Those with even numbered campsites bring fresh fruit, those with odd numbered campsites bring pastries.

      Volunteers are needed to help with the rally.  Any golfers out there who are attending, we need someone to run the Discovery Open. Please contact Bill or Nancy if you are willing to help.

Bill & Nancy Scheerer

      Do you know what member of the fairer sex has "Discovery" embroidered on her bra?  None other than Virginia Wampler and her husband George.  Their burgundy "bra" is quite striking on their Discovery.  Virginia celebrated a special birthday the day of our business meeting.  A big congratulations to her and may she enjoy many traveling days in the coming year.

      If your RV dealer would like to sponsor one of our newsletters we will give them a half page ad for the price of $150.00.  We would need to receive from them camera ready art work for the ad.  The $150.00 will cover the cost of producing the newsletter and cover the cost of postage.

      Discovery International was represented by Marilyn Souder, Alt. Nat'l. Director and myself, with only one vote per chapter.

      For those not familiar with the Governing Board, it is the main policy making body for FMCA and consists of a representative from each chapter in FMCA.  There were 341 Nat'l. Directors present out of a potential of 407 voting units.

      While the meeting lasted almost twelve hours, I will summarize the highlights.  Don Eversmann, Executive Director, gave a report of his activities since he came to FMCA.  He covered 5 issues:  Nat'l. Office space requirements, with rearrangements, now adequate for 5-10 years; a permanent convention site, now part of the Long Range Planning Project; the message service has dropped from an average of 11,000 calls per month to 6,000 since the implementation of the $5/month fee; The FMC magazine will be available at Borders and Barnes & Noble book stores after Feb 99; and the organization of FMCA will now be part of the Long Range Planning Project.

      The FMCA Website (www.fmca.com) has been upgraded, 14% of the convention registrations and 8% of new memberships have been received through the Website.

      A budget for the next fiscal year for $15,200,000 was approved and a special allocation of $150,000 was also approved for the Long Range Planning Project.

      President Charlie Atkinson also gave a report of his first year in office.  He stated that there are 116,557 active members and that the latest number assigned as of July 15 was 264,376.  He also reported that our invested reserves now total $1,050,000 and to date are earning approximately 9%.

      He touched on the new Chapter Spotlight feature in the magazine.  (Note:  Discovery International is the featured chapter in the August issue.

      Charlie stated that he and his wife have attended every area rally since being elected and they also attended several chapter rallies.

      A vote was taken to approve the action taken by the Executive Committee, to loan the International Area $20,000 to help organize an International Area Rally in Quartzite, AZ in January 2000.

      The following National Officers were elected: President, Charlie Atkinson; Sr. Vice President, Ed Ruese; and Secretary, Jim Jennings.

      If anyone would like more details on any of the subjects, please contact me at my e-mail address:  saron@prodigy.net 

Ron  Hyslop

National Director

      At the suggestion of one of our members, Jan Menke F260259, we are starting a "JUST ASK" column where you can post questions to the chapter.

      Jan asked: Has any member tried the wide wheels from ELLIS SAFEWIDE on any motor coach?  She reported that they are made in Discovery size.  Let us know and we will publish the responses and if you have a question, JUST ASK!

      The convention was held on the campus of Iowa State University, July 27-29.  We were parked in a grassy field about 4 miles from the convention sites held in various campus buildings.  We had to take a bus to all the happenings.  Since it was very hot we were also hot!  Luckily the buildings were air conditioned, and we could run our generators all the time.  There were lots of seminars to attend and a large area of vendors to visit.  The evening entertainment was very good and of course we found some good restaurants in which to eat.

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