AREA VICE PRESIDENT COMMENTS

Great Lakes Area Chapter President/National Director

Les Naylor

National AVP Eastern Area FMCA

By now you have received two rather disturbing emails outlining actions taken by your elected AVP. The information shared is from the perception of the FMCA President. Accusations that the AVPs have been having illegal meetings, think only of themselves, not caring for FMCA, etc..

The AVPs feel the time has arisen their story be told.

During the week of March 9^th, 2020, the world turned upside down. Some of the AVPs were on their way to Tucson, AZ for the winter FMCA convention. Those not on their way had the RVs packed and ready to head West. You all know the story. Some of you were prepared to head in that direction. On Friday March 13, 2020, the Executive Board was given the historical task to vote on continuing with the convention, putting 2,000 plus of our members in a life-threatening position, or cancel the event. You know the rest of the story. FMCA had to address the most fair and best way to refund our convention attendees, membership numbers were dropping, and the summer convention would probably have to be canceled. Tough times requiring tough decisions.

There was little recovery time for anyone. Retreating to  safe places. Receiving daily reports from the FMCA CEO informing of the closing of the FMCA office. Laying off of staff. All the frustrating decisions related to immediate necessary changes and writing the guide books in the process. First priority was the correct way of conducting business minus an annual meeting that was to be held in Lincoln Nebraska in August. The FMCA President and the CEO did a stellar job in researching and informing the AVPs what was ahead.

With no income from two National Conventions and a million dollars of certificates to be distributed, the FMCA turned to the AVPs for decision making sessions on a frequent basis. By the end of April, the AVPs found that even though they were living in the “communication age” the AVPs were having difficulty in making decisions without adequate consultation. (Remember there are ten AVPs representing ten different Regions.) There was a need to agree on decisions for the overall well-being of FMCA. Plus, direction from the FMCA President had been given to the AVPs to have input into the 2021 budget.

So, the AVPs created a Zoom Account. Why not go through FMCA IT department? Remember the staff is working from home and  they did not need the extra burden. The first zoom call was May 7, 2020.  It was a very productive gathering, but only the beginning of addressing not only the budget but other concerns and challenges facing FMCA in the near future. These were not secret workshops nor were they meetings.

The second zoom call was the following Thursday, May 14, 2020. Although directed by the FMCA President to work toward making suggestions for the budget, rumblings of alleged “secret”, “illegal”, and alleged abuse of By Laws and P&P discussion groups had begun.

Between the third and fourth AVP zoom call, FMCA President sent an email to the AVPs stating something to the effect that he had consulted with the FMCA attorney. The attorney informed the President that although the zoom calls were not illegal, they were unhealthy to the organization since the entire Executive Board was not invited.

It was the decision of the AVPs that the business at hand was too important to yield to “rumblings.” Two more zoom calls were held. During the third zoom call we began putting on paper our recommendations and concerns to be discussed at the EB meeting scheduled for June 5^th.

These recommendations and concerns were forwarded to Penny Gortemiller, Head of FMCA Chapter Services Department, Friday evening May 29^th. Notification of receipt of document was returned to the sender. (The document is available upon request and in the President’s report.)

You have heard the saying hind sight is better than foresight. The AVP preparing the document regrets the wording of one recommendation. It was recommended that assist be taken out of the budget and dues lowered to $50. As long as a similar insurance could be offered at a reasonable cost to the members. Rightfully so, the finance committee formed their budget around this recommendation.

The zoom call on the day these recommendations were finalized, two pro assist AVPs were not present. Note, these were not meetings, but a straw vote was taken to keep this in the recommendations. This was against the better judgement of at least half the AVPs. In the current situation of a no annual meeting until 2021, the AVPs are not only voting as Executive Board but also as directed by the President vote as the Governing Board. At Minot, it was an overwhelming majority vote by the Governing Board to keep assist and raise the dues by $25. I hope you can understand the dilemma the AVPs were in regarding this vote.

To complicate things, the results of an unofficial survey  shared with the membership a few hours before the zoom call on June 4^th, came to the AVPs attention. The survey was sent upon the approval by the FMCA President on behalf of one anti assist AVP. Over 3000 members responded immediately. The survey was simple, two questions. If you voted today would you keep assist and have the dues remain at $75 or would you prefer to have assist dropped and the dues go back to $50. The vote was 75% keep assist, keep the dues at $75.

When the AVPs were asked to approve the budget minus assist and dues at $75. The vote was 10 to 2 against said budget. A tremendous amount of thought and work had gone into the budget by the finance committee. So not approving said budget created the process of going line by line creating a budget with assist. The tension created by this was high. An AVP made a motion to stop the process and allow time for open dialogue on the change be permitted. The AVP was immediately informed by FMCA President that this was out of order. (The recording of the EB meeting held by video conferencing on June 5^th is available for viewing upon request from the FMCA office.)

The rest is pretty much history. You received the first email from the FMCA President on Monday June 15, 2020. The second came on Wednesday June 17, 2020.

As an  AVP, endless hours are spent each week doing what you and  other members entrusted your confidence to be done for the betterment of FMCA. There are four AVPs leaving the board on August 29, 2020. These four are working very hard transitioning their newly elected AVPs into their position.

Dealing with threats and misinformation has made this job very difficult. The AVPs are reaching out to you to express your concerns to the FMCA President.