We at Good Sam take particular pride in applying the powerful size of our organization and the enthusiasm of our members to protect and preserve the rights of all RVers, particularly in the legislative arena.

As more and more issues at the state and national levels develop, we want to more actively involve our members in the process. We’ve recently formed the Good Sam RV Owners Advisory Council, a small group of members, to do just that – provide RV industry personnel and legislators with direct input from RV owners on specific and pertinent issues. We are hopeful that this resource will prove to be a constructive communication channel with the RV industry, and by establishing this process of continuing dialogue, we can address issues of common concern for the benefit of both owners and those in the RV industry, gaining enhanced credibility of mutually adopted proposals.

Our Council members, Tom Gonser, (chair), Jan McNeill, Leo Everitt, and Bill Estes welcome your comments, and may be contacted at rvcouncil@goodsamclub.com. As issues arise, you may find a survey from the Council in your E-mail inbox. And we’ll keep you updated of their activities on this site.

In January 2007, Good Sam Club Executive Director Sue Bray announced the creation of a new volunteer entity—the Good Sam

RV Owners’ Advisory Council (RVOAC). I agreed to chair the effort during its first year. Our charter is to identify member issues and concerns that are of the greatest interest to RVers, to make recommendations to the Good Sam Club on matters of policy and legislative priority, to report periodically to the membership and to become a new “voice” for Good Sam members by communicating directly to the major players in the RV industry.

On June 14, 2006, RVOAC began its program to implement the last of these objectives when it met with the Board of Directors of the RV Industry Association (RVIA) in Washington, D.C.

First, some background is in order. The council’s first initiative, launched just days after its creation, was to conduct a member survey to establish priorities among the issues of greatest importance. The issues that ranked at the top were, in order, RV quality, RV service and adequate protection from state Lemon Laws. The clear message was essentially, “Build it right. Or if you don’t, get it fixed the first time, and if you can’t do either of those, we want access to Lemon Law protections.”

RVIA had taken note of RVOAC’s survey results and invited us to appear at its June board meeting. Bill Estes, one of our council members, assisted me with the presentation. During his introductory remarks, Mike Schneider, president and CEO of the Good Sam Club’s parent company, AGI, told RVIA’s board that through the creation of RVOAC, the Good Sam Club was committed to seeing that the interests and concerns of all one million members were fully represented and supported within the RV industry. Sue Bray was also present to complete this show of support for the work of the new council.

In my presentation to the board, I discussed in detail our survey findings and stressed our interest in bringing members’ concerns directly to the attention of the key industry players, including RVIA, the RV Dealer Association (RVDA) and the North American Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (ARVC). It has long been my opinion that part of the frustrations we have shared as RVers is that our concerns are not being heard. In the board presentation, I asked the question, “What is the industry doing to listen to the concerns of its RV buyers?”

However, I noted as well that the very fact I was there on behalf of RVOAC was itself a positive sign—and perhaps begins to answer that question. The case that I’d presented was one for establishing an ongoing dialogue between RVOAC, representing the very important concerns that we members have, and RVIA, which, of course, represents U.S. RV builders and suppliers.

As a former corporate attorney and executive director of the American Bar Association, I’m no stranger to doing presentations to boards of directors. I found the RVIA board to be an extremely interested and attentive group. And they asked very good questions, to which I believe we had equally good answers. At the end, we received a warm round of applause from the RVIA board.

No doubt, there are some people who would argue that the council’s approach should be simply to communicate negatives to the RVIA board. But that is not our approach. The council believes that there is much more to be gained by first establishing a working relationship with other industry group, and then using them to see that the RVers’ “message” is communicated to the persons most able to respond.

At this point, we’ve simply taken the first few steps toward our ultimate goal of representing the interests of all Good Sam members directly to the key industry groups. In doing so, we believe we can and will add greatly to the value of membership in the Good Sam Club.

Club members can submit comments and suggestions to rvcouncil@goodsamclub.com. Please note, however, that the council’s focus is on issues of concern to all RVers. It is not a “help line” for individual concerns.