FROM YOUR PRESIDENT
Hello Dogwood members. I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and that you are off to a great start for 2017. Susan and I enjoyed time with family and friends over Christmas and New Years, and then prepared for a 5 week trip to FL. We traveled with the Cumming’s for 3 weeks, and stops included the Tampa RV show, Lazy Days Resort, The Great Outdoors, and a week in Sebastian FL. From there, we headed to Patrick AFB in Cocoa and the Cummings headed to the Orlando area. We had the opportunity to visit with the Allen’s, Duff’s, Alexander’s, Joneses, Gruel’s,Chuilli’s, and Tilman’s. Susan and I also spent a day with the Sohles, and the Cummings had dinner with the Dykes. It was great to see everyone and we had a great trip. Home now and back to reality and some Dogwood business.
This is the first newsletter produced since your new Executive Board took office and it includessome new things Thanks to all who have provided inputs, and a special thanks to Paul who hasspent considerable time putting it together. We hope you enjoy it.
One important area that I believe FMCA at all levels needs to put additional emphasis on is SAFETY. As your President, it is within my authority to establish committees. With that said,and effective immediately, we will have a Safety Committee. Butch Jones has agreed to chair that committee and if he needs additional assistance, I will appoint additional members. Butch will include safety articles in each of our newsletters, and speak on safety at rallies he attends. This newsletter includes a safety checklist developed by Butch. We hope you print it and use it in your travels. Thank you Butch for stepping up.
At the Christmas rally we mentioned that the Cummings suggested getting shirts of some type for our chapter. A tentative design is being developed along with suggested colors and we hope to have it out to the membership in the near future. Thought is to start with T-shirts.
Over the past year or so, there has been much discussion about serving coffee at rallies. Some like coffee being served, others bring their own etc. To get a reading on the desires of club members concerning coffee, a questionnaire was sent out to all members with a suspense date of March 1st. The results of that questionnaire are included in this newsletter.
Other items/issues we will work on throughout the year include: totes, rally expense forms, and By-Law and Standing Rules changes. More later.
As we get into Spring and throughout the year, we have numerous National, Area and local rallies to attend and participate in. Let’s make 2017 a great year for Dogwood by hosting and supporting our rallies, and finding some new members along the way. Having fun will be great to.
Regards and SAFE travels,
Jim
