What ever happened to the WBCCI Full-Timers Intraclub? I was stumbling around the internet and I came across this link and checked around a little more and it would appear that this is no longer an intraclub. But I can't understand why it isn't...
With the prevalence of full timers and presumably many of them WBCCI members AND with the availability of intranet in so many locations (allowing for this community to stay connected) it seems a natural that the WBCCI Full-Timers Intraclub should be alive and doing quite well...
Does anybody have any history on this and what happened to them? Are they still around?
It's a trend that's starting with both Intraclubs and Regions. The full timers club disbanded this year in Perry. It was due to nothing more than a lack of volunteers willing to come forward and serve as officers. Poof -- no more Full Timers Intraclub.
The topic covered more than just Intraclubs though. There was a motion brought forward to establish a procedure for Regions to merge too. I believe it was Region 4 (can't recall) that was having difficulties finding officers to serve and they also thought that as a Region they would have to dissolve -- to merge with another region. I guess at the last minute they found an officer or two so the threat was eliminated.
That's really too bad. People struggling to hold onto something that clearly is no longer needed. Region 4 surprisingly is one of the largest regions in the club -- by my count its the 4th largest region with 622 members and they were having trouble finding people to make the six year commitment.
With 25,000 member families at its peak in 1978 I'm guessing each region once represented ~2,000 member families each. Now the club is burdened by the financial overhead of 12 regions with six regions representing less than 500 members each.
If we had real leaders they'd be talking about how to scale the number of regions back -- merging regions and maybe even giving those vacant IBT positions to focus groups -- intraclubs -- within the club. VAC - CAC - Life Members - Motor Home Members.
What Region do you hear offering to merge with an adjoining region because it's what's best for the club? NIMBY -- the lure of the Red Coat is akin to Golem and the ring. Ah me precious -- must have me precious -- MUST HAVE ME PRECIOUS!
One problem that would have to be solved if Regions were merged, is the expectation that Region Officers attend so many Unit, State, and Special Event Rallies in their Regions. As the geographic area increases, the number of people potentially willing to come forward to serve (and travel so much further) may actually decrease. I think smaller Regions makes it more likely that reluctant people will serve in a pinch (like happened in Region 4 this year). If the area is larger, that may not happen.
And quite frankly, I don't see why Region offices are 2 years each, when Unit and International offices are 1 year each. I think this is a deterrent to people coming forward as well. A six year committment is significant.
__________________ Joe WBCCI/VAC #5533
'94 28' Excella / '05 Hummer H2
(and casually seeking a vintage AS)
I don't disagree. Hopefully you'll be able to alternate locations of incoming R2VPs. Maybe if one year terms were considered you'd need to have R3VPs and make it a four year commitment. It sounds a lot more reasonable than six years.
I don't think the visiting requirements must come from the 3 (ROFL) elected Region Officers. Each region has a whole slew of appointed region officers and any and all could fulfill visitation requirements.
Why hasn't any of this already happened? Are our Region Officers merely walking the walk -- or do they have their eye on the club's future? A 30 year downward spiral should have brought some of these things to light years ago -- no?
Hey Bum`As a new member, coud you explain how the budget is affected by having more regions? I have seen many posts stating that the extra regionns are a financial burden, but don't know to what extent they are,or any estimations on savings if regions were to be combined. I'm not pro or con anything, just curious how much this really impacts.
There are a lot of things that we, as individual members could do. I like the idea of a full timers intra club, but even though I am full time, I am "home" a few weeks out of the year. Time is hard to budget. For example, I registered the URL wbcci.us is under construction and was going to purchase 5 mailboxes on a hosted MS Exchange Server. I wanted to see if there would be interest in "corporate quality" secure email, and a means to exchange information with shared folders with the Outlook client, but there was 0 interest, even free of costs to anyone that wanted to try to make a go at it. The site and my costs for the mailboxs was going to run about USD200 a month for a year, plus my time to develope the site, contents, try to get some sponsors, software purchase costs, etc.
I still own the URL, MS Web Expessions and the other stuff I need to create the site are ready, maybe I'll revisit it later if there is an interest. It was for fun, not a profit. I think we are all to busy to have fun?
Cheers~michael
__________________
I'm a true bum, working less and living longer.
Consider this... A big topic at this years IBT meeting was that we're running in the red for '07/'08. There were discussions where the RV Parks directory will now be discontinued (unless those RV parks that will give WBCCI members discounts are willing to pony up $25 to be listed). There was also considerable discussion about how we can't afford to copy sets of forms and mail them around the country to units.
As for your mailbox solution there is a big internet initiative that is coming online. Start here:
Then contact your Unit Prez to get an email account. It's based on Gmail and all of the GMail applications (sharing documents / calendars, etc..). It's a very good package but getting units to get on board with it with members following could be a long haul.
One problem that would have to be solved if Regions were merged, is the expectation that Region Officers attend so many Unit, State, and Special Event Rallies in their Regions. As the geographic area increases, the number of people potentially willing to come forward to serve (and travel so much further) may actually decrease. I think smaller Regions makes it more likely that reluctant people will serve in a pinch (like happened in Region 4 this year). If the area is larger, that may not happen.
And quite frankly, I don't see why Region offices are 2 years each, when Unit and International offices are 1 year each. I think this is a deterrent to people coming forward as well. A six year committment is significant.
Several years ago there was a proposal to merge several regions. I forget who was IP at the time, but that was one occasion when there was an effort to do something IMHO which would benefit the club. However, as I recall the membership voted this effort down. I suspect the sentiment I heard most at the time was the reason, that being the Regions would be too large creating a longer distance to travel to the Region rally. Probably the thought of Region Officer travel also entered into that. Some also did not want to lose their Region's identity.
I wonder if we would really miss a few of those region officer visits. In this day and age and with financial problems galore, they could get a lot of their input from email in lieu of face to face visits. Besides very little of the input goes any farther than that visit unless it is in support of their agenda.
There also has been an effort in the past to reduce region office terms to one year instead of two. This one I believe was killed by IBT, but I don't recall their rationale. I agree it is a deterrent to getting officers to serve. Six years is a long committment.
__________________
If you don't wear a white hat, at least smile so we can tell you from the bad guys" anon
It's a trend that's starting with both Intraclubs and Regions. The full timers club disbanded this year in Perry. It was due to nothing more than a lack of volunteers willing to come forward and serve as officers. Poof -- no more Full Timers Intraclub.
The Full timers club -- just a preview of future much needed events...
__
As a former member of the Full Timers Club I can say that they used to have a very informative newsletter. That was probably our number one reason for joining them years ago, and until two months ago we were actually full timers in the strictest sense - no other home. We saw the newsletter decline in frequency and quality as the numbers declined. Before you ask why we did not jump in and try to save the club, I was involved with a unit and another intra-club and doing both newsletters at the time. The FTC tried to boost membership by selling it as a state of mind (not a bad idea IMHO), so you could be on the road only a week or two a year and still think like a full timer and thus be eligible for membership, but even this could not save the FTC. Ultimately the lack of members willing to serve as officers was the straw that broke the proverbial camels back.
__________________
If you don't wear a white hat, at least smile so we can tell you from the bad guys" anon
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