FMCA NATIONAL DIRECTOR’S REPORT – 2010
The NWTrek Fun Club closed out 2010 as a strong family. We enjoyed rallies together where we renewed old friendships and made new friends.
We started the year in April planning for the International FMCA convention to be held in Redmond, Oregon. Redmond Rocks was held August 11-14th at the Deschutes County Fair and Expo Center. Attendance was down, 2,282 coaches including commercial coaches. Attendees did enjoy beautiful weather, informative seminars and a wide variety of must have items for their coaches. Our Club again volunteered to help in the FMCA store.
As your National Director, I attended and represented our Club at the Governing Board meetings at the Redmond convention. A few hi-lights from the meeting:
MEDEX FMCAs contract with MEDEX expired on December 3, 2010. The new program, with like or better benefits, is FMCA Assist.
Term of Office A person holding the position of FMCA President, Senior Vice President, Secretary or Treasurer shall not exceed two, two-year terms or a total of four years in a lifetime.
Mail Forwarding The fee for mail forwarding was reduced from $10 to $8 per month.
FMCA Fiscal Year FMCAs fiscal year was changed from January 1st through December 31st to October 1st through September 30th, beginning 2011.
2011 Budget The budget for 2011 was approved as presented without questions or discussions. This process was disappointing to several us who had questions.
Charlie Schrenkel, FMCA President, resigned in the Fall and Judy Czarsty became acting FMCA President. As a FMCA body, we will elect a new President in Madison, Wisconsin in August 2011. Karen Smith will represent our Club at this convention.
Our year ended with rallies at Lake Tahoe in September and at Brazels in October.
Thanks to everyone who helps to make our Trek Club the great club that it is.
Respectfully submitted,
Judy Keeler
FMCA National Director
Membership Report
Membership as of 1/1/10: 63
Membership as of 12/31/10: 60
Total new memberships added during 2010: 3
Respectfully Submitted,
Ken Anderson
Membership Director
2010 TREASURER’S REPORT
The NORTHWEST TREK FUN CLUB continues to be in a positive financial position. We started the year with a balance of $1,734.79 and ended with a balance of $2,345.03.
We added deposits of $590.00 coming from member dues; $30 from members purchasing lapel pins & $100 donation from the 3rd National Trek Rally in Amana, IA for clubs efforts in running the Trektraxs website. The remaining $1,766.00 was deposits for the Brazel Rally, of which $87.90 was overpayment and thus donated to the club treasury.
Expenses include $110.74 for new member ID postage, stamps & historian costs & $86.92 domain name/web site renewal. The remaining deduction of $1,460.00 was for one rally refund and reimbursement of actual Brazel rally costs.
Respectfully submitted,
Colleen J. Wright
Treasurer
NORTHWEST TREK FUN CLUB INCOME STATEMENT (1 JAN – 30 DEC 2010)
BEGINNING BALANCE – 1 JAN 2010 $ 1,734.79
INCOME
- MEMBER DUES $ 590.00
- LAPEL PINS $ 30.00 3rd
- NAT’L TREK RALLY DONATION $ 100.00
- BRAZEL RALLY DEPOSIT $ 1,766.00
TOTAL INCOME $ 2,486.00
$ 4,220.79
EXPENSES
- JEANETTE BLOCK – Postage $ 34.13
- CLUB PHOTO ALBUM RETURN $ 14.74
- BARB BROWN – Postage $ 4.25
- JEANETTE BLOCK – Historian Expenses $ 16.87
- PENNY BRADEN – Brazel’s Rally Expenses $ 218.10
- BRAZEL’S – RV site costs $ 1,370.00
- GREG HOLLISTER – Domain name/web site $ 86.92
- LEE KEELER – refund Brazel Rally $ 90.00
- COLLEEN WRIGHT – overnight letter/stamps $ 40.75
TOTAL EXPENSES $ 1,875.76
$ 2,345.03
ENDING BALANCE – 31 DEC 2010 $ 2,345.03
2010 RALLY REPORTS
Pre-Rally to National Trek Rally, Rapid City, SD (June 2-5, 2010)
After an impromptu pre-pre-rally happening at an RV park near Devils Tower National Monument when 6 of our Treks unexpectedly showed up at the same park, we continued on our way to the scheduled pre-rally NWTFC held in Rapid City, SD and very capably hosted by Bob & Peggy Beers.
Ten coaches attended our National Trek Pre-Rally at the Hart Ranch that started with a potluck getting to know new friends and renew old friendships We enjoyed the All-You-Can-Eat Cowboy Breakfast at the Fort Hayes Dances With Wolves movie set, then boarded the coach for an all day, driver-narrated tour. The tour included stops at Mount Rushmore; a winding drive over the Peter Norbeck National Scenic Byway, traveling over Iron Mountain, through scenic (very narrow!) tunnels and bridges; and a stop at Custer State park, where we saw several buffaloes, a beautiful lake, and fantastic rock formations. (We stopped when it was safe to take pictures.) We stopped for lunch at the State Game Lodge, the Presidential Summer White House of former president Calvin Coolidge. The buffalo soup was great! As we continued through Custer State Park, along the Needles Highway, we passed through scenic tunnels and by overlooks of Sylvan Lake – the spectacular man-made lake located at the bottom of Harney Peak. Needless to say, we took lots of pictures. At Crazy Horse Mountain and Memorial, we stayed for an hour visiting the largest mountain carving in the world and learning about the sculptor, Korzak Ziolkowski, in his home studio museum and his dream that his family is continuing.
We returned to the Fort Hays Dances with Wolves film set, with time to look at the sets buildings before the chuck wagon dinner and western music show. June 4th was a free day to see local Rapid City sites, using a very informative packet provided by the Chamber of Commerce. We met back at the Ranch for dinner and visiting.
After several eventful and well-planned days of fun, food & friendship, we all headed off to Amana, IO, for the 3rd National Trek Rally, where we met up with 93 of our fellow Trekkers. Our sponsors did an excellent job of planning a great rally.
Pre-Rally to FMCA, Keeler Ranch (August 5-8, 2010)
NW Trek Fun Club was fortunate to have another “What’s Cookin’” pre-rally hosted at the Keeler Ranch at Salem in early August. Lee & Judy Keeler were able to stuff 15 of our rigs onto their property, where they proceeded to feed us for the next 4 days with fantastic BBQ’d meals prepared by them.
We had several laid-back days of visiting, comparing our summer travels, and relaxing (all except the Keelers who were busy catering for us!) before caravanning to Redmond for the FMCA convention. There we all parked more or less together on the close-in grass lots and volunteered at the FMCA store to sell out most of their inventory! The weather was not as hot as usual, and it was a busy time. We held impromptu happy hour get-togethers most evenings and continued our visiting, even acquiring some new members.
Tahoe, NV (September 16-21, 2010)
Zephyr Cove Resort on the southeast shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada saw 10 Treks and an Alpha arrive for a five night NWTFC rally September 16-21, 2010. The rallys intrepid organizers (Lynne and Terry Baker, and co-hosts, Janna Caughron and Wayne Vandergriff), presented us with an itinerary complete with interesting, educational, and diverse activities.
Thursday, friends gathered for happy hour, made new acquaintances and renewed friendships. The Zephyr Cove Resort is a clean, well groomed campground with campsites arranged under large Ponderosa and lodgepole pine trees. We were blessed with fabulous Tahoe fall weather clear sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. Lake Tahoe was as spectacularly beautiful as it always seems to be, and the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains delighted the eye with emerging fall colors in the sumac and aspens.
Friday morning we drove around the south shore of Lake Tahoe across Stateline to visit the Taylor Creek trails, stream profile, and the Tallac historic site. The dogs were all excited to be out on a lovely trail, and Lynnes Newfoundland dogs (aka ponies) stopped people in their tracks. A few of us spotted a large pileated woodpecker hunting on downed wood. Everyone enjoyed viewing the trout and other stream dwellers in the underground stream profile chamber, where a glass wall separated the air breathers from the stream. Unfortunately the kokanee salmon had not been apprised of our visit, and waited until Saturday to begin their spawning run up Taylor creek.
After spending some time touring the historic Tallac mansion and support buildings, we hurried home for a quick lunch, and carpooled up to the Thunderbird Lodge on the east shore of Lake Tahoe. We were treated to an excellent tour by a humorous and seemingly all-knowing guide. We learned all about George Whittell – he had owned 40,000 acres – essentially the entire east shore of Lake Tahoe. The tour included a trip through the tunnel from the main house to the boat house and card room cottage. It turned out to be our lucky day after all, as the 73 year old Thunderbird yacht went out for a spin. Some of our group were trying to figure out how to come up with the $5,000 per hour operating costs, so they could have cocktails at 70 mph too.
On Saturday we drove an hour east to tour Virginia City. The tram and train tours were fun and informative about the Silver Rush in the1860s. Visiting the old historical buildings, saloons and shops completed the visit. Lynne and Terry had discovered an excellent Basque restaurant in Minden, and the entire group met for a typical huge delicious Basque meal. The drive home up the Kingsbury grade at sunset was glorious.
Sunday turned out to be a more leisurely day than planned. Due to the highway being closed for a race, our plans to hike down to Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay were scuttled. We took a late morning boat ride on the Tahoe Queen stern wheeler from Zephyr Cove to Emerald Bay. During the two hour cruise we experienced a few different Lake Tahoe moods, from sunny, warm, and clear, to wind whipped rain, blue water to gray water. The squall brought chilly temperatures to the campground, yet the rain cleared in time for our special guest, Margaret Breen. Mrs. Breen talked with us for two hours, explaining what happened to her and her family during the fateful winter of 1846-1847 at the west end of Donner Lake. Her tale and presentation were enthralling. (Thanks to Nevada Humanities for sharing Prof. Doris Dwyer.)
Monday morning found the group driving around the east and north shores of Lake Tahoe admiring the play of light on the lake. We stopped at the Gatekeepers cabin in Tahoe City to ooh and aah over Dat So La Lees extraordinary baskets, and we were mesmerized by Mark McLaughlins presentation concerning the weather history of Lake Tahoe, Donner Party history, and the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics. Lunch was the best pizza on the planet at Villager Pizzeria in Truckee. After lunch we toured Donner Memorial State Park, and drove up old Highway 40 to view the railroads China Wall and marvel at the view to the east of Donner Lake, Truckee, and Mount Rose. Watching the cars and trucks zoom down the mountain from Donner Pass on I-80 was a poignant contrast to the ordeal the pioneers suffered 163 years prior.