RV Rallies

  Did you know a swordfish can swim about as fast as a cheetah can run.  How fast can a cheetah run?  A cheetah can run up to 70 miles an hour!

 

Have you ever been to one of the big RV rallies?  There are some really, really big ones put on by Good Sam and FMCA.  Following that there are other big ones but not quite that big.  Rallies put on by the Escapees attract a lot of fulltiming RVers but not nearly as many people as Good Sam and FMCA because their clubs cater to all RVers.  The list of rallies continues as there is a rally some place for almost every type, manufacturer and  kind of RV.  During the summer the rallies are in the northern states.  During the winter they are obviously in the southern ones.  Last year we had considered going to an Oregon rally.  However, some things don’t get planned at our convenience.  It just wasn’t meant to be.  It’s not that we were overly disappointed.  We weren’t.    We were just busy and had to pick our priorities. Our grandson won out on that one.

These large rallies can draw thousands of RV’s.  All shapes and sizes of RV’s end up converging on one location.  This certainly can be a boon for the local economy especially if folks hang around for a while after the event.  We have heard that rally vendors show up with all kinds of products to sell.  They aren't all RV related but just about anything you need and don't need for the RV will probably be on display.  In addition vendors will be selling other items from jewelry to kitchen supplies to t-shirts and just about everything else.  However, we've also heard that these vendors aren’t always profitable.  I would think the bigger the rally, the more attendees might be hanging around.  With attendees there should be more wallets stuffed with extra money to spend  ... but what do I know. 

We know lots of folks who have attended rallies and had a great time.  We also know folks who have attended rallies and not had much good to say.  It’s not that the camaraderie hasn’t been enjoyed.  It’s that the seminars haven't lived up to their expectations.  

 

I can say we have been to a rally and we haven’t been.    We haven’t been in that we’ve never stayed with the rally folks at the location of the rally.  We have been in that we did attend one in Yuma on a day pass.  We also attended a couple seminars that day and then attended another one put on by one of the presenters from that same rally at a campground clubhouse.  Does that count? I think it does in a way.

We weren’t overly impressed with the seminars we attended either.   Maybe we just chose wrong.  Our first one was a roundtable on boondocking. What a great topic for an RV rally.  The topic was good but the seminar was poor.  It was lacking a moderator or even a leader because it didn’t move beyond one or two topics. When it did move it moved right back.

The next seminar we attended wasn’t a roundtable but the presenters were not good speakers. They probably knew their product but being in front of an audience wasn’t their thing.  We walked out on that one.  We’ve been to some great seminars in our life and both have had to put them on in our past job functions.   I’m sure some seminars are better than others but in our limited experience, we weren't overly impressed.

 

We attended one other seminar that was actually supposed to be another roundtable.   The speaker had just put on a seminar at a rally in Yuma as mentioned above and was traveling around to RV parks putting on the same seminar.  The seminar was scheduled to last only an hour. After 45 minutes of that hour we were still on page one of the workbook and had not moved past slide #1 on the projector. Doesn’t that tell you where we’re going with this? One person had asked a question at the beginning of the hour and the speaker was still answering it …. 45 minutes later. Needless to say, we eventually slid out the door.  The product he was pitching …  an electric meter tester.

Another complaint I've heard is that you can count on many of the presenters having something to sell.  They have a dedicated audience who is going to listen to their pitch for a whole hour… unless they walk out.  I’m not saying this is all bad but it certainly isn’t all good.

These folks were on their way to a rally when I snapped the picture.

An example of one class we heard about was supposed to be on digital cameras.  The class touched on digital cameras but the speaker wasn’t overly knowledgeable about the camera itself.  Instead the class was mainly about scrapbooking with pictures taken with a digital camera.  Most of the hour was spent selling the supply of scrapbooking materials the speaker just happened to have with her.

I know there are great seminars and great speakers just loaded with knowledge..  Those are the ones we’d like to attend but where are they?   I browsed the topics for an upcoming rally in Sedalia.  Some of them sure sound interesting … but you know how it goes, once burned and so on.   Topics of seminars are a big draw  but if the quality of those seminars is low, don’t they think the word would get around?

One great seminar we have heard rave reviews about  is the fire safety one.  I think a lot of information can be gained from the right seminar and the right speaker.  On top of that ... it would be fun.  I like seminars and educational lectures.  Where are the good ones or are there really good ones? I assume most speakers are volunteer speakers but not sure if that is the case and it wouldn't matter.  Being a presenter might be a place where individuals feel they have a purpose and can exercise their creative side. What are the good ones?

What are the good ones?  Where are the good ones?  How are the classes chosen and presenters selected?  Questions ... questions.  I have them. 

‘Tis life on the road.