Northern Illinois

The Madison Rally attendance was slightly over 900 units. The weather was great. The Alliant Convention Center and Fairgrounds were well equipped and the auditorium had excellent acoustics with convenient meeting rooms. Rented purring Cat diesel generators provided the power. From the above picture, you can see most of the units were parked on the asphalt close to the meeting rooms and Coliseum.

June 25th -The Northern Illinois caravan, led by Nan Morrison, came in and was parked on the asphalt. The ten Northern Illinois caravaners had a great time touring around Wisconsin and were joined by an additional five units at the entrance gate.

Complete Recordings of all the business meetings are now available at:http://wbcci.org/index.cfm?pageSRC=IBT_Delegate_Meetings_Live_Broadcast

June 26th - IBT meeting The club is projecting a $58,000 loss for the year, but that does not include the losses from the shortfall in attendance at the Madison rally, since that is accounted for in a separate fund. The Forum section of the WBCCI.org website has been redesigned. It will require members to resign up to post. The reduced budget for IBT and region officers’ reimbursements was rejected by the IBT. The change to the unit model Constitution and Bylaws, allowing alternate electronic voting methods was approved. The member proposal to allow shorter numbered caravans was rejected. Four Unit flag designs were approved.

June 27th- The Dixons came in with their grandson Robert, and 62 other vintage trailers (with flags flying) and parked on the grass. Pictures posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/SaveWally/WBCCIVACParade?authkey=Gv1sRgCJnoxPPIgNWjcQ#
Our younger working members came when they could get off from work.

June 28th- Opening Ceremonies - President Norm White carried the unit flag with the Superior Merit Award Banner that past president, Bob Whitesell, earned for the unit activities during his presidency.

Twenty-seven Northern Illinois member families attended the rally and a five more visited and three attended the Region 5 Luncheon. The Gerens sold their unit at the rally and returned home without a trailer. Bill Thomas brought 13 new units up from St. Louis and sold at least 8 of them plus a number of the trade-ins. Larry Huttle, from Airstream, reported RV sales nationally are down 50% and Airstream has laid off 50% of their workers. Nationally, motor home sales are down 73% and Airstream is not considering reentering the large motor home market. Airstream is revising their product line to better address the wants of its perceived potential buyers. Airstream will no longer make the “luxury portable condo” models tailored to the winter home users. The classic 34 footers and the 30 foot slide out models will no longer be manufactured. Airstream is targeting a younger family demographic but will not lower their quality standards or “cool” image.

June 30th -Delegates’ Meeting The Delegates approved adding the Vision and Mission statements to the Constitution. They also approved the change allowing non-attending units to appoint a representative from another unit in their region to cast their votes. The only contested election was for membership on the nominating committee. Leo Garvey, running from the floor, was defeated. Block voting was very evident. After his defeat, Leo stated he will continue to push for changes in the Constitution and Bylaws to: modernize the club, make it more responsive to the members, and add member benefits. Another delegate stated that the IBT seminars and meetings should be moved to within the time period of the rally, rather than before and after it. It was broadly applauded by the delegates. Since it was a comment and not a written formal proposal submitted before the meeting started, it could not be voted on. The Constitution and Bylaws chairman reported that all units will be required to change their unit Constitutions to allow e-mail, fax, and internet voting. There is no requirement that the units must use these methods.

June 30th afternoon -We had 22 Northern Illinois families get together next to the Dixon’s trailer, on the grass for munchies.

July 4th - Fourth of July Parade- Norm and Sharon White had a new Northern Illinois Banner made and used it to lead the Illinois marchers in a short parade inside the auditorium. The Northern parade marchers took 3rd place in originality with their hearty rendition of “Take Me Out to the Rally”. Congratulations to the marchers. Anita Koch won a Blue Ribbon for her beautiful seamless knitted sweaters at the Hobby show.

July 5th - IBT meeting The IBT approved requiring all proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws include any potential costs in their rational statement. The motion to include member recognition in the International directory for participation in unit caravans was withdrawn. The motion to increase the International dues to $75 was withdrawn after there was not enough support. By withdrawing, rather than defeating it, the possible increase in dues can be brought up again at the next IBT meeting in January 2010. The proposal to reduce the number of Blue Berets magazines per year was defeated. The proposal to increase the Marketing budget to $20,000 was defeated. The IBT approved the 2010 budget with a $81,000 projected deficit.

Note- Many units are becoming more Internet savvy and are using their websites and e-mail lists to communicate with most of their members. Some units have integrated their Website and their Newsletter and are using the Internet to coordinate their activities. The limited amount of content space (20 meg) allowed on the free WBCCI.net sites has caused some of the units to use outside hosts for larger content and are linking to them from their WBCCI.net portal site, similar to what Northern Illinois does. So far, 80 units have functioning WBCCI.net sites and about half are very active. The WBCCI.net committee feels that the internet is the wave of the future for younger members and progressive units. Some units reported up to 90% of their members are Internet active and are only sending out small numbers of printed newsletters. Northern Illinois is about in the middle with 55 of our 86 members using the Internet. I feel that we can not neglect these 30 members, but we need to develop a better, cost effective methods to keep in close timely touch with them.

Nan Morrison had a fine show-up of people who were going on the caravan.
The Johnson Wax tour of the Frank Loyd Wright designed main office in Racine, WI was interesting. We had rain Friday evening and a sprinkle again on Saturday evening. Sunday the weather was good.

Check out new Summary Classified ad website on the Links page.
New International President’s Monthly Report is on Links page.
June- July Newsletter http://holland1.web.aplus.net/index_files/..Newsletters/Volume_47_Issue_4.pdf or go to the links page.

Fourteen trailers, a class A motor home and a B-van attended the rally. Three other couples drove in at various times during the weekend to visit and enjoy a meal. The weather started off hot Friday. Most people played outside, enjoying the Sun. Jamisons’ and DeHahns’ provided Sloppy Joe’s and strawberries over angel food cake for dinner. We even had a campfire.

Saturday morning, the wind came in from the north with rain and cooler temperatures. We were happy to have the buildings for our breakfast of “Omelets in a Bag” provided by the Mayos’ and Whitesells’. We had a fairly long business meeting to discuss possible changes in the way the unit operates. It was decided to reduce some of the officer tasks for individual rallies, allowing greater member planning/participation by using a Rally hosting system. It was hoped that this would encourage more members to step forward to run for office or at least help running the unit.

Bob & Sandy Whitesell will be hosting the Mystery Rally July 23-26th rally at the Rustic Barn Campground near Dubuque, Iowa. Ron & Joan Goyke will be hosting the September 4-7th Labor Day rally at their farm in Goodland, Indiana. (more data about the rallies can be found on the rally schedule page.) Others thought, if we can not find people to volunteer to be officers, we should reduce the number of officers. Some retired members (with more available time) wanted the weekend rallies to be extended to allow more time for additional activities to offset the task of packing up the trailer and driving out. Rockford has decided to move their Fly-in Air Show to August, so we had to change our plans. We decided to combine the June 5th rally with the International Caravan Kick off (Details above).

We also voted to recommend that the International reduce required days to qualify for a numbered caravan from 10 to 8 (or less), so our working members could receive credit for participating in shorter caravans and possibly increasing the availability of shorter caravans.

Some of the members visited the Franklin Creek Grist Mill in the afternoon. We had a big Potluck Buffet Saturday evening. It was the first time some of our members had participated in something like that. An unusual treat was the wild turkey shot by Warren Dutton two days before the rally. There was a wide variety of casserole dishes prepared by the ladies. Sharon White supplied the salads and Dixons’ supplied the pies for desert. The weather had turned to a drizzling rain, so we had to give up on the idea of projecting the movie on the side of an Airstream. After dinner, in the main meeting hall, Norm White demonstrated of the capability of our new video projector. Norm tapped into the Internet, via his Sprint Card Cellphone, and we virtually traveled to the Great Wall of China, the South Pole and the RV park in Tucson, AZ (where some of our members winter). Then, we accessed the International President’s monthly newsletter and determined it was too late to sign up for 30 amp service at Madison. After that, we had a short movie about antique trailers and the evolution of the RV industry. The feature presentation was the 1938 comedy, “Bringing up Baby”, with Cary Grant.

Sunday was another cold, wet, and windy day. A continental breakfast was hosted by Carol Dixon with the addition of some of the left overs from the feast. Bill Evans conducted the worship service. Due to the wet grass and soft wet soil, three rigs required additional tow-out assistance from Bob Whitesell and Dwight Dixon, who have 4 wheel drive trucks.

All the Constitutional Amendments were approved including: 1. The Vision and Mission statement (developed by the 20/20 committee) into the International Constitution. 2. Allow units, who can not get any of their regular members to attend the International, to select an affiliate member (who belongs to another unit in their region) to cast their vote for them at the International delegates’ meeting.

For the two positions on the International Nominating Committee: Leo Garvey received 86 votes, Don McKelvay received 80 votes and Roy B Bernd received 6 votes.

The rest of the International offices were uncontested and therefore votes for those offices were unnecessary.

Seventeen die-hard members came through driving rains to attend. Small group conversations centered about the upcoming camping season, the state of the economy, and how it is affecting the RV industry. Monaco, the country’s 4th largest RV manufacturer, declared bankruptcy this week. Fleetwood pulled out of the making travel trailers 3/12/09. This month, the Blue Beret reported Airstream lost 5 dealerships. Thor loaned Camping World $10 million and now some Camping World’s will be approved by Airstream to do some repairs.

Picturesque White Pines Lodge and Log Cabin Village were built as a CCC project during the last great 30’s depression. Torrents of water, causing rapids in the river ford near the park entrance, prevented us from exploring most of the park.

We had super weather with temperatures in the 50’s for the outing. Twenty people attended. Food was good. President Norm White and first mate, Sharon hosted the party and prepared the valentine treat bags. Some of us went out on the veranda to watch the eagles soaring over the Illinois River. Four couples went down to the locks on the river and to get a close up look at them. We observed about a dozen eagles, but they said there were over 200 of them fishing in the open water below the dam last week. This week the river ice has broken up and the eagles have spread out. There was also a barge moving upstream through the locks.

Check out the new Airstream/Thor History on the links page.

We had 21 members attend the luncheon. The weather was good as well as the food. The six couples from Northern Illinois Unit that are staying at Travelers Rest, as well as the three couples who winter in the area, came to the outing. Our next Florida outing is the Sarasota Rally at the end of February. Some of us are just going to drive down for the day they have the Region 5 dinner. Rulene Aarup

We had 52 members attend. The Epicurean Restaurant offered a mid-European flair with a Gyspy violinst and accordion player honoring a broad selection of guest requests and Christmas music. The food was good and plentiful. Hospitality was warm and inviting. The weather was a little cold, but the traffic was light. President Norm White conducted the informal business meeting during appetizers to elect Carol Dixon as vice president and Bob Whitesell conducted the installation. First Lady, Sharon White, bought the winter scene centerpieces and Norm make up the rules to hand them out after the meal. Martha Clark brought along a display of early club memorabilia and newsletters for the members to review. We welcomed a strong contingent of the former Midwest members and one new couple, Hal & Cynthia Withey. The Hutchinsons’ passed out their new address that they will be moving to this Thursday. A good time was had by all.

The rally was held at Amboy 4H fairgrounds. Fourteen trailers came in on Friday and another 2 trailers plus a B-van came in on Saturday and stayed overnight. Seven couples drove-in Saturday to join in the fellowship. We had a little rain Friday and a small 1/8 to ¼ inch hail storm at 5:00 PM, which did no damage. The tables were decorated in a Harvest Theme with pumpkins, and gourds. Our First Lady, Sharon White, set up a “guess the number of candy corns in the jars” contest. The two winners received the jars of candy. That evening, we had a good time playing a “Golf” card game. For future unit entertainment, the Executive Board approved the purchase of a $600 DLP color projector and sound system.

Saturday morning we had “Omelets in a bag”. To encourage more rally participation, Dwight Dixon proposed (and the membership approved) giving one free rally fee to members who had not previously attended a unit rally. Saturday afternoon, we raised $303.50 at the club white elephant auction. The weather cleared on Saturday, so Dwight was able to deep fry one turkey outdoors. The other two birds were baked in the Nesco’s. All enjoyed the turkey dinner with all the fixings’. Al’s Motorhome of Rockford donated five coupons of $25 each for merchandise or service for our door prizes. One $25 gift coupon was given to new member, Monique Clark, and her mother, Martha, won another one at the evening drawing. As normal, we also gave away the very nice table centerpieces. Dave Toeppen’s Alaska movie that evening was very entertaining.

Sunday was cool, clear and windy. We had a church service and brunch before our departure.

One in eight US women will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime during their lifetime. There will be about 186,000 diagnoses this year. Breast cancer is the sixth leading cause of dealth for US women with about 41,000 dying this year. Early detection will give the best outcome. To put it in some prospective: Heart attacks killed 330,000 women this year. Strokes take another 91,000. Lung Cancer is responsible for 68,000. Then comes Repiratory infections with 63,000 and Alzimers with 47,000. As I said to the gentlemen last month, If you want to extend your life, treat any cholesteral problems you have, watch your blood pressure, and quit smoking. Doing a monthly self exam and having a yearly manogram will also help.