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Many Rotarians know about our respective club but not about the fellowships
of Rotary. The Rotarian magazine has featured some fellowships but the following are excerpts
from a story written by the Past President of the Rotary RV Fellowship (RVF), Jim Smith, who
has written under the name of J. Oliver, for Family Motor Coach Magazine (FMCA).
The main purpose of this article was to encourage FMCA members in other organizations, such as
the RV Fellowship, to talk up the FMCA at their respective rallies.
We hope Rotarians in your (this) district will be interested in the RVF.
The international Rotary organization is a service club of business leaders who meet for
lunch to exchange ideas. The club originated in Chicago in 1903. Today Rotary has 1.2 million
members in 31,560 clubs in 166 countries. In addition to nation wide and international service
activities Rotary has over 70 fellowships that cover both vocational and recreational
association. Some of these groups are made up of lawyers, some of physicians, some of computer
experts and even those who have had heart surgery. The fellowship that may interest
FMCA members, are Rotarians in the RV Fellowship.
A bit of international RV nomenclature where this Rotary Fellowship is active may be in
order. In Europe if you travel in a motorized home or trail a livable trailer you are a
caravaner and the trailer is a caravan. The place you stop for the evening, days or week
is referred to as a caravan or camping park. In Australia and New Zeeland the caravaner
designation is also the term used for motor home and trailer travelers.
The Rotary RV Fellowship in Europe refers to their group as the International Caravanning
Fellowship of Rotarians (ICFR).
The same activity on the North American continent we know makes you an RVer (meaning a driver
of a recreational vehicle). The place you stop is referred to as a RV Campground. The Rotary
Fellowship in North America is named the Rotary RV Fellowship and interestingly, because of
the European influence, the quarterly publication of the North American RV Fellowship (RVF) is
the Caravanner.
Wherever the caravaner or recreational vehicle driver is, there is always some similarity
present in RV’rs. This similarity is the demographics, or the psychographics, of the RV
families. The RV participants are gregarious, honest, accommodating, adventurous people.
With this description it’s not difficult to liken these homogeneous travelers in movable homes
as having many attributes of Rotarians and members of FMCA.
Since 1905, when Paul Harris, one of the Chicago's businessmen, initiated the first Rotary
luncheon the members have reflected these same characteristics. And, Rotarians like the members
of the FMCA enjoy being together. These elements of like personalities and the same mode of
travel reflect the founding elements for the Rotary Recreational Vehicle Fellowship (RVF) in
North American and the International Caravanning Fellowship of Rotarians (ICFR) in Europe.
The ICFR has officers in England, Netherlands and France, in Australia, New Zeeland and
South Africa. Tobert Sutcellf founded the fellowship in the UK in 1967. The ICFR has over 2000
members. The group usually tries to organize a caravan to rally at the Rotary International
Convention when it is held in Europe. The International group has a newsletter titled “Over
The Horizon”. The North American group’s communication vehicle mentioned above is the
“Caravanner”. Both have web sites.
The North American RVF was an idea by some Rotarians in Islamorada, Florida in 1971.
Rotary International recognized them as a chartered fellowship in 1972. Today there are about
500 members (as in FMCA this usually represents families) organized into 4 zones, Pacific,
Mountain, Central and Eastern. The group holds their National Conventions in conjunction with
Rotary International Conventions when they are held in North America. The next scheduled
International North American Convention will be the organizations 100thanniversary
in 2005 and will be in Chicago. The RVF will also hold their annual National Rally in Chicago
that year.
The RVing Rotarians hold rallies where they socialize at dinners, breakfast and social
hours. As good Rotarians they have not allowed the strictly social aspects of the fellowship
to detract for their belief of “service above self”. If there are any excess funds garnered
from the registration at rallies they are contributed to local highway safety programs.
These range from Emergency Medical Technicians, Hospital Emergency Wards to local Fire
Departments. In a conscious effort to augment these funds, the Eastern zone added a raffle.
The raffles are for items contributed by fellowship members. The items are
many times of questionable value and the winning items may well be up
for the raffle at the next rally but the money raised is not. The annual
contribution for highway safety has risen from several hundred dollars
to several thousand. And the raffle has become an additional fun event
and has extended to other zones.
The catalyst for the rallies in Rotary is the “Wagon Master”.
The Wagon master has specific functions and responsibilities. With 30 to 40 recreational
vehicles possible at the rallies these defined duties, which include pricing the stay at an
RV Resort, meals, tours, recreation, social times and schedule a visit to a
local Rotary Club can provide a challenge.
The North American RV Fellowship has many regional rallies scheduled in each of their four
designated areas each year. At these events the rallying Rotarians collect around a campfire to
exchange tales. And they also gather for an attitude adjustment early
evening social hour to discuss the past days events and hear from the
Wagon Master about the next days schedule or where the next rally will
be held.
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