The Cincinnati-based Family RV Association (FRVA), a 63-year-old RV enthusiast organization known widely until about two years ago as the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA), is convening today through Saturday of this week (March 18-21) for its 112th International Convention at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter in Perry, Ga.
And its 15th Perry rally since 1996, which comes at a rather poignant moment for the marketplace as well as FRVA, as it’s been working to recoup some of the member volume and national clout that it traditionally held in the past as a motorhome-only owners group now that it also includes towable RVs.
It’s a topic about which FRVA’s leadership was candidly open Tuesday when setting up shop for this week’s get-together – a national-scale rally that includes about a thousand coaches. Both FRVA members and non-members are invited to sit in on some 100 seminars and displays involving components, services, and lifestyle products, plus tour operators, resorts, and indoor “RV Expo” exhibitors showcasing all kinds of RVs and “a wealth of opportunities for anyone curious about RVs and the RV lifestyle.”
It’s all part of an event promoted under the eye-catching theme: “Changes in Latitudes – RV Beach Party” from FRVA — a wide-ranging organization that also publishes its own Family RVing magazine and provides medical and travel evacuation programs, roadside service, insurance, and savings on tires, RV tours, mobile internet, and more.
The convention comes at a time when FRVA is focused on regrowth, even though officials report that today’s Mideast conflict and related gas price hikes cost FRVA some registrants.
“Yeah, it (a long-term upturn) really is the main mission,” said Doug Uhlenbrock, FRVA’s executive director since November 2025. “One of the things that we’ve really been working on in recent years is inviting all RVers into the fold. For so long, we were a motorhome owners’ association only. The last four or five years, we’ve transitioned over to all RVs, towables, trailers, and fifth-wheels. And we’ve struggled with that to a point where I think maybe we struggled with that for a few years.
“But we’re getting to the point now where we’re really starting to see an uptick in the number of towable RVs that we have (at shows), both in rally attendees and in the display lot,” he added. “For a while, it was hard to convince even the dealers to bring products because they saw us as a motorhome owners association only. But now I think we’ve convinced them that we have the base growing on the towable side. So, we’re seeing more and more of that coming in. And as you know, the RV market today really leans toward the towable side. So, it’s exciting for us to see that we are starting to grow that portion of our membership.”
Adding his voice to the discussion on Tuesday was FRVA President Paul Mitchell, a retired U.S. military veteran who was helping set up for the rally.
“Well, with FRVA, we’ve done a lot of changes in the last year and a half or so. One is we’ve tightened our belt, just like most organizations have to these days,” Mitchell told RVB. “We’ve been very conscious of the money we’re spending and what we’re doing for our members. We’re also concentrating on getting the benefits for our members. We want to be known as the organization that if you want the best benefit, then you come to Family RV Association, and we’re going to have that. We’re going to negotiate the best things out there. We don’t want to be the run-of-the-mill and have the same thing everybody else does.”
Among the featured entertainers adding to the “beach vibe” at this week’s get-together for FRVA, which bills itself as the world’s largest not-for-profit organization dedicated to RV owners and currently represents some 84,000 owners with more than 42,000 coaches, are Patrice and Kevin McCabe. As Stars of the “RV There Yet?” travel series on the Discovery Channel, they’ll be on hand throughout the week to showcase products, present RV lifestyle seminars, and host a geocaching scavenger hunt.
Featured entertainers also include:
- Hotel California, the Original Eagles Tribute Band
- A1A, the Classic Jimmy Buffett Tribute Show
- Kazual, an a capella quartet
On Thursday, convention attendees and city residents also are invited to a special “Party in Perry” at the old City Hall building in historic downtown Perry, an outdoor gathering that, weather permitting, will feature the Party Knights band performing “a setlist of music spanning genres and eras.”
At the end of the day, Mitchell feels a positive change is afoot as vendor space for the Perry rally was sold out.
“I think our direction is very focused. We’ve concentrated on really starting to treat our members again as family because they are family,” said Mitchell, who’s openly looking to return rally attendance to the more impressive numbers of the past. “And in all of our interactions with them for our membership department and from our staff and our executive board, we want them to know that we’re there for them and we’re going to help them do whatever they need. And we’re all one big family.
“Having said that, I think FRVA is the only organization still doing these large (consumer) shows like this,” he added. “Everybody else has gone to smaller ones where they can do an RV park and everything, full hookup, but I think there’s a lot of excitement and everything generated by having so many vendors. And we’re going to have well over 2,000 people wandering around the grounds. I think that’s a real positive thing and it’s something people are not going to get anywhere else.”
