The Rally Around… is a brand new and unique concept in RV Rallies. The conventional RV rally is held in a single location such as a Fairground or RV Resort. Participants are typically in that location for several days, and are limited to the activities and events provided by the promoter.

The Rally Around offers a new twist, exclusive to the Oregon RV Alliance(ORVA). ORVA members are in the unique position of having all the services required for a fun and exciting Rally right here at home. The extraordinary aspect of the Rally Around.. is that all of our members will participate by inviting RV Owners and prospective customers to our unique regional Festivals, to enjoy the events and celebrations created for each special occasion. We can “Rally Around…” the Scandinavian Festival, Oregon Country Fair or the Olympic Trials. ORVA members and partners will “Rally Around…” each celebration, with special activities, discounts and information, featuring their most desirable products and services. RV Owners will take advantage of the full compliment of services and showrooms here at home, while staying in the comfort of RV Parks and Resorts in the area.

The first ever “Rally Around…” The Oregon Covered Bridge Festival was held October 6th – 9th in Lane County, Oregon. The ORVA Rally Around… provided luxury bus service from each of our member parks to a diverse offering of member businesses and fun activities like wineries, and covered bridges. Oregon RV Alliance member parks provided Covered Bridge Festival discounts, and sponsored complimentary tickets for the bus tours around the valley. There were special maps made for those who choose the self-guided option. All of the activities were centered within a few miles of the Oregon Covered Bridge Festival and Northwest Harvest Gift Baskets were raffled as prizes for the RV’ers who visited the most member partners. For pictures and information regarding the first ever Rally Around… the Oregon Covered Bridge Festival, see the pictures here.

WHAT A YEAR!!!

Since our inception less than a year ago, the Oregon RV Alliance has been blessed with extraordinary support from some of the most successful and Influential companies and organizations in Lane County. Accordingly our collaboration has been exceptionally effective. Please take a few moments to read a brief recap of our exploits and the upcoming landmark promotion:

Volume One of The RV Resource Guide has been an unprecedented success. Our member Parks hand them to all of their guests upon arrival. Dealerships, Service centers, suppliers, attractions, visitors centers and advertisers have all reported positive feedback from the first of its kind, regional publication. The RV Resource Guides have been distributed to partners from Newport to Coos Bay, Florence to Redmond, Seattle to Redding and all places in between. Volume Two is planned for December featuring Florence and the Coastal attractions like the new helicopter rides. Golf will also be profiled from the Coast to the Cascades and features on Owners Clubs and Junction City are also planned. Distribution will be directly to the wintering grounds of the Snowbirds in California and Arizona along with our Winter Rally events and other targeted marketing campaigns.

Collaborative and cooperative partnerships have presented our organization and our mission, in a very positive fashion, with all manner of promotions this year. We organized wine tasting parties in Palm Springs, in January and March. We attended RV Owners and Club Rallies, from Albany to Redmond, with Members presenting Covered Bridges, Wineries, and everything else in Oregon to see and do. Thousands of RV Owners have heard of the ORVA and our mission to expose RV Owners to the benefits of spending their leisure and recreation time here in Oregon. Hundreds of RVer’s have been reported in member businesses and attractions as a result of our efforts. We were Editorialized in Highways Magazine with over a million readers, RV Business, RV Pro Online, Reuters, and locally on KVAL, the Register Guard, Tribune News, Cottage Grove Sentinel and others.

Our website come2oregon.com is up and running and is designed to feature Oregon attractions and our members, in a visually pleasing and egalitarian fashion. The address is memorable, and as our print and public efforts increase exposure to the brand, our traffic will provide us tremendous potential for self promotion, tracking and future revenue generation. The Resource Guide will also generate funds for our other public relations and marketing activities. Prospective members approach me regularly and express their desire to join our group, and we are finally accepting new members, after a brief hiatus to formalize our structure.

Our legal team has completed the formation of our non-profit articles of incorporation and bylaws. The Board of Directors was recently expanded to include Shannon Nill of Guaranty, Vickie Williams of Premier RV Resorts and Shaun Davis of Davis Cabinets. Our Board has been active since being seated at our original membership meeting in February and the results are obvious. We have strong experienced leadership, especially in Marketing and recently sub committees for websites, publications and events have been organized too. Budget and Finance committees, Grant oversight committees, Memberships and Public Relations have all met regularly, organized and formulated plans for a long sustainable future.

Even with all of our achievements to date, the best is yet to come, and I am especially proud to introduce to you now our best idea yet. With the generous support of a $10,000.00 Lane County Tourism Special Project Grant, it is my privilege to expose you to a new concept in RV Rallies, THE RALLY AROUND….(see attachment)

Thanks again for your continued support and collaboration.

Sincerely,

Brad

The RV Resource guide is out today.  I could not be more pleased.  It turned out better than I ever imagined.  I hope that the Membership is equally pleased.  Several people commented that it really showed some of our most interesting and exciting leisure and recreation opportunities in the region.  Many had ideas of places to go and things to do that were not in the guide and I took copious notes for our next edition.  I am posting this editorial from the introduction page to the Guide as an intro for those who had not yet seen one.  But if you have not yet seen one you can go to most members including Travel Lane County, Tribune News, Junction City Chamber, Cottage Grove Chamber, Country Coach, Guaranty, Premier RV Services, Oregon Motor Coach Center, Monaco Premier RV Resort, or River Bend RV Resort.

RV RESOURCE GUIDE/editorial

Dear RV Owner:

The members of the newly formed Oregon RV Alliance(ORVA) would like to welcome you to our home.

What you are holding in your hands is a small miracle.  To those of you who have not yet heard of the Oregon RV Alliance, this may appear to be just an average newspaper or circular.  It is actually a collaborative effort between numerous businesses and public entities working together towards a common goal.  Technically we are a non-profit public/private partnership, whose mission is, to expose RV owners to the benefits of spending their leisure and recreation time here in Oregon.  This RV Resource guide is one way to do that and our web site, come2oregon.com, is another.   Our Summer of Samples promotion is yet another, but more on that later.  It is our mission to reach as many RV owners and enthusiasts as possible, to let them know that we are “The RV Friendly State”.

While the Alliance itself is a novel idea, the miraculous part of all this is that six months ago the Oregon RV Alliance did not exist.  Some even said the RV Industry in this region no longer existed at all.   The “Great Recession” that affected the spending and travel habits of literally millions of RV Owners has affected us here in Oregon, and Lane County in particular, disproportionately.  The RV Industry was the largest employer in Lane County just a few short years ago.  The result of the factories closing have left our unemployment figures high and our recovery slow and have had far reaching impacts to numerous communities throughout the region and the state!  Moreover, without the owners and buyers of the new products created by the factories, coming around, there have been far fewer folks traveling in our region.

What we really want you to know is that the rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, not only are we not dead but we are alive and kicking!  The RV Industry here has begun again, re-inventing itself like it did in the seventies, eighties, nineties and into the new century.  The factories here have been the leaders in innovation and we’ve produced some of the finest RV’s in the world!  For decades the people who lived around here, manufactured and serviced tens of thousands of RV’s.  Many of those companies are still here and others have started over, some new ones have sprung up, but one thing has not changed; the depth and breadth of experience building and servicing RV’s is unparalleled anywhere else in the country.

The Oregon RV Alliance is representative of the perseverance of the people who live here, the pride they hold in their community and the character they have that allows them to give their time and talents to a worthwhile endeavor.  I would like to emphasize to you about the extraordinary effort it takes to create a one of a kind item like the Come2Oregon.com RV Resource Guide you hold in your hands.  All the professionals who volunteered to work through lunches and at night and on the weekends to make all of this happen in a mere six months!  Literally hundreds of hours and expertise given to produce not only these pages, and a web site, but also an organization complete with a Board of Directors and Committees for Marketing, Membership, and Governance.  It is truly a miracle that all these people have joined together to encourage you to spend time here in our home.  We believe we are truly “The RV Friendly State”.

Here in Oregon people are different.  Many come from hardy Pioneer stock.  They have an attachment to the Earth.  We are the original Green State and leaders in the Green Economy.  We are even building greener RV’s now.  We have survived the dismantling of the Timber Industry, and actually used that crisis to create many Parks, Forests and open spaces.  Even with an abundance of Natural Resources per capita, the legislature here went so far as to preserve all 363 miles of Coastline as public property, off limits to private ownership, saving it for future generations.

This RV Resource guide is just a small sample of what we have here to entertain you during your leisure and recreation time.  We think you will find our state and especially our region to be one of the finest destinations in the entire country.  There is more of everything here. More wide-open spaces, more unusual geography, more fresh air and clean water, more country-side, more beaches, more mountains, more nature.  We will be updating our web site weekly in an ongoing effort to expose you to as many of our hidden gems as we can.  We will also be printing more RV Resource Guides featuring more unique and exciting attractions in our area.  The next issue will feature Golf and the Oregon Coast.

We also have some of the most creative and eclectic attractions and celebrations you will find anywhere.  There is the Covered Bridge Festival (Oregon had the most bridges west of the Mississippi), Oregon Country Fair (the most hippies), Wings and Wine Festivals, Barrel Tours, Mining Festivals and Scandinavian Festivals.  Award winning agricultural tourism driving trails and hiking trails abound through diverse terrain that cannot be found anywhere else.   Where else can you be exploring a snow peaked mountaintop in the morning and a sand dune on the beach in the afternoon….all within a short drive of the Willamette valley.  This really is a Paradise we live in and we want to share our love of the region and the state with you, the RV Owner.  We want you to come to our home, to come home to Oregon, for your leisure and recreation time.

It is the mutual belief of our partners and affiliates that if you sample just a few of our favorite leisure activities that you will come back here over and over again to enjoy all the RV lifestyle has to offer right here in Oregon.  We are so sure you will like what we have here, that the Lane County Tourism Council has gone so far as to approve a special $10,000 grant for us to offer you samples of many of our great attractions.  For all the details on how you can WIN FREE TICKETS FOR TOURS AND SAMPLES, see the entry form on the back cover of section C or enter at any of our member businesses to take advantage of our Summer Samples, designed to encourage you to come to Oregon, “The RV Friendly State”.

In summary, I hope you enjoy this first of its kind first edition Come2oregon.com RV Resource Guide.  It is truly a labor of love.  As you read through the pages, I hope you will take note of all of the companies and associations who are represented here and enjoy what they have to offer.  When you visit them thank them for the role they played in producing this one of a kind resource exclusively for RV owners.  I hope to see you at a park or campground this summer or maybe on a winery tour, dune buggy ride or enjoying our covered bridges.  Wherever you go, you will be welcome in “The RV Friendly State” of Oregon.

Here is a little about what we’ve been up to in getting ORVA up and running:

I have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from so many accomplished and successful people.  Hundreds of hours have been volunteered by many of your neighbors, peers and community leaders and I have struggled to collect all of the ideas and suggestions into a targeted team effort.  I am proud to say we have evolved in to a highly functioning and cohesive organization in just a few short weeks, and our direction has become focused into a single powerful campaign we unanimously believe will ensure our success far beyond the expectations I set for myself just five months ago when I conceived of this Alliance!

Your Board of Directors have elected officers and they have appointed myself Executive Director, approved the membership structure formalized by the membership committee and the marketing campaign created by the marketing committee and empowered me to hire part time help for member services.  The goal we have set for ourselves is to reach as many RV Owners we can this summer season and give them a number of compelling reasons to return again and again to our great state and region.

The first result of our collective efforts is the Come2oregon.com: RV Resource Guide.  This 48 page one-of-a-kind, over sized, full color, pictorial and editorial packed guide, will provide an informative and invaluable keepsake for RV Owners coming to spend their leisure and recreation time here in Oregon.  More than a dozen of our most interesting and successful communities are working together to bring this information into a single place which will be distributed directly into the hands of more than 30,000 RV Owners.  The guide will have dozens of pages dedicated to the best recreation and leisure opportunities our region has to offer in Pictures, Editorial, and Directory form, with maps highlighting each member location and special features.  All of the materials will be a provided by members of the Oregon RV Alliance who represent the various communities that make up our diverse cooperative such as the South Willamette Wineries Association, Oregon Covered Bridge Organizers, Travel Lane County, Junction City, Cottage Grove, Florence, Oregon Country Trails, and of course our world famous RV Industry!!!

The most important feature will of course be our targeted distribution.  Starting with member RV Resorts and Parks, Dealerships, Manufacturers and Service Centers.  Each member will be represented in the guide in several ways, and they will all be highly motivated to present them to each customer.  Member parks will include them in their welcoming info for new arrivals.  We will also distribute the guides at as many RV Rallies and Festivals as we can throughout the course of the summer.  Starting with the 600 coach NW FMCA Rally in the first weekend of June where we will have a booth, seminars and program advertising.  Our RV Resource Guide will be inserted into The Rally welcome packets for each of the RV owners as they arrive to check in.  In July we will be distributing the guide in Redmond to the Good Sam Owners Rally where more than 2,500 RV Owners are expected!!!  We will be represented at these shows by members from the tourism Industry in various regalia representing covered bridges, Scandinavian festivals and wineries for example.

The end result will be a bi-annual publication of a valuable, compelling resource for RV Owners to reference when coming to spend their leisure and recreation time here in Oregon.  The next edition will be produced later this year for distribution into the southern regions of the West Coast in January of 2012.  To ensure the perception of value as a resource guide rather than just an advertisement, we will limit the available advertising space to only 16-pages.  In the interests of fairness advertising space will be allocated to only a few pages for each community represented in the guide.  The space will sell out quickly and we will limit it to members only for this first guide.  Each Charter Member will receive a 1/8 page display ad as a benefit of membership!

A waiting list will serve to manage the prospective advertisers who do not get included in this first edition.   Either myself a member of the board of directors, or a representative of your community will contact each member in the next two weeks to reserve your space.  Please feel free to call me directly if you would like to reserve a high visibility or large space soon.  Most of the Board members have already spoken for their space, but only your deposit will actually hold that space.

The Come2oregon.com: RV Resource Guide will of course direct folks to our especially memorable web site, which is still under development, but will go live in the next few weeks.

Thanks for your confidence and your continued support, I am at your service, should you have any ideas or suggestions, I welcome all opinions and will work hard to include your input and ideas in all of our efforts.  We are an all inclusive member driven public/private partnership whose continuing mission is to boldly go where no one has gone before….  a collaborative community wide effort to encourage RV Owners to spend their leisure and recreation time here in our great State of Oregon.

Sincerely,

Brad

–
Bradley Waring
Executive Director
Oregon RV Alliance    www.Come2Oregon.com
cell 541-521-4277

oregonrvalliance@gmail.com