The 54-year-old Family Motor Coach Association, or FMCA, has announced that it will begin accepting owners of all types of self-contained RVs. A recent vote of the members of the Cincinnati, Ohio-based international organization for motorhome enthusiasts has opened up eligibility for the group’s benefits and services to trailer owners and owners of other types of RVs.

FMCA national president Jon Walker said, “This initiative started because FMCA members increasingly were asking the leadership of the organization why owners of other types of RVs were not eligible to join. Many of them have family members or friends they travel with who own fifth-wheel or other travel trailers, and they wanted to be able to welcome them to the FMCA family.”

“The time seemed right to take this to the membership for a vote,” Walker said. “We, as leaders of FMCA, discussed that the focus really should be on the RVers, the people who enjoy RV travel, and not the equipment they’ve chosen. Surveys showed that the vast majority of FMCA members have owned a different type of RV at some point. Since the Great Recession, towable RVs have been far outselling motorized RVs, and we believe we have something valuable to offer those owners also.”

In fact, less than 15% of RVs sold are motorhomes, meaning FMCA is opening up a potentially massive membership increase from its current 74,000 active members.

“We aren’t going to lessen our focus on motorhomes,” said Chris Smith, FMCA executive director. “We’re just expanding our efforts to owners of other types of RVs and welcoming them into the FMCA family. The association has spent 54 years developing its expertise related to serving the needs of motorhome owners, so that’s not going away. But we’re excited to take what we’ve learned, to broaden our focus, and use what we’ve built to serve the needs and interests of all RV owners.”

The association does not have plans to change its name but instead will do what other organizations have done — AARP, for instance — and focus on the acronym FMCA, which many already use when referring to the group. FMCA will rebrand its monthly “Family Motor Coaching” magazine and title it Family RVing.

FMCA is unique among RV membership clubs, as it is the only one owned and governed by its membership.

More information is available at FMCA.com.