Northern Illinois Airstream Club

We had rain for two days preceding the rally. This discouraged some people, but 11 hardy adventuring couples braved the rainy weather to bring their units to Amboy. The grounds were soggy, with up to 2 inches of standing water in some of our usual parking spots. People picked their sites carefully and many units parked close to the buildings on the gravel, without the benefit of water, rather than have the possibilities of getting stuck in the grass. Carol’s Friday dinner featured pork loin roasted in the Amboy oven and dessert cakes by Terry Chesnut.

The Executive board approved Carol Dixon’s trimmed down and balanced budget at their Friday evening meeting. The board also approved Wayne Kortum to be the Chairman of the Nominating Committee for 2010. Another item of discussion was the new membership flier.

For breakfast, Dwight and Lee Moyers prepared french toast to be served with sausage links. Seventeen more people decided to drive in Saturday to be with their friends. At the Saturday morning general meeting, we held the election for Carol, Terry, Anita, and Sue as the first item on the agenda. During an intermission, Bob Moyers, Region 5 President, officiated at the installation ceremony of the new officers. Carol Dixon, as our new president, resumed the meeting and presented a Unit Constitutional amendment to reduce the number of directors from 6 to 4. It passed. Carol showed the newly proposed Unit Membership Flier that will be designed and distributed to prospective members by Bob Koch, our long time Membership Chairman, and by members who wish to bring new people into our family.

After the meeting, we introduced our newest members, Deke and Tiffani Waters who paid their dues that morning. More about them later in the newsletter. We also served an Installation cake with a picture of an Airstream on it.

Dwight Dixon officiated at our shortened white elephant auction and raised almost $200 to help maintain our balanced budget. Kitchen preparation started immediately (led by Carol) for our Thanksgiving Banquet. Three turkeys were roasted this year in the Nesco’s. We had a total of 38 guests at the banquet. The food was great and abundant. Some of the homemade, “dishes to pass side” were amazing. Dwight brought in his newest acquisition, a commercial Soft Serve machine and people used it to make their pie a la mode. Six year old Christina Chesnut wanted hers in a large waffle cone. Some other members also opted for dishes or cones.

The evening entertainment included WBCCI DVD’s of the early Wally Byam Caravans using our new projector. Deke Waters saved the day when one of the DVD’s failed to load in the DVD player so Deke played it through his Apple Laptop to feed the signal to the projector. We watched one section of the, Vincent Price narrated, World Tour Caravan and the entire African Capetown to Cairo Caravan. It was very interesting and gave us a fresh perspective on their travels. Our little mud spots of the Lee County fairgrounds, this weekend, paled by comparison to the difficulties they encountered. They were a much hardier group than any of us.

Nancy Morrison conducted a short worship service Sunday morning followed by another luncheon buffet to finish up the left overs from yesterday’s feast. The weather had cleared by that time and the field had dried out. No one needed assistance to leave the grounds around 1:00.

Though out the weekend the hall was warm and filled with the sound of 42 people smiling, laughing, and holding conversations. A great time was had by all.

Five Northern Illinois couples enjoyed the weekend.(Whites, Whitsells, Mayos, Goykes and the Dehahns) The Hobo stew and chili dump came off well. They had some rain Friday night but Saturday and Sunday were fine. The Clarks and the Kraners stopped by for a visit on Saturday. Dwight came out to pick up the projector Sunday.

Five N. Illinois units attended the 34th Region 5 Rally at Hobo Haven. Wayne Kortum stood in for our President. Jim and Bobbi Matkovich ran the Hobby Show/Swap & Sell. Wayne also supervised Tables & Chairs. Bob Koch acted as the coordinator. Anita Koch and Lillian Kortum ran the Door Prizes. Everyone (including Ron and Mary Dahlberg) helped distributing gifts. Bonnie Nester attended. She still continues to take parliamentary classes.

We went to a Civil War site at Corydon, IN (the only skirmish above the Mason-Dixon line). We had a chicken dinner buffet at the Ohio Overlook Restaurant. Following dinner, we went to the Scout Mountain Winery for some wine tasting. We stopped at The Red Barn in Corydon to do some “antiquing” on the way home.

The Southern Illinois Unit has recruited 4 new members from  AirForums  Bobbi Matkovich was 1st place winner at Joker. The entertainment was 4 star quality – all 3 nights : Blue Grass 101; Jim Roberts, Humorist, and the Juggernauts.

Tom and Norma Collier (incoming International president) invited us to “Explore and Discover” at the 2010 International Rally in Gillette, Wyoming.  Region 5 President for next year, Louise Humble and her husband Jerry invited us to attend the 2010 Silver Bullet Shootout in Du Quoin, IL next September 15-19th. A good time was had by all 70 units attending. Written by Anita Koch

Eighteen of us ( 8 trailers & 1 bvan) met at the Goyke’s Oasis. The weather was perfect. Highlights included: food (cooked over an open fire with a tripod), croquet, and fireside chats. We saw a 72 cow carousel at the Fair Oaks farm, where 2,800 cows are milked 3X per day. Everyone who went saw a live birth. The Kochs got to see a twin birth. We also saw a 3D movie and got some delicious ice cream.

The corn festival was on in Hoopeston. It’s a steam engine operation with all the “Bells and Whistles”. A fantastic dinner was available a little further down the roast at “The Beef House”.

The Earl Park Fair is celebrated each year during the week before Labor Day. Since she had no children, when a wealthy inhabitant died she left her substantial property to the city,as long as it was to be used a park for the people.

Our video projector was put to good use. We saw “Welcome to Mooseport” on the side of White’s trailer and on the next we saw, “North by Northwest”, in “wide screen”, on Mayo’s new trailer.

A good time was had by all. A lucky few got to see the latest 4 week old kittens. Mama cat objected strongly. There are 11 cats at Goyke’s, but no mice. Reported by Anita Koch

This weekend was another one of extremes. We had 11 units come and go at various times. Most of the people that had endured the Kieler experience were there. Thursday night till Friday morning at 10:00AM we had 2.5 inches of rain in the campground. When the Sun came out on Saturday and Sunday, the temperatures soared to 98 degrees with humidity to match, because of the all the evaporating water sitting in the campground. Those with air conditioners were running them full blast.

Whites had 5 grand kids, of various ages, packed into their trailer. Kraners had brought their inflatable powered Zodiac boat to do a little fishing with their grandson. Kochs brought 2 grandsons. Dwight brought his kayak, while Monique Clark and Warren Dutton waded out to reach the deeper waters to do a little bass fishing. The Clarks and and many of the kids enjoyed biking in the park.

Houzengas bought 120 ears of excellent locally grown sweet corn and Dwight did his corn thing twice with a turkey fryer. Bob Whitesell had up to four ears at each setting. Friday’s wiener roast over an open fire produced some good eating. All the ladies out did themselves, providing mountains of food for the big Saturday evening Pot Luck feast. After the Saturday meal, president elect, Carol Dixon, brought us up to date on work she has been doing for the upcoming events. Due to the heat, the movie was canceled.

Many of our survivors from Kieler have made initial contacts with their insurance companies and are still in the process of deciding what to do after their initial emergency repairs. Dwight replaced the windows in their ’63 and bought some equipment to experiment with trying to minimize the largest of the Kielers. For those with nothing to lose, Dwight showed how some of the dents could be minimized with a little work. Some of the largest ones were helped with the aid of a suction cup. Some of the smaller, but deeper, ones required the use of the “Ding King” hot melt adhesive and puller frame. Dwight worked a little magic on Whitesell’s, Dutton’s, and Jamison’s trailers. Timeless Travel Trailers, of Colorado, says that 70% of the hail damaged trailers they quote never get repaired, after the owners accept damage payments from their insurance companies. Many of our members, with more “seasoned” units, are likely to do the same.

Here is the link to the August- September newsletter click here.

Keiler, Wisconsin, July 24Th, about 6:45 PM, Golf Ball size hail driven by 100 mi/hr. straight line winds assaulted the 11 trailers and tow vehicles which came to the Rally. Whites’, Dixons’, and Humbles’ had their trucks windows shattered. Clark’s car sunroof exploded. Dixon’s’ two side windows on their 1963 trailer shattered. Miraculously, no newer model trailers, with tempered glass windows, broke. However, skylights in many trailers were cracked or destroyed. “Kielers”, too numerous to count, appeared on all the trailers. (“Kielers” are similar to “Bismarcks” but are larger, measuring up to 9 inches in diameter and up to 1.2 inches deep.) Tree limbs fell on other trailers. Of course, the power went out. Many people retreated to the barn basement. The skylight in the barn shattered and it rained in. I stood under the metal clad front porch of the barn holding the door shut, while watching it all unfold. Dave Clark ran to his trailer as it started, to close his vent and got trapped in the trailer as the hail battered it. The noise of the large hailstones breaking glass in the cars and trying to get through the metal roof was unreal. At the time, we were holding happy hour inside the barn after returning from a 50 mile long road rally scavenger hunt (sans trailers) and waiting for the rain to clear before starting our outdoor cook out. Needless to say, plans changed. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

After it settled down a bit we ventured out to survey the damage. It was extensive. This was a new experience for most and one we hope to never repeat. Plastic sheeting, cardboard and massive amounts of duct tape came to the rescue as people readied their rigs for their trip to the next destination.

Most people will be contacting their insurance companies today. The big concern is: how to get the trailers and tow vehicles repaired without having the insurance companies “totaling” them or raising the premiums through the roof next year. Dwight Dixon

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 NIU units at the entrance gate.

Here is a link to a chronology by a Kentucky member  Click here

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.
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 -22 Northern Illinois families got 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 NIU marchers took 3rd place in originality with their hearty rendition of “Take Me Out to the Rally”.  Anita Koch won a Blue Ribbon for her beautiful seamless knitted sweaters at the Hobby show.

July 5th – IBT meeting The IBT approved that future 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 go to the Newsletter 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.