I've been giving the RV Industry Association a tough time over the past few weeks. But an incident today with another association outside the RV industry shows what a gem RVIA really is as a cheerleader for the RV lifestyle.

After KeyBank announced its departure from the RV market during the RV Dealers Convention/Expo in Las Vegas last month, several dealers expressed an interest in forging relationships with local banks instead of national lenders.

I thought that would make an interesting story, and decided to include it in our next issue. So, being somewhat unfamiliar with the banking industry, I turned to the Independent Community Bankers of America as a source. My rationale being that they represent banks on Main Street USA rather than Wall Street.

Yesterday morning, I sent an e-mail to their communications manager. After it was ignored, I sent another e-mail last night to the communications manager and the "senior vice president, director of communications."  This morning, I received a phone call from the communications manager.

She informed me there was nobody in the association who could speak on the pros and cons of small business owners working with community banks.  After all, she said, the staff was very busy preparing for a board meeting.  And, the association's only expert on lending was out of the office until late next week.

We have a few days to get this done. Might there be a member that I could talk to instead, I asked, someone from a bank who could tell me how small business owners could benefit from getting to know bankers in their community personally? I was told the association really doesn't pass on media requests to its members.

This just blew me away.  So, I fired off an e-mail to their CEO, thinking he might want to know what kind of chuckleheads he employs. After all, the association:

• Has nine regional offices -- each with a staff, I am sure
• Employs at least 66 staff members at the national headquarters
• Is affiliated with 34 state associations -- each with staffs and PR people of their own

And, yet, hometown bankers have nobody willing to spend 30 minutes with a reporter from a business-to-business trade publication to bestow the virtues of community banking.  There must not be any.

Contrast this experience with RVIA, as we have seen repeatedly in countless newspapers, magazine articles, television reports and the like. I don't know of a single instance in which RVIA would ever reject a media request for information. Just looking at all the stories crossing the news wires every week, it appears the RVIA staff is talking to everyone -- from reporters at large national publications to editors at weekly newspapers-- about the RV industry and its lifestyle.

I wonder what would happen if RVIA had a board meeting that was so important it would require the full-time attention of every staff member for an entire week?  I suspect the message would still get out. Because, besides the paid staff, RVIA has a team of public relations professionals who can step in and promote the industry.

Besides the professional PR people, the association's board members are sometimes quoted in the stories, too. 

Besides the association's board members, occasionally RVIA's PR committee members are willing to jump in front of a camera or microphone.

Finally, if all the above people were too busy, I suspect RVIA would pass on the request to one of their more media-savvy manufacturer members.

Why? Because RVIA knows every drop of publicity benefits their association, all its members and the entire industry at large. If each published interview results in one person coming into a dealership to buy an RV, than one thousand interviews makes for a great year.

Unlike the Independent Community Bankers of America, which appears to be more concerned with impressing board members than with getting the message out to 15,000 small business owners, RVIA knows how to make hay when the sun shines.

If there has been a time in banking where the clouds of fear cast a pall on an entire country, you would think a trade association supporting local banks would leap at any opportunity to spread a little sunshine.

***

By the way, the banking association's CEO passed on my message to the senior vice president who called me to apologize for the communications mixup and to say that the staff has been working 24/7 preparing for the big board meeting and that I should be more sensitive to their plight and try to see the situation from their perspective.