Rally in the Valley

[Al]

I did not attend the Bluebird company sponsored mens golf outing and
can report on the round table. Macy was about 20 minutes late but
did show. He seems to be very interested in getting this company
restarted. He has the following hurdles to overcome.

1) Bluebird company files are not computerized to a point that they
can be used. So they are spending a ton of time / money updating the
systems.
2) A new phone system is going in this week. The new phone number is
478-882-0330 which will take you to a live person ( switchboard ) who
will direct you to the right person.
3) An on-call person will be setup by Friday to provide EMERGENCY
after hours support.
4) They are added additional staff to answer the phones but that they
have to get these employees up to steam to help like we have been
acustomed too.
5) Many of the original BB staff have gone to dealers where they will
stay. Macy committed that he will not go out an head hunt this
persons back. That he respects these dealers and would never do
that.
6) BB will be be looking for the dealer network to provide sales and
support and will be looking at adding additional service dealers in
other parts of the country.
7) A new website is being developed now. I have made suggestions
that the site should allow a customer to be able to fill out a form
for things like having access to drawings, parts qoute, etc. This
certainly could be a revenue stream for BB.
8) They are reengineering all of the processes of the coach. They
will launch the '09 M450 in Tampa with a target of 900k. Factory has
a target of 35 in '09. They fully understand that they have to get
the product right the first time so the buyer does not have to spend
time of the factory fixing problems that should have not passed
Quality and Control.
9) To insure quality, Allen (Quality Control) will spend 3 nights in
every Bird before delivery to sign off on each of the controls. Also
as the bird is being assembled, each employee will sign off on their
work certifing it to spec.
10) '09 model will have a Cummins / Onan setup. Onan is supposed to
have water cooled invertors and a wiring harness.
11) '06 M450 have a front suspension weight issue that is being
addressed Rockwell. It was committed that the weight testing is
generally 2.5 times the weight the suspension can hold so it was not
a problem but that they are working with the suspension vendor for a
fix. For now the factory does not have a solution.
12) Macy said today they sold 2 of the '06 M450 and have two left.
They hope the 3rd one will sell tomorrow. And that they were back in
busines.
13) They have 12 engineers working on this new design for '09 and
they will start by offering 3 models of the m450. But will design to
the buyers spec. They displayed 3 color panels showing each of the
coaches colors. They are going to a more softer earthtone feeling
and I must say I like what I see.
14) They are looking to get tech support staffed so it can handle the
influx of daily calls but that this was not going to be fixed over-
night and asked for our patience.

I have found Macy to be very receptive to the needs of the company.
They have worked very hard to make this rally an enjoyable event. I
don't see how they can put on this show for the little money that
they have collected from each of us. I hope next year we will have
twice as many people here to support the rebirth of Blue Bird
Wanderlodge. I have enjoyed the workshops that I attended ( Cummins,
Allison, Dometic Air and Refrig, Powertech, Suspension ). I think
the dinners were better than the last time I attended. I have met a
lot of old friends and made many more new ones.

Al Johnson
'96 BMC B75
Perry, Ga ( Attending RITV & RATS )
Mandeville, Louisiana

--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, "ronmarabito2002"
wrote:
>
> This is just brief. Been running too hard to write a full
report.
> Rally has been going pretty well with only a few glitches. There
are
> officially 193 coaches present. Weather has been good. BB sold one
> of their 06 coaches, Bleakley has sold none and I'm not sure about
> Parliament or Holland.
>
> I only took photos of the staging area before the rally and I'll
> make them available as soon as I am home.
>
> The entertainment has been pretty good. Second night was too
much
> talk and not enough music. I was not impressed with the lunch
> sandwiches, but the salad was O.K. Bleakley gave us a sitdown full
> breakfast on Monday which was good.
>
> As usual, some seminars were good and some poor. Heard too much
> about the companies and not enough about taking care of the products
> or troubleshooting them.
>
> They had a Town Hall Meeting yesterday, but I was at the golf
> course. I understand, there were about 100 pissed off owners,
because
> Macy did not show up for the event. I'll try to verify that.
>
> It turned pretty warm today and is supposed to be 80 tomorrow.
>
> I guess there will be a pretty good turnout for the RATS Rally,
> but a few who were scheduled to go are not going.
>
> Hopefully, someone in the group will report on the RATS Rally or
> I'll get a writeup from John Finn.
>
> We are leaving early tomorrow as I have a seminar in Dallas on
> Saturday.
>
> R.E. (Ron) Marabito, Dallas, TX 92WB40
>