RV technicians have been in high demand for likely as long as anyone in the industry can remember, but the RV Technical Institute is seeking to address that issue with a new director of recruitment, Tracy Anglemeyer.
Anglemeyer has over 30 years of RV industry experience, ranging from working in RV manufacturing, aftermarket and supplier segments throughout her career. She joined RVTI at the beginning of December after working as Furrion’s vice president of sales for OEM and aftermarket segments.
Curt Hemmeler, RVTI executive director, said Anglemeyer’s qualifications lined up perfectly with the newly created recruitment director position, and recruitment has been RVTI’s driving goal for the past few months. Hemmeler said Anglemeyer’s long industry career positioned her with many contacts in almost all RV industry segments.
Hemmeler restated RVTI’s goal to recruit over 1,000 new technicians into the RV industry during 2022, and said someone needed to oversee the effort in a strategic, tactful way.
“We needed someone who had experience with sales, knew the industry from manufacturing standpoint, supplier and dealer standpoints,” Hemmeler said. “And if they were local, that is an added plus.”
Anglemeyer checked almost every box.
“She fit the mold so well,” he said. “First, she’s highly educated and very familiar with the industry. She has numerous amounts of contacts, and so there was no ramp-up time.”
Hemmeler said Anglemeyer’s work ethic and drive drew him to her as a potential employee before she departed Furrion. He immediately jumped on the opportunity have her on his team.
Anglemeyer, meanwhile, said she jumped at the chance to work for RVIA through the institute.
“I feel that this is a vastly needed area of the industry that we need to focus on more, and I am extremely excited to work for the leading association in our industry,” Anglemeyer said. “Trained technicians are needed, and there is an extreme need to bring techs into the industry.”
Anglemeyer said Covid and the rising demand for RVs and record-setting RV shipments exacerbated the longstanding problem, showing a growing service gap. If there is no one to fix an RV, there is less of a chance that RVer will stay in the lifestyle, she said. To help address the issue, Anglemeyer has begun to partner with agencies, industries, states, high schools and more to spread the word of RVTI’s training.
“I am reaching outside the industry to bring into the industry,” she said.
She noted that RVIA and RVDA joined together and subsidized much of the cost to become a technician through RVTI in 2022.
“I do not think the vast majority of the industry knows the RVIA and RVDA boards came together to subsidize our education costs,” she said. Usually, the courses cost about $995 each. This year, she said, they will cost about $300.
