Debi,
The Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) is a membership group to which a lot of us motorhomers belong. The Good Sam Club is another membership group but owners of any type of RV can belong to it. Escapees is a membership group to which a lot of full-timers and long-termers belong because they provide a legal postal address for purposes of residence as well as an excellent mail forwarding service. These are the three largest membership organizations. All of these groups have rallies, in addiiton to our own RV Forum. You can go to any of their web sites to find rally information. In addition, many of the manufacturers have their own rallies, such as Monaco, Country Coach, American, and the like. For example, some of us have signed up for our own coach rallies prior to the FMCA rally in Redmond OR on Aug. 13-17, 2007. We (Ardra and Jerry) will attend the Monaco pre-rally in Salem OR and then go in the Monaco caravan to the FMCA Redmond rally where we will park with the Monaco group. Staying with the group facilitates having minor work done on our coaches at rallies, but you don't have to stay with any group if you don't want to. In fact, a number of the RV Forum people will be at the FMCA Redmond rally, but will congregate together rather than with their specific manufacturer group. We have a knack for finding one another in the crowd. For you in Southern California, another FMCA rally will be held on Feb. 25-28, 2008 at Fairplex in Pomona, CA. You can get day passes for a lot of rallies. Finally, various dealers have smaller RV shows on a regional basis.
Part of the rally thing is the type of RV you have and whether you "qualify" to join a particular group such as FMCA.
Let us know if you have more specific questions pertaining to rallies.
ArdraF