WASHINGTON - For the first time in 35 years, the U.S. motorcoach industry is going to have one national trade association.

Members of the American Bus Association and the United Motorcoach Association voted overwhelmingly -- in an election that lasted almost five weeks -- to consolidate the two organizations.

The margin of victory, roughly 90 percent for unification and 10 percent against, seemed to surprise even the strongest advocates of the consolidation effort.

Equally as surprising to some was the relatively modest percentage of members of both associations who voted. Only about one-third of ABA's operator members voted and barely more than 30 percent of UMA's members returned their ballots.

A half-dozen reasons were offered up to explain the light vote:
* Apathy and ambivalence
* Assumption it would pass
* Lack of an aggressive campaign against the idea
* The 20-page merger plan that accompanied the ballots literally buried potential voters in details
* Little time to focus on the issue because of competing interests
* A general sense it was time for a change

Almost immediately, leaders of the committees set up to oversee the consolidation were on the telephone arranging planning sessions or conference calls to start the process of executing the comprehensive consolidation plan they developed during more than a year of meetings and negotiations.

The unification plan, which is not a merger, requires the creation of a new association that will have a new name, new bylaws, new board, and new organizational structure. A Search Committee is to find a chief executive. The new association should largely be up and running by January.

The overarching goal of the consolidation is to create an organization that will be much stronger and more representative and effective than the two associations have been separately, said ABA Chairman Ron Eyre and UMA Chairman David Brown.

"This (vote) presents ABA and UMA with many opportunities to develop a new, stronger association that better serves our collective members," said Eyre, who is president of Eyre Bus and Travel in Glenelg, Md.

"Now, we can move forward - together - to build a new organization that will represent the interests of all members, give us a strong, single voice in Washington, and end decades of confusion, redundancy and duplication," said Brown, who is president and CEO of Holiday Tours in Randleman, N.C.

"I am particularly pleased that the unification plan provides for strong representation for small motorcoach operators," added Brown.

During the run up to the vote, Eyre, Brown and other advocates emphasized how the industry was being hamstrung in Washington because it spoke with two, sometimes disparate, voices.

Among the odds and ends that must be completed as part of the consolidation is that UMA must conduct due diligence of the financial operation of ABA. The ABA conducted similar due diligence of UMA earlier this year. The Washington office of the law firm of Holland & Knight will conduct the due diligence and present its findings to the UMA board at its regular semi-annual meeting June 2.

ABA board members are being invited to attend the UMA board session.

Brown and Eyre thanked the other members of the Unification Task Force that developed the plan for combining the associations. "These individuals devoted hundreds of hours of their time and energy to this task. They represented their members admirably," said Eyre.

Representing the ABA on the Unification Task Force were board members Eyre, Charles Zelle (immediate past ABA chairman), Don DeVivo, Doug Anderson and T.J. Morgan. Representing the UMA on the task force were board members Jeff Polzien, Godfrey Lebron, Rick Hillard (former UMA chairman), Brian Scott and Brown.