Do you belong to a local RV club, whether independent or associated with a larger organization like FMCA, Good Sam or Escapees? If so, is the club’s membership growing, declining or staying about the same? Please only respond if you actually belong to such a club.
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We belong to 2 travel club. one is keeping it membership. The other is worring about memberhsip because a lot of members are getting older ( not being able to drive). We belonged to a Good Sam Group and they would have people who wanted to join and when they came to the monthly meeting they would get up and leave. We had to resign from Good Sam norcal . the club ran out of people who could camp. So we closed the doors
I am not that active but if I was I would join some local club. Since I’m really no longer very active and my RV simply spends most of the time in the backyard resting. Just like me.
I am the Webmaster for the Northwest Trek Fun Club (www.nwtfc.com), a group of Safari Trek owners mostly from the Northwest although there are clubs across the country.
The Northwest Trek Fun Club (NWTFC) was formed with the idea that Trek owners are people who are unique because the Trek design is quite unique. They are people who like to get out and visit the very beautiful sites and history of North America. However, they do not want to do it in a huge motor home. The Trek design gives us the comforts of home but still is small enough to get into those off-the-beaten-track sites.
Although the last Safari Trek was made in 2008, our membership is growing. The Trek is unique in that the bed is tucked up into the ceiling during the day and let down at night for sleeping. This gives us more living space in a smaller motorhome.
As more people find this small (24’ – 31’), unique motorhome, they want to find out more about it. I believe that is why our membership is increasing.
To find out more about the Safari Trek, go to: http://www.trektraxs.com
I’d like to know if there is any RV club in or near El Paso, TX or Las Cruses, NM. I hear weekly radio announcements about the HOG having day or week end trips, but I hardly think they’d be open to having a RV tagging along behind their bikes. Would be nice if such a group of RV owners could do something like that in this area.
I belong to a women’s only group. We are small and only meet twice a year, in the Spring and the Fall. We have some members who have stopped RVing due to health or it was not the thing that they wanted to do anymore, some have moved on and taken up other interests. Our members are in the southern tier states from CA to FL. Lots of women find it helpful to be with other women who RV and we pickup new members at our GTG’s. We have full-timers and part-timers that own and drive everything.
I wish Michigan had something like that. I plan to start solo camping once I retire. Husband wants nothing to do with camping so I am going it alone. Good job getting something like this started in the south.
Belonging to clubs that specialize in the wonderful Classic GMC Motorhome (1973 – 1978), memberships are declining with the aging of both the owner population and the vehicle age. If one becomes less able to perform needed repairs and improvements, it becomes a major obstacle to ownership.
This affects membership in a specific brand club. Many have opened their doors to those who have moved on to newer units.
However, the disappointment in the quality and value is apparent in private conversations. GM got it right, but production costs and other considerations spelled the end of a great motorhome.
We belong to Country Coach International. No real large growth but at our last two rallies we have picked 20 members. Most joined chapters in the east and south. We have an upcoming Rally in Colorado Springs in July and we do have some Newbies attending. Not bad for a group that hasn’t seen a new coach in ten years.
Great newsletter this week Chuck.
Our local Good Sam Club is struggling to retain membership. At our last state meeting, we realized that many of our local clubs are doing the same. Yes, older members are leaving and recently-retired members (such as my husband and I) want to explore things like workcamping, longer road trips, etc. while they are still able. That translates to poor attendance, even if membership rolls are stable. There has been much discussion about why or how to fix.
We even tried merging two local clubs. You can guess what happened there…who would merge with whom and which rituals would remain?
Good Sam used to support our rallies, even providing some financial support. That has all but ceased for our state chapter. The required Good Sam membership that used to be a common factor among members is becoming less valuable, and the association with Camping World did not help, since many of our members avoid Camping World like the plague! Several of us have asked ourselves why even bother with the Good Sam connection (because it is not technically a sponsorship any longer since we get nothing out of it).
Perhaps the future of camping clubs is to target folks’ needs and activity preferences as a common frame for building a club (vs. geographic location, age or brand of rig). Smaller clubs have a hard time finding activities that fit everyone — some like to fish, some like to hike, some like to visit historic sites, go out to dinner, etc., and some like to just sit around the campfire. While they are free to do that, it takes the social comaraderie out of the equation when members go in different directions (or worse, when small cliques develop). One of the main reasons for being in a club in the first place is enjoying our hobby WITH OTHERS.
Brenda, please either respond here or email me about what benefits your club STILL gets from the Good Sam corporate organization. As far as I can tell, the only purpose of the club these days is to serve as a discount card for Camping World, and to collect a fee from RV parks to display its Good Sam logo on their park’s sign and literature. You can reach me at chuck (at) RVtravel.com . I’d appreciate any other reader who’s involved in a Good Sam Club to also let me know what his or her local club gets from the organization.
you have it right Chuck. We get nothing from them. We are the oldest good sam chapter in NC.
We belong to an “OPEN” rv chapter (Fort Vancouver Good Sams) in Vancouver Washington. Altho we have lost some members due to health or death, we are continually growing with the addition newer younger retiree’s who love to camp. We have found that many campgrounds in our area are willing to give better rates for more rigs and that we most always have 12 to 15 rigs (sometimes many more) at campouts. My suggestion would be for the chapters who are diminishing to seek other close chapters that are in the same boat, maybe merge into a newer larger chapter.
The question, while valid, presents a bit of an issue. Of the RV clubs we are members of, some are indeed shrinking and some are more or less stable in terms of membership count. The problem comes that as younger families are replacing the retirees that drop out (or worse) of the roster, the participation in events is being reduced because the younger folks can’t commit the required time. This hurts us a lot because we could push a campground for a deal if we promised 40 units, and now we can’t always get 30….
I belong to a Good Sam chapter and our membership stays about the same. We limit our rigs to 25 because of difficulty to make reservations for larger groups. Overall chapters seem to be shrinking.
Our r.v. club in The Villages Fl. is continuing to grow with about 400+ membrrs
We have belonged to a very healthy manufacture branded club (Carriage Travel Club) for many years. Carriage closed their doors in 2011. Although we have rebranded to “The RV Travel Club” and now allow owners of any self-contained RV to join the club, as existing members age out, the club size is shrinking.
We belonged to 2 different local owner clubs initially joining about 15 years ago. But illness and death along with few new members finally finished off both groups.