Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.

I wanted to throw my two cents (and Canadian at that) into the ARVC- State Association discussions floating around right now. I know it is a bit of a volatile subject but hey, faint heart never won a fair woman.

In my seventeen years in the business I have seen this ongoing situation manifest itself many times. The tension between the state associations and ARVC has always been there albeit to a lesser degree. From my perspective instead of this huge tug of war for the attention and dues from individual parks, why can’t we just drop the rope? I am not saying they have to work together but there is certainly space for all these organizations.

It is all about value in today’s marketplace. It is about which organization can deliver the most value to the campground owner. The one who can do that will get the business. What if they both got the business! If I am not mistaken it is the job or mission of the state park associations and ARVC to look after the lobby affairs of their “constituents”. The parks realized way back when that you cannot fight city hall, so they banded together and formed associations that fought the fight on their behalf at the state capital level and in Washington. Yes I am sure there are other ancillary benefits that come with banding together but I believe that is their main focus. At least from my somewhat skewed perspective.

I have found lately that both of the  trade associations have gotten away from that. They are becoming all about driving revenue to the bottom line in order to stay in business. They offer buyer bulk discounts, take money form vendors/suppliers such as myself to promote their products and generally do what they have to do to stay in business. However they are not a business. To quote Peter Drucker , “Business is about building things and selling them”. These trade associations do neither.

I have a couple of good examples. About 10-12 years ago we were invited to a state association trade show. We purchased some space, flew down there with our booth, rented a car, rented a hotel room and generally spent money on the road. When we got to the show one of the associations board members announced over the public address system that his son was also in the software business and had a booth. Please go visit him as he is a lot cheaper that Campground Manager Software® and the state association will get a commission on every system he sells. We packed up and went home. We have never been back and will never go back. I have no problem with buddy’s son starting a software company but don’t wrap in the cloak of the state association and expect me to participate. We have enough trouble competing with competitors that we don’t need to compete with the trade show organizers also.

I have another good example. Recently we decided to launch an iPhone and iPad app for our Bookyoursite.com booking system. So in order to make it a user friendly feature enriched app we needed some campground data. We approached an association (of which we are a long time member) about using their data. They turned us down because they are launching their own iPhone app and we would be a competitor. Huh? I thought you were a trade association.

I get that there is strength in numbers and the benefits are many when people group together. However I just think these associations have lost focus on what their mission is. Once they refocus and get back to doing what trade associations do (acting on behalf of their constituents at the government lobby level, advertising, setting standards, education, political donations) then it will be much easier to “drop the rope”.

Your comments are welcome.

I was recently in Colorado at the ARVC Business forum meeting. We meet twice a year and make recommendations to the ARVC Board. We, as outside vendors, bring a different view to some of the issues facing ARVC. The ARVC board does not have to take our recommendations or indeed even respond to them however lots of ideas and policies we have suggested have gone on to be adopted by the board.

It is a very loose group of mostly vendors and corporate suppliers and it can be very informative. Recently the most interesting thing I took out of the meeting centered around the discussion of A Class motor homes. With 4 out of the top 5 A Class manufacturers no longer in business there was some discourse as to whether the A Class segment of RV’s would ever return. Is the A Class segment dead? And of so why? These are the reasons we discussed:

• They are not on the top of the list environmentally. They are very large, use a lot of fuel and have a huge carbon footprint.
• They take up a lot of square footage in campgrounds.
• 30 amp used to be the standard but now 50 amp is and soon will be a 100 amp for some of these big machines. That is a lot of energy usage.
• They are not easy to drive and maneuver.
• In some cases people require off-season storage as the home owner as no room in the driveway. Whereas you can put a pop-up or tent in your garage.
• Some municipalities do not allow driveway storage (could be said of all RV’s).
• The society wide trend of stripping away the decadence in a time of recession, does not bode well with the A Class segment.

Just returned from two solid weeks on the road. My longest road trip in 25 years of traveling. First we went to the LSI Jellystone trade show in Cincinnati Ohio. This was our 12th year in a row at this show with the good folks at LSI. We are the recommended software vendor for the Jellystone parks and we support them by attending their show.

I flew through the Chicago O’Hare airport the day of the federal election in the US. The airport was just buzzing with excitement. At any rate the flight was full to Cinci and the hotel was full and made me wonder again about the actual “on the street” effects of the financial market crisis. Now, if the car company’s go down there will be massive layoffs and I think it would accelerate the downward spiral and you would really see the effects at street level.

We left that show and went to the ARVC In Sites show just down the road in Nashville. I actually just stayed down in Cinci for the weekend and did not make the long trip home. While there I visited the National Underground Railway Museum. Absolutely spellbinding. You want a reality check on good we have it? Check out that museum.  I then continued on to Nashville on the Monday.

The ARVC Insites show is a show we do every year and as far as shows go, the best attended. This year the attendance at the show was very disappointing. Something like 600 people showed up as opposed to the usual 1100. Yes our booth was very busy, yes most of our major customers were there however I have this underlying feeling of discontent. Not sure why. Was it because not too many people pulled their wallet out in Nashville? Was it because people are constantly bombarded with bad news that the bad news in itself was causing more bad news? Kind of a self generating maelstrom of discontent and worry.

Was it because we were in Nashville during the CMA awards? (Where, the night of the awards, there was just an orgy of opulence pulling up to the Sommet Center to unload the VIP’s of the country music industry). Into this environment we held the ARVC trade show which is a grassroots back to nature industry (not exactly aligned with the County music corporate business).

I am wondering if the shows would be better attended if they were “free” for the campgrounds. ARVC would have to charge it’s vendors a lot more however if we got a lot more people maybe it would pay for itself. Include the InSites admission in the park’s ARVC membership fee. Put the membership fee up a bit but then attach this “value add” of the tradeshow admission to their membership. Just an idea. With some of the state associations moving away from ARVC this might be the best opporunity for ARVC to “move the cheese”. For ARVC to start building their brand equity. To stand on the value they deliver to their 4000 members. To change their revenue model. Food for thought.

So I home now, getting out my curling gear and sharpening the edges of my skis getting ready for winter here in Calgary.

As always I welcome your comments.

All for now

Peter