Club AGM 2022

I thought it was quite interesting, even though I can’t totally agree with GDJ's views. Hearing different opinions broaden one's perspective. It certainly wasn't deserving of a yawning emoji.

It's easy to say "leave the club" to those of us who think the new booking system is poor, however if we didn't point out errors and malfunctions or in my case and others a disturbing banking error these serious faults would go undetected and uncorrected. The situation for CL owners, who are also  club members is a case in point, CL searches are still limited to 20 per search and the club is still arguing that prices don't need to be displayed because some will be incorrect as per club prices themselves!? However I Iook forward to hearing praise too.....

I need to clarify my earlier comment because in a couple of responses I am being misrepresented. I am not disagreeing with the obvious fact that the new booking system has had problems; moreover, I made it pretty clear that the Club's answer to the questions raised, on that specific subject, was not great. 

I am certainly not saying, when I question some members' criticisms of the club, that glitches and problems with the system should not be pointed out.

My comment was addressing wider issues than merely the new booking system.

All we want and need is access to the CLs. At present, £56 per year, mainly recouped via days out and special offers represents reasonable value to us, enables us to tour very cheaply by including CLs. Club’s terms and conditions make life very awkward for us to consider Club Sites now, and few Club Sites give us VFM the way we tour anyway.

We shall give the Club as little of our spend as we can to be honest. We are part of the “expendables”, those whose membership isn’t a good return, as we don’t buy enough Club based products. I long for the day when someone other than the two Clubs are able to certificate small sites on the scale of the current CL network.  

I certainly don't expect the Club to be defensive, I expect them to recognise members concerns and have a bit more humility. As we are frequently told the Club is a non profit organisation, but what should be added is that it exists for its members. To me the need to answer questions defensively indicates that they have got things wrong but are not willing to be contrite  in their acceptance of that fact. 

They also don't show any acceptance of how some things are changing particularly as far as motorhoming is concerned. The question of members being able to use site facilities for short periods was asked. Now I accept that is not an easy question to answer as its more involved than it looks on the surface. However what I object to was the way the question was answered. Which was that wild camping is illegal in the UK and we don't want to encourage it. You would expect someone senior in the club to understand that there are many off campsite places where motorhomers can park for the night perfectly legally be it in a paid for car par of a pub car park etc. To me a question deserves a proper answer, even if the answer points out the difficulties of accommodating what the questioner asked.

David

I can't quite make up my mind how the Club view member opinion. It seems they are determined to push their vision through whatever members think, no doubt with the hope we will get used to it. I appreciate that they were responding to individual questions but virtually every response was defensive. 

David, I suspect the Club is struggling to understand the many complaints, many of which are not at all constructive and are probably viewed as just push back against change, hence their response. They have acknowledge the initial problems and the need to make corrections, I don't really see that as being defensive.

They also don't show any acceptance of how some things are changing particularly as far as motorhoming is concerned. The question of members being able to use site facilities for short periods was asked. Now I accept that is not an easy question to answer as its more involved than it looks on the surface. However what I object to was the way the question was answered. Which was that wild camping is illegal in the UK and we don't want to encourage it. You would expect someone senior in the club to understand that there are many off campsite places where motorhomers can park for the night perfectly legally be it in a paid for car par of a pub car park etc. To me a question deserves a proper answer, even if the answer points out the difficulties of accommodating what the questioner asked.

I agree 100 percent. The answer about encouraging wild camping has been their staple one for years which just shows how little attempt they have made to understand. The Club still remains very much caravan orientated.

peedee

The Club still remains very much caravan orientated.

Yet you have posted on your recent visits to club sites that MHs outnumbered caravans and that's certainly my experience too at times even on service pitches, and often it's more or less an even balance across a site every time I go, so I can't see how that statement holds up in reality?

The club offers the same to both MHs and caravans. Just because the club doesn't want to offer one item for MHs (that probably wouldn't use club sites anyway) doesn't mean it is still very much caravan orientated. Is the CCC much more MH ortenatated as it does offer this service?

The club offers a set menu, if you like that is totally inclusive for MHs and caravans. The only item not on that menu is to site facilities for short periods. So the answer is quite straight forward but as you have posted and I have seen MHs are in good supply on sites. 

Another point of course is that as posted a while ago there are over  200,000 MHs on the club's books and still growing, so your much caravan orientated just doesn't look right to me for those numbers?

Personally, and this has been echoed even with MH posters, is that I don't want extra traffic on sites for such purposes for safety reasons at least, in fact I recall one MH who posted why should they be kept waiting at a MHSP for someone who has paid a fraction of their overnight stay?

PeeDee, I totally agree...the Club is still the Caravan Club with a name change.

the amount of MH or caravans on site doesn't determine how MH or caravan 'orientated' the club is, it mere reflects how the membership is split between the two types of touring vehicle.

to have a 'set menu' of services that are available to both sets of members might mean the club is 'inclusive' but if some of those services are not needed by one group and some services that are are not offered at all (as they would be unfair cost wise to the other) just highlights how one size fits all does not really apply.

the issue of MHSP is a case in point....caravaners seem to think that these mean the club has gone out of its way for MHs...yet the poor design and generally worse location of these make them difficult and sometimes embarrassing to use, obstructive at times and, often requiring more than one circuit of the 'dreaded' one way system to leave the pitch, empty/fill the van and then exit the site or return to the pitch.

unlike sites in other places, CAMC MHSPs are add ins to Caravan Sites...and as such, have be dumped into vacant spaces without any thought as to how they are fleeing to be used...it even took years to actually get one of these with a drain across the MHSP to line up with all waste outlet designs. Yet, further, these could/should have been designed with the drain at a low point meaning there was not a requirement for 'exact' placement of the van, therefore vastly speeding up the dumping process. Anyone visiting Europe and pretty much ANY aire or campsite would have understood how they work.

there are several other 'offerings' that the club could make (which could just as easily be taken up by caravaners) like non electric option on every pitch, smaller, cheaper pitches for those who carry little outside kit and stay just a day or two....

and, of course...as PeeDee mentions, use of services for those who are paid up members and will be staying overnight at other legal stopping points where, perhaps there won't be those services available.

im afraid the Club seems to have little understanding of how the market is splitting these days and certainly little understanding of how a MH works differently to a caravan and the different requirements of the respective users.

it seems it is just happy to continue to offer the same 'product' to all members without the ability to tailor items to suit demand.

yet another reason for us to eschew the Club's sites.

I wasn't specifically singling out the Clubs unwillingness to allow motorhomes to use the service facilities without staying overnight when I said the Club is still very much caravan orientated. There is much more to it than that. Its a service I would not use anyway because there are now many such places elsewhere, 

Anyhow to discuss further would be going way off topic so I intend leaving it there.

peedee