Club or Business

I always think of it as a business, but with a quaintly unique British set up and history! How much you buy into the "Club" element may depend on which options, of what the Club provides, you choose to use! Some things are very "Club", others are very much business. Good to have options I suppose.

I for one would be very concerned if our club did not operate in a business like manner. Thing is there are a very many different business models and the question is more about which business model one would advocate. Now that's political I reckon and we all know where that may take us! The question really is maybe not as simple as some may think or possibly even wish.

As a limited company the club have no choice but have to operate as a business.  If I didn’t like that I would turn in my membership and not post on the clubs forum

PS that doesn’t mean to say I’m happy with everything the club does, e.g. the name change and the amateur nature of the web site 

Many thanks for your feedback. With regards to your concerns about over-commercialisation, the essence of the Club has always been, and continues to be, to serve the needs of members in supporting leisure touring activities through the provision of relevant products and services. These generate revenue, which is re-invested in the infrastructure and ancillary services that hopefully make the Club experience special. Indeed we purchased two new sites earlier this year, released on the network, Cayton Village Club Site and Bridport Bingham Grange Club Site.  If we relied purely on Membership fees and site revenues, the Member experience would very quickly be eroded hence we do mail members to encourage take up of our products and services. We do have to try to run in a business-like manner in order to compete with other providers and to ensure efficient use of your money. With no shareholder dividends to pay and no debts to service we are very much focused upon remaining a members’ Club rather than a purely commercial entity like everyone else.

However, you are able to opt out of emails and we have in fact developed a brand new communications preference centre, giving you more choice on what exactly you want to hear about from your Club, while at the same time giving you the choice to tell us what products and services you do not wish to hear about. You can find out more by visiting here. 

Rowena

There have been lots of comments about the Club being registered as a company.

It is true that any club should be run as an profitable and successful business.  It is good that your comments reinforce this premise.

However, is offering Yurt and holiday cottages etc anything to do with caravaning or motor homing?

I was trying to indicate that old clubs, such as the AA, RAC and Saga started as membership clubs. As a benefit to their members, they started offering products appropriate to the membership but then extended and extended the range. Now, they are profit making organisations with share holders.

Is the Club going to go the same way?

It already has Boltoncm .. Which is not a bad thing.  As a retailer of a large range of goods and services the CMC has been successful.  Their customers ( most of them anyway)  seem to be relatively  pleased with any purchases made from the CMC. That makes for repeat business.  Like any decent retailer they are continually adding to their range of products to appeal to new customers and will continue to do so to survive

K 

The way I always explain it to people is that it is a Club running a Business...

David

The club is a company limited by guarantee which is a way of preventing the members being liable for its debts should it be wound up. At the same time it has to be run profitably to continue but with no shareholders it does not pay any dividend nor do the comittee  get paid. 

In addition and very basically, if the club, instead of being a private limited company (LTD) where shares can't be bought and sold became a public limited company (a PLC which was floated on the stock exchange) the shares could be traded and the company would be vulnerable and profits could be taken by the investors. So the way it is run, as an LTD protects the independence of the company and profits can be ploughed back into it for the benefit of the members.