DJ'S JOURNAL

USING MEMBERSHIP PARKS

Over the past three years, there have been many discussions on many RV lists about the advantages of membership parks. At the time, fulltiming for us seemed so far away that I really didn't pay too much attention to the threads of these discussions. We were just "vacationing", and we felt that we would not get the use necessary to make a membership financially worthwhile. Needless to say, our circumstances have changed, and right away, we were faced with the question of joining a membership park.

Now, let me give some background on our particular membership park situation. First of all, before we joined the fulltiming ranks, and on the advice of other fulltimers, we purchased a membership, at a very reasonable price, in Fort John Riverfront Resort in Smithville, OK, a Coast to Coast affiliated park. I found the information about the park on the internet, and the transaction was handled over the phone. (I'll have more about this situation later in this piece.) We also purchased the Coast to Coast (C2C) membership at $79.95 per year. C2C allows a member to stay at a member resort for $6 per night.

Second, on our return trip from Elkhart, after taking delivery of our fifth wheel, our route took us to Casa Grande to visit some friends who had followed our progress into fulltiming. Because we had the C2C, we decided to stay at Desert Shadows, a C2C affiliate, for $6 per night. This park is also a Western Horizons Resorts (WHR) park, another membership group of about 18 parks. Besides C2C, Western Horizons is also affiliated with Adventure Outdoor Resorts (AOR), another part of the Western Horizons organization, and Resort Parks International (RPI). (Are we confused yet???) So, after listening to a sales presentation and making some long term calculations, we decided to purchase a membership at WHR. We then stayed at the park for another 10 days for, basically, "free"!!! Remember, I said, basically!!!! Additionally, the WHR affiliate, AOR, allows a member to stay at a member resort for $6 per night.

Third, when we purchased our fifth wheel, the dealer gave us a membership in a small park in Texas that is affiliated with Resort Parks International (RPI). We had forgotten about this gift for a time, but upon reviewing the paperwork, we decided to go ahead and register with the park. The first year's dues at the park were included in the gift, and we paid for one year's dues to RPI. Now, RPI allows a member to stay at a member resort for $5 per night.

Now we were members of four membership park systems!!!! But, how much does it all really cost us??? That's the big question that everyone seems to be asking us!!! My first answer to the question is: If the systems are not used, they will cost us a lot!!! So, I decided that I had better pursue that question even further.

We are trying, as fulltimers, to keep our "Campgrounds" budget at $10 per night or $300 per month. This is a figure that I gleaned from other budgets that I found on the internet in my fulltiming research. With most private campgrounds charging a minimum of $20 per night, obviously these parks were going to be out of the question in most circumstances.

Now....knowing that C2C and AOR charges $6 per night at their resorts and RPI charges $5, I knew that there had to be a way to take advantage of this in order to make our budget work. Also, WHR does not charge any additional fees to their members for a 2-week stay, after paying the initial membership fee, and then yearly dues. Mind you.....all of these programs have yearly dues, so all of these amounts need to be taken into consideration when figuring out if the whole system works for a given situation. So, using the $10 per night figure, I took the amounts of the dues and found how many nights would be necessary to "break even". Here goes:

SYSTEM	NIGHTLY	DUES	DIVIDED	DAYS
C2C	$6	$80	$4	20
RPI	$5	$55	$5	11
AOR	$6	$70	$4	18
WHR	$0	$245	$10	25
TOTAL DAYS TO BREAK EVEN				74

Now, as for the WHR membership, we paid almost $4500 initially. We know that's a lot of money, but amortized over 5 years, the cost doesn't seem too bad. The key is that the membership has to be used in order to pay for itself, and as fulltimers, not vacationers, it will be used. The initial cost can be less than what we paid if a resale membership is purchased through one of the resorts. Here is a breakdown of the amortization:

INITIAL	# YEARS	YEARLY	DIVIDED	DAYS
$4500	5	900	$10	90

The bottom line here is that we need to stay 164 days in membership parks, each year, to break even with the expense of belonging to these systems. That's less than half of the year!!! In addition, the more nights we spend in membership parks after the "break even", the better our budget survives!!!!

There are also some restrictions associated with membership parks, the most common of which is the length of a stay. Here are the basic rules for each system:

• WHR uses the "two weeks in, one week out" rule, in season. This means that we may stay at a member park for two weeks, but we must leave for a week before we can stay for another two weeks. In a the "off-season", we can stay "three weeks in, one week out".
• AOR allows a two week stay during a High-Use Seasonal Period (winter months in the southern states and summer months up north) and a 3 week stay during other times of the year. I could not find any restriction as to how long we would have to leave before returning.
• C2C only allows a one-week visit at a given resort, twice a year, with at least 30 days between visits. Also members are not allowed to visit other resorts within a 125-mile radius of their home park.
• RPI also only allows a one-week visit at a given resort, twice a year, but with at least one week between visits. The "125-mile" rule is also in effect.

There are other rules regarding reservations, such as how far in advance they can be made, cancellation policies, and how many reservations can be made. In our situation, I was definitely not used to making reservations at all as a "vacationer", so this whole concept was "foreign" to me. I found out fast just how important those reservations are during the winter months in the southwest, especially for January and February. Calling in late January for a two-week stay at our WHR home park in Casa Grande in February, I could only manage to reserve 3 days, and that was because of a cancellation. We could only get a reservation at the St. David resort for a period that was over three weeks away. The lesson here, for this time of year, is to make plans in advance and make those reservations.

On the other hand, some member parks do not allow reservations at all, only "drive-up accommodation", based on availability. Some parks only have a limited number of spaces available for membership rigs and that number will vary from park to park. Recently, we stayed at a park that had only 16 spaces available for membership out of a total of 360. Another time, we were limited to spaces with 20-amp service because the 30-amp was reserved for members. Needless to say, we didn't stay there very long. In most cases, we have called ahead to inquire if there would be availability when we arrived, and so far, we have not had a problem. Each park is different in its policies and procedures.

With the financial and reservations aspects explained, please be aware that there can be problems that arise with the purchase of a membership. Earlier this year, Fort John Riverfront Resort, our C2C home park, filed for bankruptcy. Although they offered to transfer our membership to another park, one that they also owned, we declined, knowing that we could transfer the C2C membership to our WHR home park. We really didn't want to have anything to do with a bankrupt company. Unfortunately, we are out $500, our cost to join the park. We thought that it was a bargain at the time, but it was really too good to be true!!!

There is one more system, one that has existed for probably 25 years, Thousand Trails. We know many people that are members of this system, and they have many good things to say about it. To the best of my knowledge, this system has about 30 resorts located all over the country. We have considered buying a resale membership, but at the moment, I think we will see how we can manage with our existing memberships.

All in all, the membership park systems can be a huge asset to the fulltimer, but as I stated before, they must be used in order to be cost effective. We have quickly learned how to use them effectively by calling ahead to inquire about availability and whether they can accommodate our rig. When planning a route or destination, we take into consideration where member parks are located. Sometimes, we'll find one available; other times, we won't.

I hope that the information that I've written about will help answer some questions about membership parks. I would appreciate any feedback about what I've written, so please email me with any comments, especially if there is something to add to what I've said. Also, for more information about these systems, please click on any of the links in the article.