Not moving with the times
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York Rowntree Park floods, probably why there is hardly a blade of grass😂
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I'm surprised then, especially as you use a lot of sites. Three that I know of are Black Horse Farm, 'Bleak' Leek and Looe ..... I try to have a limited knowledge of club sites, so there has to be more.
Bleak Leek so named by my BiL
Moderator comment: Edited link to Black Horse Farm
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St.Davids was wet when we went and I would now find a CL with H/S in the area. We've had a booking cancelled at Malvern due to flooding but that was many moons ago and the pitches have probably been upgraded since then.
Our weather does lend itself at the moment (not just this month) to extremes either baking hot or deluges of Biblical proportions. Last year in Norfolk in September some roads were flooded for the first time that I can recall seeing and we've been going there for over 35 years on a regular basis. Look at the extreme weather we've had this month. Record highs and record rainfall in certain areas. So for me it's time to greatly reduce grass pitches on club sites. Leave a few for those that want them but make them booking specific and a bit cheaper.
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I agree with all of that. The club does seem to be going that way when building or refurbishing new sites and in it's rolling improvement programme.
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I don't know all the areas of the site but there is an area for about 5 caravans that is a bit like that and we did seek it out as it was secluded , more importantly, we were pitched under a large spreading tree and after being out and returning to base at probably 3pm due to temperatures in the mid to high eighties the shade was welcome.
Other parts of the site are markedly different.
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If the club is going to go along with installing more H/S pitches I just hope that they leave a decent amount of grass between each pitch and not convert the sites into car parks such as Southport and parts of Chapel Lane.
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I think Club have got issues greater than juggling HS and grass pitches at the moment. Saw a recruitment post for potential new Wardens on here not so long ago, think it’s part of reason some Sites haven’t opened this year. They put new HS pitches in at Rosedale Abbey last year, but I think it’s one of those that hasn’t opened, usually popular as well, despite having no facilities.
I can’t say I’d be enamoured of doing all the enhanced facility cleaning required at the moment on minimum wage........😕
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I understand that several "older"site staff have not returned this year because of the governments advise with covid19 advised the more vunerable to stay home
So to keep busier,short staffed sites going some could not open,even now some sites are short of staff
Some younger friends of ours (volunteers now) have been quite "busy" after the club realised that they were more needed than at first appreciated
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Yes, we thought some of the Wardens might be shielding/ taking enhanced care. Club will be short of some experienced staff at the moment, much like other employers.
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"This Club would be fantastic, if only it was to listen to its members".
The membership is a diverse group. Some may be happy with things as they are, or even as they were.
Why not stick around, remain a Member, give the Club the benefit of your valued opinion, and change from the inside where you feel changes need to be made?
I feel sure that there a number of things that the Club could do better, but, in the end, the Club is about holidays in caravans and motorhomes, tents and from fairly recently, pods ... it's not really about magazines or lightning fast websites. Over the years, and with few exceptions, once you have got the steadies down on site, be it Club, Affiliated or CCL, things are splendid.
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The other club is in the same position according to one member of staff we spoke to recently.
We were told some of them are still in Spain, they couldn't get back when they should have been back as the ferries kept getting cancelled.
Then when they could have got back, they were only offered part time work or zero hours contract, so decided to stay put in Spain. One of the reasons that some of the sites are shut while others are working as non facility sites, less staff available so something had to go.
Here's hoping next year things will be better.
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great post +1
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Eddie, I will start by saying I value the club and what it does but it has real issues that need addressing.
You say the membership is diverse, it really is no not. I would suggest the membership is predominantly older, white, and economically A,B, or C1s. I would be interested in any stats or initiatives from the club on diversity but I dont think this is available. It should be a key policy for a corporate body of this size.
I totally agree the club is about provision of leisure time opportunities and that when on site things are splendid.
The main issue and the core to the OPs post is that the world has changed. This is not the club of old, it is huge commercial enterprise fighting for survival in a shark pool.
The rules have changed, everything has to be fast, automated, information led, and on trend. If they dont get better they will find themselves with a product that people dont want and a platform that nobody wants to use.
What benchmarking do they do on current trends in the commercials?
How do they monitor and adapt to counter the many new platforms now available?
Have they identified the megatrends driving the industry?
If you just keep asking the current members if everything is OK then they will never change and when their current members are no more then what?
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Sounds to me as though this staffing model might be due for change too - with more permanent UK staff instead of this shuttle of temporary staff to and from Spain - with better employment contracts and the provision of decent permanent staff accommodation on sites instead of bring your caravan and park it by the office.
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The problem is that if we only relate to the Club by what happens on Club Together we get a distorted view of the Club. I suspect the Club is more commercially savvy than many people give them credit for. I can't remember if it was last year or the year before but every member (if they had signed up for emails from the Club) who stayed on a Club site was asked to complete an online survey, I know I filled in a lot! So I imagined that from the thousands of surveys the Club would have go a pretty good idea that the thinking was of all those members that completed them rather than the very narrow view you get here. Even if Club Together was the best and quickest forum in the world the amount of useful feedback it would provide to the Club will still remain limited. The reason for this, as the Club well understands, there are far more people using the likes of Facebook now than forums like this.
David
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My question is always should the club be relying on FB?
When you look at CAMC pages on FB, the different input is noticeable, the staff interact, the users are fed positives. However too much back patting can lead to complacency.
Had the club set up a good web site in the first place (I'm not talking CT I'm talking about the whole site) there would not have been the need for the reliance on FB.
At this point, I will mention the failure of Late Availability again as both FB and the banners on the main web site point people to this function to find their "ideal" holiday...both links lead to an intermittent updating failure.
You can't book anything on FB, it isn't a functioning web site it's just a media outlet, everything has to link into the main web site and that's why it's important the web pages of CAMC work efficiently.
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I am assuming that this relates to folks who over Winter abroad, doing their own thing, then come and work as Wardens (both Clubs) for the Summer here, much as JK does? I could be wrong of course.
One of the very first questions I asked years ago on CT was about how diverse the Club was. Didn’t get much of an answer then, either from Club or other posters, but put simply, in our experience, depending on the time of year you visit a Club Site, you can almost guarantee the demographic you will find pitched up around you. It varies slightly between older couples/singles and younger family groups at weekends and during school holidays. Age group is possibly the main difference. Given that very new shiny outfits dominate on Club Sites, a decent disposable income would also indicate Members tend to have plenty to spend on their hobby. Away from Club Sites, on CLs, you do see more older outfits. The Club knows it’s demographic, caters for it, and gives the vast majority of Members exactly what they sign up for, with a small degree of something different. The only fly in this ointment is that it’s an ageing demographic, there are now younger folks with less disposable income, they might have restrictions on towing, and there are a lot of others out there in the market providing more for the younger, family groups. It’s the classic M&S dilemma, pander to the core, decent quality, slightly expensive, but tried and trusted? Or experiment, risk alienating some of that core, but find that others are now doing it better?
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Brue
I think force of circumstances has made the Club take notice of Facebook. As you will know the Club were very late in coming to Facebook. I find it interesting the resources they give it compared to here. Whether we like it or not there are an increasing number of members who will use Facebook over a forum/website like this. They would prefer to use the App rather than the main website. You only have to look at those Facebook forums dealing with CMC members, the daily post count must be ten times or greater than the posts on here. You will rarely be able to convince a regular Facebook poster that this type of forum is better. One thing I notice is that if I post a link to my website on Facebook I get so many extra hits where as if i post on here or on other such forums the post count hardly moves.
David
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I think those sites that are open 12 months of the year do provide permanent accommodation for the main warden couple. It might be a static caravan or lodge style building. I suspect that many people who take on the role of Club warden do so knowing that it gives them a degree of freedom over the winter months to spend as they wish but with the knowledge that they have a fairly secure summer month job.
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I understand that the staff this year will know before the end of the main sites season what they are doing the next year, a contract for that will be available for them to sign
Then if they go as many others do spend the winter overseas, it applies to most seasonal workers in the leisure Industry
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TTD some very good points, particularly the ageing demographic, even if the membership does have some younger members the site usage is dominated by older middle income people. As you say its the M&S dilemma of pander to the core or risk doing something else that may radically change things.
The problem is that if you just drift and assume that the next generation will do the same as the last then you just dont survive. I am pretty sure the current core demographic were fans of Rumbelows, Freeman Hardy Willis, Dixons, Woolworths, C&A, Barratts, and BHS.
They all realized far too late that not having a good digital offering to a diverse customer base would result in their ceasing to be relevant.
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