Ownership
Having asked this question before and not getting an answer, like many other members.
Who owns the ‘club’ ?
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Yes, the members.
No shareholders, no dividends, no person or persons owning a financial stake in the club - just us, although it's sometimes hard to believe.
If the club becomes insolvent, the members are liable to the sum of £1 each.
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Wow😳, thanks for that Tinny, it’s a shocker mind. I’d read it & heard it but I was convinced it was just a throwback to when everyone wore suits & ties in the last century. Club members?, I thought we were mushrooms🤷🏻♂️. I need to lay down & assimilate that info😊
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Morning
And it's run by various committees that we as members vote for
JK (mushroom)
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Mushrooms indeed, Rocky. As with all such things, the members/committees employ business folk to do the day to day running and we are in their hands. To what extent they're given free rein, I don't know but it sometimes sure feels like being in a dark place while they steam ahead on an unknown track.
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I own shares in a few institutions TW, I get emails to attend AGM’s & various chances to vote & with that comes-if you don’t want to attend ‘tick this box’ we will send you a proxy vote email. That is what I call inclusive. These companies do everything they can to ensure I have my say👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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I watched the Club’s AGM on Zoom last year, after submitting my voting choices and a question on line. The AGM was just two or three officials running through a report, which was quite interesting. But far too much valuable time (in my opinion) is spent on the Committee side of things, thank you’s, flowers, speeches. It needs some hard questions to be asked from the floor, and more focus on all the questions asked. It’s easy for the Club to formulate a bog standard response if they know the questions up front. The challenge comes from dealing with the unknown questions. Keep the thank you’s brief and get stuck into the business side of things. It needs a much better cross section of the Membership contributing as well. Less backslapping, and more any other business.
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So who decides the level of remuneration’s for the various posts held, seems to me there is some dead wood being carried in this organisation.
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You do by voting either for a motion to be carried or by voting for council members to make such decisions on your behalf.
Check the Site Map for details of the Club's Governance and you’ll know as much as the rest of us.
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Browser, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page, and under links you will find “about us”. It tells you how the Club is organised, the Committees, the salaried Staff, etc…. It doesn’t list salaries, or how much recompense committee members get, but at least you might be more informed than you sound at the moment, and can then ask for more information if you want to. Looking at the Recruitment pages will give you a bit more of an insight into how things are structured as well. Hope this helps.
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The Caravan and Motorhome Club, if you remove site and call centre staff from the equation, it is not a particularly large organisation. Some roles within the organisation will have comparatives in the commercial world outside the Club which would mean it is relatively easy to establish levels of remuneration which will always be down to the "market rate". For more specialist roles which might be more unique to the Club I am sure they would engage HR Consultancies to establish a rate of pay to attract someone who would meet the criterion required where there is no direct similar role.
Whilst we can have a opinion an individuals performance, often misinformed, I am sure there is some sort of review/appraisal system within the organisation to monitor such performance?
David
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For more specialist roles which might be more unique to the Club I am sure they would engage HR Consultancies to establish a rate of pay to attract someone who would meet the criterion required where there is no direct similar role.
Or just hand the post to one of their cronies, as appears to have happened in the past.
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Nellie
Is there evidence of that? Given the almost unique position of the Club structure it could well be that an insider might be the best candidate as they "know" the organisation. The Club seem to have a dual authority, the Management Executive and the Club's "Democratic" side. I am not sufficiently up on how it all works but I did work for an organisation with a sort of similar set up.
David
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I had heard you were a fun guy!
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It's run by quite a few middle class white men. They hold these official dinners to which they take their wives - the twin set and pearls brigade. They're the type that would sooner look away than say "good morning" to you as you pass them on the way to the shower block in a morning.
Diversity - in its many forms - has barely touched it.
I often wonder why wardens nearly always are husband and wife pairs? I imagine there are quite a few single people who would love the job of a warden but I can't say I've seen that before. Likewise, in the years I've been a member and all the Club sites I've visited, I've never seen a person of colour as a warden or, as far as I know, a gay couple as in a pair of wardens of the same sex!
The Club appears to be a very British stiff upper lip institution.
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Morning
mbee, just for your information, there are many same sex couple out on the sites network, as well as people of a different race. This goes back at least to when I started 12 years ago.The club employs people of any race, colour or sex. They don't discriminate in any way. Site staff usually work as a couple so it's obviously easier to employ them as such. There are as it goes lots of roles on sites for single people. I think your opinion seems to be very blinkered (in my opinion).
JK
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Blimey, me, white middle class
It is indeed the nature of the hobby, how many vanners do you see as you described in your previous post?
JK
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I have encountered single wardens and same sex couple wardens.
Perhaps the majority are mixed gender couple wardens because that is representative of our society as a whole. Once upon a time Ford Fiestas were the cars most often stolen. They were also the most popular cars on the road. It demonstrates the same principle.
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You could argue that the majority of HQ staff are from the SE, but then that’s where HQ is based. (Aside from the big salaries, who will go where the the challenging and lucrative work is. Easier to re locate if the money warrants it) Working from home, which the Club does seem to have embraced over the past two years, is possibly changing this though. It was mentioned at the AGM that the Club have given up some office space at EG.
Keeping an eye on the HQ vacancies being advertised gives an indication of how the Club is prioritising things. There’s even one looking for a candidate to improve the website😯🤣
They are still looking for Site Staff though.
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It's interesting how we all view the club and it has taken a long time for it to shake off it's past which was not attractive to "outsiders." There is still room for improvement in attracting a more representative membership. At present I see it as an ageing organisation and not very accommodating to the needs of families.
There are many families who enjoy campsite life but whether club sites attract them is another matter.
Is the club too sedate I wonder or is this what a certain section wants to maintain. If it does the club will have difficulty changing. It will become the Saga Cruise version of caravanning. If so, give me a life jacket now!!
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I don't see the Club heading for Saga caravaning. The last few sites we have stayed on have had a number of young families. The sites with play areas are popular and the play areas are being used, We are not young but feel the Club sites are for all ages.
One thing a friend told me is that older people are the folk who can afford to buy a caravan. Many caravans cost almost as much as half a small house in the North of the UK. It isn't just the caravan price but the vehicle to tow it with too.
We go away outside of school holidays because we can and find it easier to visit places during term time. However that is our choice. Often at these times the sites are used by older people but that doesn't mean they are the only people using the sites all year round.
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I think it depends on the site. In my opinion some sites are already Saga caravanning. If you go to a site near a popular holiday destination near a beach in the summer, then there are quite a few young families. As Wytchylin says, caravans can cost the equivalent of half a house in the north plus a decent tow car. Motorhomes are out of the question for a vast amount of the population unless you're older.
We went to Seacroft last summer and I was surprised at the few families that were there except for in the tent field. I must admit, we felt like outsiders, as there was a group of vans dotted around the site and they all knew each other and booked from year to year and it was very much us and them.
The other Club call themselves The Friendly Club and I can see why. As I mentioned in a previous post, the twin set and pearls brigade would rather look away than say "good morning" to you. I think the fact that all their sites accept tents make a difference as they attract a younger crowd with families. and I'm not sure this Club can address that.
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I think the club does attract young families very well indeed already. The thing is though your viewpoint all depends when you use club sites and to the site itself.
If you go in school holidays then mainly all you will see is young families (or grandparents) with children of all ages. When I was working that's all I saw, now I'm using club sites out of term time I get the opposite view. When I was last at Seacroft during the first half of the summer holidays it was almost wall to wall children so much so the pool had a happy hour for the more mature at 9am
As I said before when we use sites midweek to midweek during weekdays I'm usually one of the youngest on site and at weekends I'm one of the oldest.
Also there is the kids for pound and kids are kids till they are 18, the non club sites I've seen is usually 14 or even as low as 12.
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I think you'll find it's cravats, not ties old chap.
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I'm being tongue in cheek here but have a look at the questions asked of our non-exec committee, they do reveal something...eg "what events would you have liked to have seen in the past"
The Titanic leaving Southampton
The Last Supper
Luckily the responses also reveal hopes for the future of the club so all is not lost.
(To be found in "about us" at the foot of this page)
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My bad, thanks for the heads up CY👍🏻. I think I may have got it mixed up with the whole ‘old School tie’ entitled privilege thing.
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"Many caravans cost almost as much as half a small house in the North of the UK. It isn't just the caravan price but the vehicle to tow it with too"
Blimey, some MHs must would be equal to a whole terrace!!.
Whilst it may be 'many', its not all, and, maybe, even not most and I would think most ease themselves in with an older, cheaper, van to begin with and then upgrade as finances allow.
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