Member News, Updates from the CCLOA Office

2023 At A Glance

CCLOA

Here’s a glimpse into the activities of CCLOA (we’ll add new months at the top.)

SEPTEMBER

We launched our Hub, the new platform through which we’ll share with our members. If you’d like to join us there, please contact us.

AUGUST

Hooray! We files our 2022 federal taxes, finally. We had our CPA file an extension during our office relocation, and now they’ve been processed. Nice feeling!

Finished launching the membership drive for all membership categories. If you don’t have the email, please contact us.

More news on the topic of what is an ADA compliant website (between the asterisks):

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UPDATE: Justice Department Publishes Proposed Title II Rule to Strengthen Web and Mobile App Access for People with Disabilities ((via 8/4 email from usdoj@public.govdelivery.com).

On August 3, 2023, the Department of Justice published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to update the regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to better ensure web and mobile app accessibility for people with disabilities. The Department is seeking public feedback on its proposal, which aims to clarify how State and local governments can meet their existing ADA obligations as their activities increasingly shift online.
For a high-level summary of the NPRM, read the fact sheet. The Department has also published a press release. Members of the public can submit comments on the NPRM online by October 3, 2023. Comments may also be mailed to the Disability Rights Section, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice, P.O. Box 440528, Somerville, MA 02144.
To find out more about the ADA, visit ada.gov or call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA information line at 1-800-514-0301 (voice) or 1-833-610-1264 (TTY).
https://www.ada.gov/notices/2023/07/20/web-nprm/
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Assisted with several members on a variety of issues, including but not limited to local authorities having jurisdiction, ARVC benefits, and questions about upcoming events.

Daily:  Continuing to pound away at the new membership management tool that’s also going to be a cool portal through which our members can access considerable content (in due time) without needing to first meet with staff. 

Daily:  Organizing the incoming membership renewals for 2023-2024 Industry Suppliers and for 2024 Outdoor Hospitality membership categories. 

The CCLOA Board of Directors held an emergency meeting regarding the State Mobile Home Park Oversight Program’s interpretation of the Colorado Mobile Home Act. The interpretation is impacting some campgrounds.

We feel that applying the Mobile Home Park Act to seasonal campgrounds is inconsistent with its purpose and language, impairs the Colorado tourism industry, and further strains the Mobile Home Park Oversight Program, further limiting the services intended for the important affordable housing option you have worked to enhance.

An informative email should be in the inbox of all of our Colorado outdoor hospitality contacts by the end of the day.

We also notified two journalists, Representative Boesenecker, one of those who worked to update the Act, and the Tourism Industry Association of Colorado (TIAC).

Reminded members of the upcoming event we hope they will appreciate this fall, including our very own online gathering.

JULY

Progressively creating our online tool for members and striving to launch in time for the 2024 membership renewals. As of 7/25, we’ve decided we need to offer two options to our prospective Industry Supplier, Associate and Outdoor Hospitality Members: the means to join now and the means to inform us of your intention to join when you can sign up and pay online (as soon as the program is ready). Stay tuned for an email on the matter.

Welcomed New Members

Some members are reporting weather-related issues:

  • A planned opening in 2023 of a new park has been pushed to Spring 2024.
  • Several have had to close some sites, at least for short spells, due to mud.
  • At another park, an electrician’s best guess as to an electrical outage at the park is from the unusual amount of rain raising the water table so much that it is interfering with the old wiring.
  • Elsewhere, it’s interfered with the electrical system, and even the internet.
  • Many with dirt road access have had real messes, and those with dirt interior roads are sick of the mud being tracked everywhere!
  • One member wrote with a bit of a positive note: “we have had springs flowing in several parts of the campground where we never saw above-ground water before, which has led us to close 2 of our tent sites intermittently.”

Updated many pages, including these:

Created our listing for The Glamping Show Americas! Members can save on the registration price, so request the coupon code from Mary in our office. Please stop by BOOTH 325!

FYI: Aside from creating our listing, we added a show special for newcomers to CCLOA (visible online under that tab that reads “Show Specials.”

On 7/25, the US Department of Justice advanced a proposed rule to strengthen web and mobile app access for people with disabilities. Click to read it.

JUNE

We welcomed new member Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch / Thousand Trails, in Gunnison.

Dustin Youree (Riverview RV Park in Loveland) has expressed interest in being considered to spearhead the Legislative Affairs Committee. We’ll continue this encouraging conversation through July and August.

June was more than just a continuation of the normal workload. It started with expanding member publicity through influencers. Next up, we gained a much more stable office situation. Your executive director is not exactly settled in, but it’s great to have everything under one roof again.

Still, most of June was dedicated to the set up of our new association management program that will launch with the 2024 dues collection process in a few weeks. To establish this program requires a seemingly infinite strategic planning process for our future benefit packages and for every huge and miniscule detail of data that will make CCLOA more effective and efficient to manage and more beneficial to its members.

The deeper we go into the project, the greater the scope of possibilities! The program will be “bare bones” functional in a few weeks, yet it will evolve into a more powerful tool far into the future.

We liken the process to building a house, from which land to buy and what floorplan is desired, leading up to every detail like which door knobs go on the kitchen cabinets. Of course, we liken it to your office getting a new front office and online reservation program. None of this is fully defined overnight, or even in the first year.

Since this project is being done by each of the three state associations Mary, our executive director, manages (CCLOA, KPOA, & SDCOA), every detail is being evaluated at least three times. So far she’s had several 48-hour days, and numerous times the evaluation of options has caused the brick wall to force a pause. In the end, it will all be worth it!

MAY

For the parks, we posted on https://www.facebook.com/ccloa 19 times, and in our private FB group 7 times.

Naturally, the consumer-driven marketing continues. This includes responding queries from consumers.

The Board of Directors held its orientation meeting, confirmed our budget, set the path toward 2024, and reviewed and authorized the 2022 financial books. Earlier the CPA filed for an extension of our tax filing, and now the books are in their hands for processing!

For the next membership year, CCLOA is stepping into the 21st century by launching a membership portal! That means you will be able to pay online for your dues, registration fees, auction wins, chat with one another without going through CCLOA’s office, list things for sale that others might want, do committee work in one central spot, access resource documents of various types, and so forth! You will no longer need someone to answer a phone to take your credit card info, and you will no longer need to mail checks. With a whole lot of hard work and lots of luck, the system will be live for our supplier membership drive in mid-to-late July. Hopefully we can work out any kinks before we launch the park owner membership drive in early August. (This project consumed many hours of research, demos, analysis, and consideration across quite a few weeks; actually, the process started 8 years ago and has been reconsidered every couple of years.)

Our office remains mobile, as does Mary’s (my) “home” (and I don’t mean an RV). Trials and delays with her (my) housing situation have been extremely taxing over the past 20 months. This was all supposed to be settled long before beginning the online portal project, so please tuck an extra ounce of tolerance and patience up your sleeve when you’re needing her attention on any matters. The current landing pad is for only two more nights and then ????? (the next landing pad hasn’t been found yet).

Continued to work with more requests for membership information.

Visited with several industry suppliers who are hoping to join us for our next membership cycle (their benefits run from Sept. through Aug.).

Assisted some parks with a few hiccups with industry suppliers (not any in our supplier membership).

Received 565 membership query emails from a hack into an ARVC program. Man, for a moment there, it looked like we were on the verge of gaining more park members than even exist in our state! LOL

May ended with the signing on of a special new member. You’ll hear more about this returning person in an email on June 1. Stay tuned to your inbox!

APRIL

For the parks, we posted on https://www.facebook.com/ccloa 23 times, and in our private FB group 4 times.

Marketing continued to be in the forefront, adding some enhancements to our webpage and the listings, as well as creating and monitoring our social media posts. We post daily (if not multiple times daily) on our consumer-driven social media pages. We happily updated some listings on our website. We prefer your listings be accurate and complete so our audience is pleased with their findings ~~ otherwise they won’t return to our site!

Offered insight and learned more as one of our members has been enduring limitations imposed by their county.

Distributed information about EV charging station grants.

Enjoyed emails from members who shared some of what they’ve done with the info shared from the CCLOA office. It’s uplifting to know it helps!

Enjoyed another meeting of the CareForColorado coalition. Given the works of many, new content is now scheduled on our social media.

Responded to a surprisingly large number requests for membership information (some included multi-parks).

Provided this update which was published in Woodall’s Campground Magazine: CCLOA hosted an online discussion on pricing and revenue centers, and provided a hands-on introduction of campground owners to influencers and content creators. In late March, along with our annual business meeting and election, we hosted a two-day informal annual gathering in Colorado Springs. This provided an excellent opportunity for newcomers and seasoned park owners to become better acquainted, and to discuss operations and management topics. The parks are expected to be busy this summer, and they’re ready! 

Shared community news with a member, which greatly influenced his development plans. While we can’t guarantee to always know the local news, two-way communications proved beneficial to the business plan of this member.

MARCH

For the parks, we posted on https://www.facebook.com/ccloa 21 times, and in our private FB group 10 times.

Created and monitored our social media posts. We post daily (if not multiple times daily) on our consumer-driven social media pages.

Hosted an online educational networking session on pricing / revenue centers.

Dove deeper into the plans of our upcoming annual meeting plans (3/27 & 3/28).

Welcomed New Members

Lined up another online networking session: Connecting with Influencers. 

Hosted a 2-day gathering in Colorado Springs. It was wonderful to be back IN PERSON! Members discussed park operations and management topics such as onsite deaths, wi fi, TV service, failures and successes surrounding insurance needs and claims, generators, online reviews, electric vehicles, marketing, selling a park, how early the reservation books are opened, dynamic pricing, plastic bags (CO has a new law!), cancellation fees, late departures, and dynamics within the industry.

CCLOA presented its state of the association and members elected some newcomers to the Board of Directors. The Board then elected its officers. Results are on our home page.

JANUARY & FEBRUARY

Welcomed New Members

  • Ouray KOA Holiday this is a KOA-owned park
  • Salida RV Resort this is a corporate owned park that’s managed by Horizon Outdoor Hospitality
  • Silver Thread Basecamp owned by Mike & Melissa Cummings / Bobby Jack & Sarah Rushing
  • Snowy Peaks RV Park’s (Buena Vista) you maybe knew it before but now it has new owners: David Freeman and Sam Rothstein
  • M Lazy C Ranch (Lake George), which is owned by Pete LaBarre’s Rare Earth Development, a corporation that owns other CCLOA member parks
  • Sweetwater River Resort (Texas Creek), which is owned by Pete LaBarre’s Rare Earth Development, a corporation that owns other CCLOA member parks
  • Arrowhead Point (Buena Vista, which has been a long-standing member (under a slightly different name) but now has a new owner: Pete LaBarre’s Rare Earth Development, a corporation that owns other CCLOA member parks

Other News

Elk Creek Campground in Grand Lake is now Grand Lake / Rocky Mountain National Park KOA Journey. (Greg and Peri Ann Query purchased it last spring, and ran it through 2022 as its former name; they also own Estes Park KOA.)

Launched the 2023 benefits for our outdoor hospitality members.

Marketing for camping in Colorado is going well. Presently we’re leading up to #PlanForVacation Day (1/31/2023) by sharing posts that enlighten our audience on the eight Colorado regions. Hopefully that will encourage multiple trips for those closer to Colorado, or perhaps a lengthy vacation from more distance places so they can see more of our large and gorgeous state. #PlanForVacation is a U.S. Travel program which CCLOA supports. (We would love it if you’d share these posts on your Facebook page!)

Created and monitored our social media posts. We post daily (if not multiple times daily) on our consumer-driven social media pages.

Hosted an online event in which introductions were made between outdoor hospitality business owners to influencers, writer, and content creators. The program was very well received by both sides of the equation. There’s been a request that we hold another event for those who missed it (our trouble is fitting it into our schedule, and that’s actually a good problem to have).

Deemed concern for several bills in Denver. We emailed one to the members, alerting them that they need to ascertain their concern level and then address it with their area’s legislators. Another is being monitored.

Postponed a CCLOA Board meeting due to continuing issues surrounding the flood at the office and the ED’s home.

MOVED, in more ways than one! First, due to a flood in the office, we now have new mailing address for our mobile office. Then, due to the pending sale of our physical corporate address in Erie CO, we’re now corporately in Leadville CO. The new details are in our email signature block, invoices, and letterhead. Our email and phone remain (thankfully!) unchanged!

Refilled our CampColorado.com’s rack card at several locations.

Continued onboarding many members who had a lapse in their benefits due to non-payment. It’s wonderful to have them back in membership.

<SOAP BOX>

Members, please read your emails because we don’t print and mail our dues renewal notices. Not only is email FREE (aka “affordable to CCLOA’s budget), but it’s an extremely efficient way to use our resources (time is one of those resources; we have only so many hours in a week to use our staff).

In case you hadn’t noticed the pattern, dues renewal notices are emailed on 8/1, and they’re due in our office on 9/15. Why?

  • Members told us they liked that date because they have their summer revenue (remember, we are member-led!)
  • Members have told us that things at the park typically are in smoother operation mode by 8/1, so they tend to start catching up on admin duties;
  • With a staff of one, we must spread the workload to not have too much on the front burner at any one time, and that workload consists of an enormously chaotic fall and winter (dues can’t be added to those months);
  • Members asked for educational programs starting in mid-September, so we need to ease up on one project and slide staff into the next;
  • You get the most bang for your buck because we always offer additional perks to those whose funds arrive by 9/15 (those who don’t pay by 9/15 can still renew through 12/15 but there’s a chance there will be hiccups in your state and national benefits);
  • And the biggest is that we need Sept. and Oct. to finalize next year’s budget and the related programs. Many aspects for the following year actually begin rolling out long before the new year arrives.

FYI 1: We can’t just get marketing materials into RV shows the first weekend of January if we haven’t yet paid for the material, shipped them, and signed up for the RV shows (that’s merely one example; there are many!).

FYI 2: Let’s say we have 60 members on 9/15. That’s what we have to use to create a balanced budget. If there isn’t sufficient funds in our account, we cut programs. Due to many factors that go into creating a budget, just because another 20 members end up renewing after 9/15 doesn’t mean those programs can be reinstated!

FYI 3: Our partnership with ARVC requires that we pay them their funds based on membership and total campsites, and we are simply too small to pay the dues for a park that hasn’t yet paid us.

Every hour CCLOA is chasing non-renewals is an hour we’re not working for those who did pay on time. That isn’t what they paid for! We’ve just never before this year experienced the enormous number of non-renewals who later renewed. Here it is mid-February. We’re well into the legislative session, the educational timeframe, the marketing of “come, camp in Colorado,” our tax filing season, and more to still be doing September’s work on renewals (or even January and the launching of benefits).

Please, mark your calendar right now to look for our dues renewal email on 8/2. The sooner you pay it, the less staff puts into the dues renewal project and the more staff puts into programs that make our members better park owners!

So, why not pay it and mail it immediately upon receipt to eliminate all the stress of this project!? If you can’t pay it that day, at least mark your calendar to mail it by 9/7.

HINT: = Those who use e-calendars can set it up as a recurring event because the date doesn’t vary from year to year.

<GETTING OFF THE SOAP BOX>

Prepared our books for the CPA for our 2022 tax filing.

Announced our annual meeting plans.