Campground Owners of New York May / June 2012 Volume 35, Issue 3
News and Highlights 2012 Spring Zone Meetings: Wrap Up Inside this issue: Chairman’s Report
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President and CEO’s 2 Report Mobile App Shows Strong Gains
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Save on Shows with Early Bird Discount
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Passing of Victor King
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Legislative Updates
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More CONY News: campcony.com Consumer Website: nycampgrounds.com Our Mission: Campground Owners of New York (CONY) is an association dedicated to the promotion, growth, improvement and development of privately owned campgrounds in New York State.
CONY welcomed 91 campgrounds and 25 vendors at the annual Zone Meetings & Trade Shows, held March 27 through 30 in Queensbury, Kingston, Liverpool and Batavia, New York. Topics discussed ranged from Justice Department rulings on pool accessibility for the handicapped, to survey data, legislative issues, and summer marketing programs. Clyde Taylor, president of Taylor Communications, served as Keynote speaker at each meeting, with an address entitled, “What If?...Lessons Learned from Entrepreneurs. They Can Guide Your Future Thinking.” Taylor’s presentation took a very candid look at the outdoor hospitality industry – specifically camping and RV parks in New York State – from an entrepreneur’s viewpoint, focusing on “what’s coming” in our industry and what owners, operators and managers should be doing to address both the opportunities and the challenges that lay ahead. After each meeting, attendees could apply to be a part of a case-study of campground
Balloons with the CONY and Camp Good Days logos adorn the tables at the Zone Meeting in Batavia. business operations Taylor will conduct this summer, with results to be revealed later this year. Interest was high, and eight different operations will be selected to participate in the case-study. Mike Papp, CONY Board President and (Zone Meetings continued on page 6)
You’re Invited! CONY’s Annual Exposition I’d like to invite you to the 49th annual Exposition for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry, November 1st – 3rd, 2012 at the Lake George Six Flags Great Escape Indoor Water Park Resort! This years theme is “Tailgate Party”! We are going to kick off the Exposition on Thursday with our longer seminars! You will have your choice between certifying/
recertifying CPR and one of Clyde Taylor’s dynamic seminars. After you have filled your brain with wonderful information we will be hopping aboard the trolleys and heading to Lake George RV Park to fill your belly with wonderful food and some great entertainment! Evergreen Insurance will be driving in fresh Maine lobsters for our Steak & Bake! (Exposition continued on page 8)
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Chairman’s Corner Well friends I hope this finds you well and on your way to a very successful season. We have done a lot of work over the past few weeks remodeling our bathrooms, store and getting the park ready to open. As I have told you before, I work outside the campground as well as operating the park and this gives me much time for reflection.
Mike Papp West Canada Creek Campsites “...our organization provides a conduit to many discounts that, if taken advantage of, will pay for your membership and still provide further funds to your profit line.” ~ Mike Papp
I hope that each of you are planning your activities for raising funds for Camp Good Days. I know we have several things we are going to do including shirt sales, can collection at the front counter, and a huge Chinese Auction on Labor Day. We may have a couple of other things going on that will spontaneously pop up, but will add to the bucket. The programs at Camp Good Days are all inclusive and allow kids to forget about Cancer, even if for a few hours! What a relief this must be! Please get your items up, sell the balloons, use Clyde’s list and get as many things going as you can. Remember, it takes about $500 per child….the challenge is how many kids can your park send to camp! CONY is a great organization….and one I am proud to be affiliated with. The Board and the Staff both work very hard to try and meet the needs of the membership and try to provide
great programs and benefits. There are a number of really great reasons to become a member of CONY….
Networking – where else can you talk to people about the same business you are in? You can find out why Mike did what he did and how Bob fixed that problem last year.
Education – do you think you know it all? I guarantee that while you may know a lot, you don’t know it all. Coming to the CONY Expositions will give you an opportunity to attend very interesting seminars and find out the few things you may not know.
Marketing – the CONY directory is a state wide marketing opportunity for each of the members! This directory is placed at thruway stops and numerous tourism offices across the state as well as direct mailed to interested parties that request the directory. Folks that get our directory are “qualified” leads as they are coming to New York – don’t lose out on the opportunity to have them visit you.
Legislative – do you have time to keep track of all the things our Assembly and (Chairman’s Corner Continued on page 5)
From the Desk of the President and CEO Dear CONY members,
Donald G. Bennett, Jr.
The CONY office is very busy preparing for the many programs that will be running this summer, including Geocaching, the Camping+ Value-Added program, the Camp Good Days program and more. With our inclusion in various co-op advertising programs, such as the NCA print ad in Better Homes and Gardens magazine and an FMCA cooperative advertisement, and other public outreach, thousands of requests for 2012 directories have been coming in to the office at a fast and furious pace. Comparing the 1st quarter last year (Jan-Mar 2011) to the 1st quarter this year, we have more than doubled the number of requests.
Traci is busy packing envelopes and keeping enough partner brochures in stock to fulfill directory requests. The brochure mailing program is a great program to get your park noticed. If you have any questions on the this or any marketing program please call Traci at the CONY office or Suzanne, CONY Marketing & Communications director. Member Binders were distributed to all participants at the CONY Zone meetings, and mailed mid-May to those not able to attend. We hope that you take advantage of as many programs that your Campground / RV Park can utilize that suits your business the best. The CONY (President’s Report continued on page 9)
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Chairman’s Corner (Continued from page 2)
Senate are doing that will impact your business? Do you have the funds to hire a lobbyist and have them monitor these things? Well neither do I, but CONY does and we do. Over the years we have stopped the lifeguard issue, helped prevent the Big Box Stores of the world from easily getting their Permit to operate a campground in their parking lot, helped the Adirondack campgrounds stop legislation that would have put them out of business and we continue to monitor and respond.
Discounts – who doesn’t like more money? Seriously, our organization provides a conduit to many discounts that, if taken advantage of, will pay for your membership and still provide further funds to your profit line.
I know I am preaching to the choir so to speak, but there are still a host of campgrounds out there that are not members of our association and we need your help to get
these folks on board. If we want to continue to provide you with great programs we have to have the membership numbers. It is much easier to get a discount program when you can tell the company offering the program that we have 250 or even 300 members across the state that will be using your services. I also want to mention that all of this legislative work that we do benefits all campgrounds across the state, even non-members. We need to work to get these folks on board so that they can help to pay for our work and continue to reap the benefits. My sales pitch is over…I hope that each and every one of you has an outstanding summer filled with happy campers, full parks and lots of opportunities!
Mike
CONY’s Mobile App Shows Strong Gains in Downloads According to Eric Hinman at Rounded Development, as of early May CONY’s new mobile app had been downloaded over 1,800 times to mobile devices. The new app was launched the last week of February 2012.
buttons on the CONY homepage at nycampgrounds.com, and in print advertising in our directory and other publications (such as the Seaway Trail Journey magazine and Upstate Summer Fun publication).
Rounded Development partnered with CONY to create the app and maintains the updates needed to keep the app functioning with the ever-changing technology rolling out constantly.
HELP CONY PROMOTE THE NEW APP: CONY has posters we can email to you, featuring QR codes that mobile phone users can scan, which will take them directly to the online app stores to down the app software. Please email Suzanne@nycampgrounds.com if you’d like to place App posters in your park.
The app is designed to work with Android devices, as well as iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. CONY has been conducting efforts to promote the app, including distributing press releases, promoting on social media (such as Facebook and Twitter; including a helping hand with a post on I Love NY’s facebook newsfeed), ad
You can also download the app, and provide a positive review on the app store. Reviews help keep us positioned high in the app store listings. Go to your app store and look for “ny camping” or “NY Campground & RV Park Guide” as keywords.
Screenshot of a page on the new CONY app for mobile devices.
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Zone Meetings (Continued from page 1)
Zone Meeting attendees listen to updates in Kingston, NY.
“Our parks are especially concerned about the high costs of building and maintaining pool lifts compared to likely use, and what they see as a lack of clear-cut vision on types of lifts to be installed…” ~ Don Bennett, Jr.
Guest Speaker James McCauley, Jr. from Camp Good Days
owner of West Canada Creek Campsites in Poland, NY, appreciated Taylor’s speech. “Clyde has really challenged us to step up our game. We are not “just” a campground, we are an entrepreneurial business that generates a great deal of revenue and provides opportunities for other businesses in the areas where we’re located. (Taylor’s) presentation was inspiring and his new micro-focused case study should give us very exciting insights into our industry.” ADA Issues: Of particular interest to attendees at the Zone Meetings was the recent action by the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued a 60-day stay on the enforcement of new regulations regarding handicapped accessibility to pools and spas, while it collects more public comment on the issues of ramps and lifts. The regulations were implemented in 2010 as part of changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act, which require pools have two accessible means of entry (such as a ramp or lift) and that spas have lift systems for use by handicapped persons. Donald G. Bennett, Jr., CONY President and CEO, informed attendees that survey data was being collected by both CONY and the Texas Association of Campground Owners (TACO) in order to provide to the Justice Department comprehensive information on the financial and operational impact these rules have on camping businesses. The data would be provided to the Justice Department during its comment period. Attendees were encouraged to complete survey forms for collection at the end of Zone Meetings. The surveys focused mainly on the issues of lifts, with questions and topics including how often pool operators expected lifts to be used in their operations, what unforeseen consequences they expected from enforcement of pool lifts in their parks, projected liability issues expected from pool lifts, estimates of past inquiries/requests for pool lifts, and descriptions of their business operations (over/under $1 million receipts, number of employees, etc.). Respondents to CONY’s pool lift survey (both
at the Zone Meetings and through online data collection) indicate that, based on past experience, close to 85% expect pool lifts to be legitimately used one or less times per year, and 92.6% fear injuries from unintended use of lifts by children. “We found that the majority of our respondents to the survey expect to incur more negatives than positives from mandatory enforcement of fixed pool lifts,” Bennett said after the meetings. “Our parks are especially concerned about the high costs of building and maintaining pool lifts compared to likely use, and what they see as a lack of clear-cut vision on types of lifts to be installed, and how – and by whom - pool lifts will be monitored, inspected and regulated.” Papp also points out, “CONY is very involved in what impacts our members and campground owners on a broad scale. The ADA pool lift issue is very confusing and causing a lot of heartache among park owners. We want to provide access and amenities that will serve our customers and provide a great experience, but we need more concrete guidance from DOJ.” Legislative Updates: Also during the Zone Meetings, Bennett brought the membership up to speed on recent legislative issues of particular interest to campground operators. He reported that a large contingent of CONY members attended the tourism industry’s annual Tourism Action Day in Albany - the state’s capitol - on March 6th. There they had over 22 appointments with legislators to discuss current legislative bills related to eviction issues, dumping stations, membership park contracts, and also campground regulations within the Adirondack Park confines. Bennett noted that CONY’s lobbying efforts have spurred introduction of a new bill sponsored by Senator Betty Little and Assemblywoman Addie Russell, which would create a separate classification of the lien law to help give campground operators guidance on abandoned vehicles, equipment and possessions left on site. Suzanne Bixby, CONY’s marketing and com(Continued on page 7)
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Zone Meetings (Continued from page 6)
munications director, provided the marketing report at the meetings. She announced that the association had a full slate of summer marketing programs on tap for parks to benefit from, including the annual geocaching program, National Get Outdoors Day, the Camping+ Program: Value-Added Promotions, Packages and Discounts with CONY, and listing enhancement features on CONY’s new app for Apple and Android mobile devices. Bixby also encouraged early sign-ups for the 2013 CONY shows program and 2013 directory advertising. CONY is raising funds for Camp Good Days: At each meeting, CONY staff announced a new fundraising program slated to kick off this summer. CONY is initiating its first-ever association-wide fundraiser benefiting Camp Good Days, a New York State-based organization providing camping experiences to children with cancer. Camp Good Days staff person James McCauley, Jr. attended each meeting and shared his personal stories of spending time with the children at the camps, and how it is sometimes heartbreaking, but always rewarding, touching and memorable for him and others that work or volunteer their time there. According to Bixby, CONY members may help raise funds in a variety of ways. “They can display change-collection jars, sell paper bal-
loons and t-shirts, or host a fundraising event. Many campgrounds attending the meetings signed out paper balloons for sale at their parks this summer. We think this is going to be a great start to an annual charitable activity by CONY.” Materials are being distributed to all CONY parks with a an appeal letter requesting voluntary participation. Matt Anderson, a CONY director whose family owns Camp Chautauqua in Stow, NY, first approached the board of directors about doing a fundraiser for a deserving charity, and has assumed a leadership role in the planning efforts. “This is a very exciting event for CONY, to get notice and publicity,” Anderson recently stated. “Each campground can get advertising and noticed for taking part in something so important - helping kids go to camp to take their minds of their illness and afflictions. We will be taking part doing the Camp Good Days jar, selling balloons and t-shirts in my store, and a Chinese Auction. As we go through life every day dealing with problems, these precious children try to keep life!” In addition to meetings and presentations, the daily events included a morning trade show at each location, welcoming 25 exhibitors with a range of products and services from insurance to imprinted goods and environmental products.
Matt Anderson of Camp Chautauqua shows off one of his posters for the Camp Good Days fundraiser. “(The Camp Good Days fundraiser) is a very exciting event for CONY, to get notice and publicity. Each campground can get advertising and noticed for taking part in something so important—helping kids go to camp …” ~ Matt Anderson
Camp Good Days Fundraising T-Shirts Artwork for t-shirt imprinting, for use in CONY’s Camp Good Days fundraiser, is available from the CONY office to share with your printer. The artwork is designed so that you can customize it by inserting your own logo or park name (in the lower right corner, beside the CONY and Camp Good Days logos). Email info@nycampgrounds.com for the logo. Three companies affiliated with CONY have copies of the logo and are ready to help. Call them for price quotes, minimum quantities
required and other questions: Contact: Go 4 It Graphics: Jody Walton, 585-237-5226 Tees Plus: Paul Hagberg, 203-834-1777 W.S. Emerson: Dale Morse, 802-748-3840 CONY assumes no responsibility for pricing, quantities, quality, delivery or other aspects of your t-shirt purchases with these or other companies.
Insert your logo or park name HERE!
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Exposition (Continued from page 1)
An evening filled with great food, great friends and great entertainment that you won’t want to miss!
Rosemary Curtis Conference Chairperson Hickory Hill Family Camping Resort
Friday is education day! Come gather useful information and knowledge to help your park grow and succeed! Some of the Seminar topics this year will include: QuickBooks, retail merchandising, customer service, legislation and more! New this year will be round table discussions. These mini, topic-specific cracker barrels have been beneficial to other industry and educational forums. We will end the evening with our dinner and fundraising auction! Don’t forget to get together with your regions and come up with some great auction items to donate! Trade show is now a single-day event, to be held on Saturday at the Adirondack Sports Complex, “The Dome.” Come support the businesses who support our industry and campgrounds in so many ways! The Exposition will come to an end with our banquet on Saturday evening.
Diane O’Dell, RVToons.com, used w/ permission.
Come Tailgate in Lake George with CONY at the 49th Annual Exposition for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry.
At the Zone Meetings campgrounds were given the opportunity to team up and win three different games. Game 1: Campgrounds registered and paid for Exposition before their Zone Meeting lunch for the 2012 were put in a drawing to receive their $50 registration back. We had over 40 campgrounds pre-register and the winners of
this game were: Lake George: Deer River Campsite Kingston: Interlake RV Resort Syracuse: Sunset RV Park & Cabins Batavia: Springwater/Dansville KOA Game 2: To keep the games going we took all Exposition registrations completed and paid for at the zone meetings and put them into one big drawing, held Friday at the meeting, vying for a chance to win a Free Exposition Meal Package for two people! The winner of that drawing was : Arrowhead Camping Area Game 3 ONGOING!!!: The last of the games will continue until the registration deadline for the Exposition! The CONY region with the most pre-registrations for the 2012 Exposition will win FREE Steak & Lobster dinners for everyone from that region that is pre-registered! The dinner will be held on Thursday night of the Exposition! ~ Rosemary Curtis Conference Chairperson Editor’s Note: Go to campcony.com and log into the member pages to get your Expositon registration form, or contact the CONY office if you have not yet received a copy in the mail or by e-mail.
CONY Kids Club
Bring the family to the 49th Annual CONY Exposition for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry. We’ll have plenty of supervised activities for them at the CONY KIDS CLUB, so you’ll have time to get the most out of your seminars and trade show. And, we’ll be staying at the Six Flags Great Escape Lodge & INDOOR WATER PARK, so you can all have a great time splashing around. Photo from: www.sixflagsgreatescapelodge.com
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President’s Report (Continued from page 2)
board and officers work hard to bring relevant programs and improvements to you that are much easier handled by CONY rather than individually. One example is having a lobbyist on retainer. The strength when we go to Albany with one unified voice for so many parks makes our organization extremely relevant carrying much clout with government officials and politicians. It would also not be achievable for each park to individually produce 175,000 copies of a statewide camping directory, a smart phone application, a statewide website, an online reservation system, a 12show RV show program, an annual Exposition with education seminars and Trade Show, Zone Meetings, and region meetings with all of the knowledge that is passed from one park owner to the other through networking and the camaraderie that is created by being involved with and being a member of CONY. While we as campground owners continue to watch the bottom line I would like to point out a few discounts that CONY offers its members who act early. A couple of examples of discounts to take advantage of are:
Discounted rate for the CONY shows program is $400 before July 15, 2012. The rate is $450 after. By signing up early you could save 12.5%.
Renew your membership by 8/1/12 and you could save 5%.
Pay your 2013 directory advertising with your insertion order and save 10%.
As campground owners we constantly are looking for ways to stretch our funds. These are prime examples of how you can save a substantial amount of money while taking advantage of programs and services vital to the continued success of your business. The CONY board and officers continually add value to your membership package. At the 48th annual outdoor exposition last November, CONY unveiled an exciting new smart phone “APP.” With this tool we have continued to move CONY to the forefront of the out-
door hospitality industry and are providing technology tools that the consumers are not only clamoring for but are expecting. The spring C.A.M.P. meetings in Cherry Hill, MD have just concluded (C.A.M.P. stands for Campground Association Management Professionals). I was elected as Vice-President of this extremely valuable organization. The meetings always provide a great deal of information and collaboration within our industry and I find out how other associations operate and do things across the nation. Just so you are aware, I am proud to say CONY is a very respected association across the nation with many states using us as a benchmark/ measuring stick by which they evaluate their own associations. The two-day meetings cover many topics and activities, and host world class association management speakers. I left the meetings with many “take-aways,” especially from the key note speaker Tom Morrison. I constantly look for ways that we can be better in what we do. I welcome your feedback at any time so please let me know how we are doing and what we can do to make the organization better. Outreach to advertisers for the 2013 CONY directory has begun. This information was included in your membership binders. I urge you to send in your advertising insertion order as soon as possible. This way you won’t forget to do it and if you pay with your order you can save yourself 10% in the process. For most that can be a significant amount of money. The agenda for the 49th Annual Exposition for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry (Nov 1-3, 2012) will be finalized soon and information will be forthcoming. There is a revised agenda with many new features. I am looking forward to “Round Table Discussions,” a concept that others have adopted with much success. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the most recent conferences that I have attended, utilize this format. I am looking forward to the speakers that we have lined up. Just to name a few we have Lori Severson, Wisconsin Association of Campground Owner’s Executive Director, Bud (President’s Report continued on page 10)
CONY is at the forefront of the country’s outdoor hospitality industry, with programs like our online reservation system.
“As campground owners we constantly are looking for ways to stretch our funds. (CONY programs) are prime examples of how you can save a substantial amount of money while taking advantage of programs and services vital to the continued success of your business.” ~ Donald G. Bennett, Jr.
CONY had a new lien law introduced into the NYS legislature. See page 10.
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Styer, multiple park owner and speaker, and Bill Botten from the US Access board (covering ADA). Clyde Taylor will present an extended-length seminar and provide results from the CONY partnership study. Sign up for CPR certification/recertification. Work has also begun for CONY’s 50th anniversary in 2013 and I look forward to having more information to you after the summer camping season. Adventure Systems continues to be upgraded at the software level. We have added several parks since last year, and year-to-year reservations on the system have grown by about 8 times at this point from last year. More growth is needed in the number of parks that have adopted the system for us to take the next step in developing a full front office solution. Discussion has already taken place and will continue on the development of the front office portion of the program. Last week I attended a meeting in Albany at the NYS Ag and Markets in conjunction with the DEC. updating attendees on the Emerald Ash Borer. I learned that 2 more counties have been quarantined—Orange and Albany. With the feared invasive species already making its way through our state the idea that is being promoted by our State agencies is called SLAM, which stands for SLow Ash Mortality. While we continue to slow the mortality of ash trees many initiatives are being introduced and worked on to try to save the tree species, from finding a resistant Ash tree strain to introducing predators that would help eradicate the bug. The DEC has introduced new firewood standards to help define for consumers what they can and can’t do regarding moving firewood. Even though the Emerald Ash Borer is becoming more wide-
spread it is vital that we are diligent at our parks in enforcing and spreading the word, “Don’t Move the Firewood.” Other, even more devastating, predators are looming. The Asian Longhorned Beetle is an insect that we must prevent from spreading. Unlike the Emerald Ash Borer that affects only Ash trees, the Asian Longhorned Beetle affects many species. For further assistance in providing your customers information, please contact DEC outreach coordinator Emily Kurth at (518) 4029430 eckurth@gw.dec.state.ny.us. If your park is not in a quarantined area and can host a trap let Emily know. On the legislative front, CONY has put out a new lien law—bill A09911 and S6989—introduced in both the Senate and House. Sponsors are Senator Betty Little, chair of the Tourism, Arts, Sports, and Development, committee, and Assemblywoman Addie Russell. You can visit the NYS Assembly page and NYS Senate page to read the bill. We continue to monitor and work on this and other bills with hopes of passage into law. Looking back at last month’s zone meetings, I think that they were the best zone meetings that I have been associated with in terms of content and delivery. I want to thank Mike Papp for his great leadership, Rosemary Curtis for her help in promoting the 49th Exposition and help with the set up and tear down, packing and unpacking that takes place at each meeting. I want to thank Suzanne Bixby for delivering the marketing updates and distributing all of those cases of directories. I want to really thank Clyde Taylor for his program, which enticed many people to come out to the zone meetings this year. I can’t thank him enough for the high quality program that he put on for us as well as the time to travel the state with us to attend all 4 meetings. I don’t
want to leave out James McCauley from Camp Good Days either. His presentation was very heartfelt by all who attended the meetings and I look forward to the further development of a great partnership with Camp Good Days to help them achieve their mission, and to help assist us with Public Relations efforts, Community building within our parks, fun activities to enhance our schedules and special contact that we can foster with our customers, as well as just feeling good helping children afflicted with cancer enjoy their remaining time and be with others that can relate to them. I applaud you for your enthusiastic embrace of Camp Good Days and I look forward to seeing what we accomplish when the monies are presented to Camp Good Days at the Exposition this fall. Most of all I want to thank you for attending the meetings. As I embark on the conclusion of my 6th year in this position time really has flown by and every year I ask myself, are we better off now as far as programs, value to our members, and the overall quality that CONY is able to provide to its members? And after reflecting over the last 6 years I can honestly say “YES WE ARE” We still have a great deal of work ahead of us and I will continue to work tirelessly on improving myself and our work at CONY. I am certain with the clear focus that we have and a very cooperative, intelligent and hardworking board and membership, together we can accomplish GREAT things. The future seems bright and I am honored to continue to be a part of helping CONY carry out its mission as an Association dedicated to the promotion, growth, improvement and development of privately owned campgrounds in New York State. Respectfully, Donald G. Bennett Jr. President/CEO
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Early Bird Shows Sign Up—Save $50!!! It’s almost impossible to believe! We’re just getting the 2012 season underway, and it is already time to start thinking about committing to promotional activities in 2013!!! That’s right! CONY is requesting your enrollment forms already for the 2013 CONY Shows Program, and if you commit before July 15, 2012, it is only $400 to have your brochures distributed at 10-12 shows starting January 2013. After July 15 the rate goes to $450.
Why do we want your commitment now? The shows program we develop is based on knowing how many participants we have enrolled. The more we get, and the earlier we get them, the better we can book shows with confidence, and CONY staff has time to work with you to get your brochures.
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Minimum Wage Bill Assembly Bill A09148 sponsored by Assembly member Wright, has passed in the Assembly. The bill would raise the minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $8.50 per hour effective January 1, 2013. Then beginning January 2014 the minimum wage would be tied to inflation on an annual basis.
The bill must be passed in the Senate and signed by Governor Cuomo in order Don’t delay! Send your to become law. form today (it’s in your MEMBER BINDER), and let You can view the bill in it's entirety by us help you aggressively going to the Assembly’s bill tracker page market your park to campers and (and type in A09148): RVers, for an outstandingly low rate! http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg
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Member News: Lake George RV Park Patriarch Passes Away The family of Victor J. King, who established Lake George RV Park, announces his passing on May 7th. He was 93. Victor King and his wife Jessica, along with brother Bernie and sister-in-law Betty, started Lake George RV Park in 1966 while also running a successful asphalt company. According to the obituary in the Albany Times Union, Vic's greatest passions were his family and his work. He took great pride in the park he created on a beautiful property at the base of French Mountain. The Lake George RV Park has always been recognized in the top 3% of campgrounds in the United States since it was started. He remained active in the daily operations of the park, with his family by his side, until he retired in 2008. Mr. King served as a member of the
board of directors of the Campground Owners of New York in the 1980s. Mr. and Mrs. King celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 5, 2012. Mr. King is survived by his wife, Jessica; and children, David (Sarah) King, Suzanne (Tim) Hunsicker, Allen (Lin) King, Paulette (Ed) Lindner all of Lake George; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his two nephews, Donald King of Bolton Landing and Robert King of Clifton Park, and their families. A funeral service was held at Caldwell Presbyterian Church on Saturday, May 12. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in his memory to Caldwell Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 71 Montcalm St., Lake George, N.Y.
Cards of sympathy may be sent to: Mrs. Victor King and the King Family c/o Lake George RV Park 74 State Route 149 Lake George, NY 12845-3501 (Story edited from full obituary published May 10, 2012, Albany Times Union)
Member Benefit: CONY Message Board on CampCONY.com The CONY Messages Board on the member website at CampCONY.com, is a useful tool for members to interact all year round on topics of interest. Since upgrading the entire website from its former design, CONY has been able to add functionality that helps you “stay in the loop” on topics you start or want to follow, without the necessity of signing on to the website. We “feed” you the CONY message board topics via email. For instance, if you start a new topic, you can click the “Follow Topic” box and select “email me with replies to this topic.” That way, you’ll know instantly when you have a response. If you’re interested in following a general or specific topic, you can click the “RSS Feed” button, and sign up to receive notes when a new post registers. Wikipedia.com defines an RSS feed thusly: RSS, often dubbed Really Simple
Syndication, is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. Info sent to you includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.
Once signed on, select “FORUMS” (that’s the message board) from the menu list. The current forums include:
That’s the technical jargon. Basically, once you click the button the program walks you through a selection of services you can use to receive feeds of new postings on the message board. You can link back to the trending messages to keep track of the topic.
Announcements Campground Operations CONY Swap Meet You and CONY Miscellaneous You can read current message threads and post your own, once you’re a password-using member of CampCONY.com (and are a CONY campground member).
You first need to set up your CampCONY.com member login account, if you haven’t already, before you can begin to follow posts or make your own. You can request a login ID and password by clicking “Become a Member” on the upper right corner of the website’s homepage.
We’d really like to see more members get acquainted with and use the forums to keep in touch with their fellow members, and hopefully benefit from the experience. If you need help with logging in or feeds, contact the CONY office at info@nycampgrounds.com, or (585) 586-4360.
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Volume 35, Issue 3
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Member News: Legislative Updates (Continued from page 16)
survey. The survey and it's results were sent directly to the Department of Justice during the comment period. Information obtained from the Director of the New England ADA center who spoke at the NCA conference reiterated that, "Under the ADA, privately owned campgrounds (and other businesses) are required to remove architectural barriers where it is readily achievable to do so. Readily Achievable means "easily accomplishable without much difficulty or expense. There is no set percentage of net profit that a business is required to spend. Whether removing barriers is readily achievable is a decision that each business needs to make looking at its finances and facilties. Businesses should start from site arrival points example parking lots and registrations areas then consider how people travel throughout their site and facilities". To survey your facilities you can use a handy checklist at: www.adachecklist.org For further information you can go to the US Access board website for more references, for a complete copy of the 2010 ADA facility regulations, and even view a webinar: access-board.gov/training.htm Archived webinars can be found by visiting this page: www.accessibilityonline.org/Archives A letter written by the Department of Justice to the American Hotel and Lodging Association has proven helpful for CONY in clarifying the Readily Achievable directive. The letter can be viewed by going here: www.ada.gov/ahla_letter_2_21.htm The extension of time comes at a great time for us to get through the 2012
camping season. You can bet that we will have a great deal of information as well as seminars geared toward ADA and compliance at CONY's 49th Annual Exposition for the Outdoor Hospitality Industry. Please save the date and make sure that you attend. November 1 - 3, 2012. More information on the Exposition will be coming soon. ### CONY’s New Bill Introduced into the Senate and Assembly: Assembly Bill A09980 sponsored by Assembly member Russell and Senate Bill S6989 sponsored by Senator Little, if passed, would establish a lien, for the benefit of a campground owner, on the recreational vehicle of a campground guest for unpaid charges at a campground. This bill will definitely give us much needed guidance as well as a remedy for guests that don't pay or abandon their property at our parks. The full bill can be found on the Assembly’s New York State Bill Search page (and typing in the bill # A09980): http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/ ### Emerald Ash Borer: Where are we now? On April 26th Donald G. Bennett Jr. ,CONY President & CEO, attended a meeting in Albany. Officials from the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets, NYS DEC, USDA, APHIS, timber dependant companies, associations, and nature groups were all represented. Many efforts are being utilized to S.L.A.M.: SLow Ash Mortality from biocontrol, insecticides, and predators. Even an Emerald Ash Borer resistant strain of Ash Tree is being developed. We also were informed of 2 additional counties—Orange and Dutchess—that have been quarantined with findings of Emerald Ash Borer in those locales. The DEC has just concluded a comment
period for regulations that will clarify the requirements that we have already been dealing with, such as: 1) The importation of untreated firewood into NYS is prohibited. 2) The movement of untreated firewood to be moved no more than 50 miles from it's source. 3) Producers of firewood are still required to identify the "source" of their firewood and dealers are required to provide that information to consumers. 4) The heat treating standard of 71 degrees Centigrade for 75 minutes at the core still remains in effect. For further information please go to: http://www.dec.ny.gov/ animals/28722.html CONY and it's members were complimented numerous times with the great job you have done in your parks to spread the word and adhere to the “Don't Move the Firewood” regulations. One of the speakers even came out and stated that the CONY members have done a much better job of following and enforcing the regulations than even the DEC parks and Campgrounds. If you are not in a quarantined county and would like to host an EAB trap in your park please call Emily Kurth of the NYS DEC at (518) 402-9430. Also, for everyone whether quarantined or not, if you would like to have outreach information to give to your campers, posters to display and "firewood warnings" you can contact Emily for those too. Many items can be found at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/ animals/48199.html
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CONY Extra
Volume 35, Issue 3
Member News: CONY Occupancy Survey In your member binders you should have received our 2011 Occupancy Survey results booklet.
Resources: CONY Occupancy Surveys & Industry Analysis: 2012—Links to Online Occupancy Survey.
This very important survey program will continue in 2012. This information is extremely important and CONY urges you to take the time to complete this simple survey. 2009, 2010, and 2011 survey reports can be found by logging in to the members only section of our member website: www.campcony.com.
Again because these surveys are anonymous please only report your data one time for each month.
Monthly surveys now accessible online! New for 2012 we have now implemented another option to make reporting your occupancy data using our survey program. If you would like to complete your monthly occupancy survey data report online, contact Traci at the CONY office and she’ll email you the link and add you to the list of email notifications for each month. Data compiled online is confidential and anonymous. The hard copy version will still be mailed to all those not opting to provide data online. A third option to report your occupancy data can be found by logging in to the www.campcony.com website in the members secured area. Once logged in, go to Resources: Campground
Please let the CONY office know if you wish to report your Occupancy data via email and remove your park from the physical mailing of the survey. Why is the information needed? To provide accurate occupancy statistics that enable us to establish and predict trends in the RV park and campground industry. To provide facts so that we can speak with knowledge and authority when asked for statistics concerning our industry. With this information we can make those who are unaware, such as government entities and others in the tourism industry, aware of the RV park and campground industry in the state. To provide occupancy statistics from various regions that enables us to persuade government officials that additional public sites are not needed and to show developers whether or
Richard M. Bull Memorial Scholarship Report David Alford, owner of Adirondack 1000 Islands Campground, Natural Bridge, attended the National School of RV Park and Campground Management at Oglebay Resort, Wheeling, WV, February 21 to 25, 2012, with financial assistance from CONY’s Richard M. Bull Memorial Scholarship Fund.
David writes, “In any good mystery you do not get the answer until the end, but this is not a mystery. I am starting out by saying that The National School of RV Park and Campground Management course is a great course. I recommend it. It can help take the mystery out of managing your campground.”
David has submitted his follow-up report—a condition of receiving the scholarship—which has been published in a recent member e-newsletter.
See the full report—and an application— in the member resources section of CampCONY.com. You’ll need your member login and password for access.
not sites are needed. To enable the trends and data as a whole to be used to promote our industry. How will it benefit you? By having industry-wide occupancy data available, you will be able to supply additional information when effectively lobbying for a bill, applying for loans, buying or selling property, etc. By establishing camping trends, you will be able to project your camper nights with greater accuracy. By keeping track of your camper nights, you will be able to evaluate how your business is doing from year to year. You can study your advertising programs or other aspects of your business that may be affecting your occupancy.
Every effort is made to print accurate information. CONY, along with contractors and advertisers will assume no liability for errors or omissions. We will gladly reprint any corrections.
The CONY Extra: News and Highlights is published by the CONY office, providing its members with industry-related information. For information, article suggestions or advertising inquiries, call: 800-497-2669 or 585-586-4360. Or e-mail us at: info@nycampgrounds.com Campground Owners of New York, 1 Grove St. Suite 200 Pittsford, New York 14534 nycampgrounds.com (consumer website) campcony.com (corporate website)
N e w s a nd H i g h l i g h t s
Volume 35, Issue 3
Providing Quality Protection for your Campgrounds
800‐836‐7860 www.calbranch.com
Page 15
1 Grove Street, Suite 200 Pittsford, New York 14534
Member News: Legislative Updates ADA Extends Effective Date until 1/31/13 on Certain Requirements Related to Swimming Pools and Spas provided by public accommodations: Much has taken place in this area. We have been monitoring many items. As always, if you should require any further explanation or information please call the CONY office for assistance.
Poolside chair lift.
The Department of Justice has made an amendment of the Americans with Disabilities Act Title II and Title III Regulations to Extend Compliance date for certain requirements related to existing pools and spas provided by State and Local Governments and by Public Accomodations. The law was set to go into effect on March 15, 2012 and the department granted a 2 month extention until 5/21/12. Now with this extension going into effect beginning 5/21/12 it will give parks an extension until 1/31/13. The amendment document will
be published in the Federal Register on 5/21/12 and is available on CampCONY.com (Resources: Campground Resources: Amendment of Americans with Disabilities Act May 2012). The first extension of time was to allow for further analysis of the regulations. During the 60 day period CONY, members, other campground associations and other lodging associations responded with formal commentary to the Department of Justice. CONY asked for a further extension of time as well as a grandfathered solution to allow parks to be grandfathered unless making material modifications to their pools and spas. At this time 2 separate congressional bills on the subject are being worked on as well as other initiatives. “Thank you� to those that participated in our (Legislative Updates continued on page 13)