What have we been doing? Here’s a glimpse into the office. It’s purely a glimpse since a complete list would take away from precious time working on more projects for our members. We’ll keep January on the top, adding each month below it.
JANUARY
January is a lot about activating, reconciling, balancing, and processing every aspect of KansasARVC.
Updated our Facebook and Twitter pages and created our Instagram and Pinterest pages. We’ll be using all of these this year, posting about Kansas. If you’re on any of those pages (especially if your business is!), please make sure we know to follow you.
Hosted a variety of online session.
FEBRUARY
Dove fully into our marketing campaigns for the 2021 camping season. Many destination parks around the country are booking up unusually early, so we want to make sure they hear about our overnight places as well as reasons why they should consider making Kansas their vacation destination.
Added hashtags to every campground photo album on our Facebook page.
Hosted more online sessions, stepping up the networking opportunities for members.
Typed our bylaws and revised it with the addendums, all dating back to 2004, creating a fresh edition that’s far easier to reference.
The Board of Directors held their meeting on 2/15, preparing for the upcoming annual meeting, election and other 2021 projects.
Distributed a press release to the industry media regarding our upcoming annual meeting.
Processed our 2020 IRS tax form.
Travel Industry Association of Kansas (TIAK) Meeting (insight in italics):
- The Executive Re-organization Order (ERO) to move the tourism to the Department of Commerce was covered in several different reports and occupied much of the call time. TIAK members are being encouraged to “Contact” their legislators to express support for the ERO.
- The Executive Director’s and the Membership Committee reports both presented positive information:
- During the State Travel Update, Tourism Director Bridgette Jobe reported that Kansas Day was a success with requests for travel guides up more than 300% over last year’s Kansas Day promotions and the 3 following days. A new TravelKS.com website will launch in late April.
- This year’s Education Event will be held on April 8 and will focus on Mental Health. No decision has been made whether it will be in person or via zoom.
Submitted a opponent letter to the House Agriculture Committee on HB 2284. It’s a bill to reduce the state park camping fees by 50% for senior citizens. We then encourage all members to do the same. The bill has yet to be assigned to a hearing.
Prepared for and hosted our annual meeting. Attendees accounted for 35% of our membership, with one less attendee than in 2020. One attendee is a new park owner and one is a member who hasn’t been able to attend in person for about 10 years.
The bylaws change was approved; it will take well into summer before we finalize the details.
MARCH
Processed our annual corporate report with the Secretary of State.
Hosted the first regular meeting of the new Board of Directors, which included an orientation, an overview of the direction provided by the previous Board, and new discussions. One key goal: solidify our 2022 plans so Mary can fine-tune the details while the Directors (park owners) focus on their own campground operations until September (when next the Board meets). Also collected Board signatures for our new bylaws. As of now, 2022 looks positive within our association!
Our treasury is challenged since our auction was minimal, given the online event, so Richard Lord, President (and owner of Rutlader Outpost RV Park) has created a fund-raising ‘committee’ for us.
We’re pleased with the results we’re seeing with our new Instagram and Pinterest activity, in addition to our ongoing Facebook efforts.
Reached out to some perspective members.
Assisted with issues regarding electric metering and Evergy. If you want to install meters on some RV sites and find yourself with a roadblock, please ask KansasARVC for assistance.
Provided the KS perspective for the National ARVC Board discussions.
Provided the KS perspective on the formation of a new program by some industry folks in Wisconsin.
Pleased to see that the Kansas Tourism Division will be housed under the Dept. of Commerce again, effective July 2021. The Governor’s statement is here (click here).
Began preparing for National Travel & Tourism Week is May 2 – 8. We encourage you to take a few moments on National Travel & Tourism Week to assist our industry as we all restore the U.S. economy, rebuild our workforce, and reconnect America. Show your social media audience some inspiring posts! If you’re into hashtags, consider using these that week: #NationalTravelandTourismWeek, #nttw21, and #PowerOfTravel. You could get elaborate by using the toolkit created by the US Travel office: https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/national-travel-and-tourism-week.
APRIL
April’s Travel Industry Association of Kansas (TIAK) Meeting:
- We informed them that reservations for spring and summer vacations started flowing in earlier than normal, and some of the overnight parks are saying they expect to be slammed, which will make it tough on spontaneous travelers and on those who pre-book their destinations but not their overnight stops up in the air until they see how the weather looks.
- We reminded attendees that they can still get their supply of the Kansas RV & Camping Guide. Shortly after one more order arrived. 🙂
- One community is interested in finding investors to build an RV park. We will provide the contact info to some investors who hope to build.
- The new TravelKS.com will launch hopefully before National Travel & Tourism Week in early May. Please make sure your listing is accurate and complete, facelifted with fresh photos and so forth. If you don’t recall how to maintain your listing, use their form to ask them: https://www.travelks.com/contact-us.
- Attraction Development Grants deadline is 4/30. Details are here (click here) and the guidelines are here (click here). By the way, did you know that that budget for these grants can’t be expanded unless demand shows the need? Apply! If they say your project doesn’t qualify, or if they have more requests than funds, at least you will know you supported the mission of showing that KS tourism has the need! FYI: It’s never too early be considering the state’s marketing grant program. The next deadline is in August. Details are here (click here).
- 2020 tourism guides need to be discarded; please order the 2021 to have on hand for your visitors. Email Andrea: andrea.etzel@ks.gov.
- Listing and display ad opportunities are now open for the 2022 state visitor guide. Details are here (click here).
- The veto session was discussed. TIAK is monitoring the property tax reimbursement aspect for businesses that were forced to shut down or that had significant loss of revenue through the pandemic, and the internet tax.
- The state’s tourism office will be very busy as they transition to the Dept. of Commerce. Please be patient!
Hosted the National ARVC presentation so our members could hear their latest information.
Published more social media publicity for members.
Prepared for National Travel & Tourism Week 2021 (May 2-8).
Assisted a non-member with issues relating to an authority having jurisdiction (AHJ). Unlike most situations, this AHJ happened to be an energy company.
Welcomed our newest member: Flatland RV Park in Abilene. This is south of the I-70, and is part of the new 24/7 store. Staff designated to this RV park are Ted Augustine, Natalie Dick and Terry Patry.
MAY
The state announced that the new name or how we reference the Kansas “division of tourism” or “travel and tourism” will now be “Kansas Tourism” … no division or department attached to its name. Bridgette Jobe will report directly to Lt. Gov. Toland.
TIAK (Travel Industry Assoc. of KS) provided a review of the legislative session, including the vetoed bills. A prediction of the upcoming legislative session can be summed in one word: political. This is the word of choice when there’s redistricting.
FYI: The industry publication Woodall’s Campground Management (WCM) has changed its name to Woodall’s Campground Magazine (WMC). You can read their press release by clicking here.
JUNE & JULY
Played a part in getting Topeka / Capital City KOA mentioned in this Parade article. We love seeing our members gain widespread publicity!
In one event on 6/16, a story ended and another began. The Morgison family has been involved with our association since its founding. They built Water Sports Campground in Dodge City and became charter members of our organization in the early 1970s. Pat went on to become our Treasurer for so many years that I gave up in reviewing old minutes to find his first election. After many years, he passed the torch to another treasurer who could use computer programs to maintain our books (Keith Wagner, who is now the former owner of USI RV Park). Pat was extremely instrumental in supplying me with historical documentation about KARVC from even its days as the Kansas Campground Association (during Keith’s transition into the Treasurer’s slot, I was a park owner stepping into association leadership). Pat’s information (approx. 2004) created the foundation from which our Board formed new strategic plans. It’s been six years since Pat and Olive passed away, weeks apart from one another (shown below). It’s been about 10 years since the next generation took the helm of his park. Today, they sold their park to Bruce Trent. He has plans to carry the park on into the future as Riverside RV Park, with the assistance of his daughter Angie Donovan. We dearly miss Pat and Olive, and we’ll sincerely miss their children and in-laws. We warmly welcome Bruce and Angie, and we’re excited to see what they do with their campground!
Updated our blog post about maintaining your data with ARVC and KPOA.
There’s a new design of https://www.travelks.com. Some of the opportunities are FREE, making it affordable for our members to be taking advantage of them.
Jaimee Salalac is now the contact for Agri-Tourism.
Kansas Tourism is how we’re to refer to our state office of tourism (not a Dept. or a Div.). The new address: 1000 SW Jackson, Suite 100, Topeka, KS 66612
STATISTIC: Earlier this year, ARVC shared with us the results from a survey they performed. It produced 516 responses from both members and non-members. One specific detail was that the average number of sites from those was 185. In reviewing KPOA’s database, Kansas members average a total number of sites is 52.
Created a new page on our website: Testimonials. If you would please share yours with me, I’ll gladly add it!
Migrating to a new name!
In Feb., the members voted to change our name to the Kansas RV Park Owners Association, using the acronym KPOA. That change has been started but it will take several weeks to finalize. We opted to use ksrvparks.org (similar to our ksrvparks.com consumer domain) since we already owned it and KPOA.org isn’t available. The Secretary of State was the first change, then the IRS, and now we’re updating the .com and .org websites. Soon the IRS will allow us to change our bank account. It takes time, but at least that process has been started.
Countless details later … On July 13th, we notified the members and many of our industry partners, colleagues and connections. The next day, Woodall’s Campground Magazine published our press release. If you would like to have the logo for use in your website, rack card, or other marketing material, please request a clean image from our office.
AUGUST
It’s membership drive time, so we’ve outlined our 2022’s programs and benefits and we’ve emailed:
- Members to renew
- Non-members to join
- Industry suppliers to renew or join
Park members: when your dues payment is in our office on or by 9/15, you’ll have a member listing in our printed Kansas RV & Camping Guide and you’ll have additional social media posts coming in 2022.
TIAK’s Kansas Tourism Conference is October 18-20, in Liberal. Mark and Veronica Atkinson (Walnut Grove) are registered, as is Richard Lord (our TIAK Delegate).
KS State Fair: Our Kansas RV & Camping Guide will be there, via Northwest Kansas Travel Council.
I found an old note from an earlier meeting: The state is working to get funds to communities to assist with using influencers. KPOA encourages you to be networking with your CVB since some influencers have influence with campers.
(The last half of August and the first week went by with lightning speed without time to update this list.)
SEPTEMBER
Early September in our office is always crazy busy:
- Final push for industry supplier memberships and associate memberships that launched on 9/1;
- Launching industry supplier member benefits (intro videos, listings, session schedules, etc.);
- Preparing for the September Board meeting, and several industry meetings;
- Renewing park members for 2022 and taking applications from incoming new members;
- Coordinating the upcoming events and getting things revamped on this .ORG website for our formal announcements to the parks after they’ve recovered a bit from summer and Labor Day;
- and … quite simply … multi-tasking like crazy. It’s all exciting and fun, but this year I admit I’m challenged with a sinus problem that makes sitting upright a challenge. So please, I beg of you, be patient and considerate if you find that I didn’t sufficiently dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. Just kindly point out any broken links or whatever and I’ll repair it.
Enjoyed an interactive Zoom meeting with the Kansas Travel Industry Association (TIAK), Kansas Tourism, and the communities around Kansas. The #1 issue everyone is facing is staffing. I’m not even sure there was a #2 issue on the list! It was also noted that the Kansas Tourism Conference continues to be planned as in-person. Dates and registration links are on our upcoming events page.
Northwest Kansas Travel Council is planning to take our 2022 Kansas RV & Camping Guide to these upcoming events:
- Denver Sport Show, Jan. 6-9, 2022
- Kansas City Sport Show, Feb. 3-6, 2022
- Omaha Sport Show, Feb. 24-27, 2022
Welcomed David and Lisa Sachleben and their Wilson RV Park as new members of KPOA! They are new owners as of earlier this year.
OCTOBER (just a tiny glimpse!)
We are co-host book signing events for Roxie Yonkey for her book, 100 Things to Do in Kansas Before You Die (book released 10/1). (No cost; just publicity for us.)
Membership renewals continue all year but this month is when we begin reconciling member data with ARVC and also assembling the pieces for the 2022 Kansas RV & Camping Guide.
Distributed the marketing materials from our industry suppliers to our 2022 outdoor hospitality members (via USPS and email).
Online sessions continue.
Continued participating in the Kansas Tourism “huddle” meetings.
Our president, Richard Lord, attended the Kansas Tourism Conference. Here are some notes:
- Kansas is on track to match or exceed 2019 out-of-state visitors in 2021
- 15% of tourism spend comes from out of state
- 42% of visitors stay for 1 day, 19% stay 6 or more days
- 40% of out of state visitors are from NE, MO, OK, CO
- 12% come from Texas
- 20% come from “opportunity” states of MN, IA, IL, AR FL, and CA
- Kansas Tourism working to push more funding to local agencies. An example is the funding request from federal recovery funds which the department expects to have any answer on by the end of October
- Travel and Tourism Funding Breakdown
- Subgrants for Attractions $1.5million
- Kansas Tourism Marketing Campaign $1.25million
- Kansas State Parks $500K
- Regional vidography and photography campaign $250K
Preparing for the fall line-up of industry meetings.
NOVEMBER & December (just a tiny glimpse!)
Attended the ARVC Outdoor Hospitality Conference & Expo in Raleigh, along with Mark & Veronica Atkinson (Walnut Grove RV Park). (See pics on the CCLOA.org page by clicking here, and use the arrow buttons to scroll through.)
The Board opted to finalize our budget in January, given quite a few unusual factors. We also delayed the 2022 edition of our guide until mid-January because our budget delay.
Added the page for our 2022 legislative affairs updates.
Began preparation of year-end bookkeeping, tax filing, and so forth.
Attended the Campground Owners Expo in Branson. I enjoyed spending time with member Ralph Newell (Kansas City West / Lawrence KOA), who used to own a campground in Branson, so he knew all about the community and how to get around. (See pics on the CCLOA.org page by clicking here, and use the arrow buttons to scroll through.)
Finished distributing our 2021 Kansas RV & Camping Guide. Bring on the new one!
Began preparation of year-end bookkeeping, tax filing, and so forth.
Deactivated 2021 membership benefits and began preparations of activating 2022 membership benefits.
